VOICES: Janice Landry, Eye of the Ocean, and first responders running into danger
The Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association’s 2023 VOICES campaign is focusing on mental health, and authors who write about it and/or who have lived with mental health challenges or illness.
The lead interviewer is Triny Finlay, a professor of English at the University of New Brunswick. Finlay is the author of several books, including Myself a Paperclip, which explores her experiences with mental illnesses, their treatments, and stigma.
Since Janice Landry was a child, she has been keenly aware of the profound impact that traumatic events have on people, influenced in part by her father’s 31-year career as a firefighter with the former Halifax fire department.
Now, with 35 years of journalism experience, she still draws inspiration from her father in writing and interviewing about traumatic events and mental health, aiming to “work to make space to try to help people that run towards the emergency where the rest of us run away.”
Eye of the Ocean is a book inspired by the impact of traumatic events on people and communities. It delves into the lives of over 20 people and their stories connected to communal and individual trauma, and their stories of survival, community, and care.
The book touches on the heartbreaking tragedy of the Barho Family, who immigrated from Syria to Spryfield, N.S., only to suffer a devastating fire in 2019 that claimed the lives of their seven children. Through Landry’s writing, the effects on the community and the firefighters involved are explored.
Drawing from her personal experience, Landry also tells the story of her mother’s passing, along with an interview with a compassionate operator who received her 911 call. Landry brings these stories to life through in-depth interviews with people connected to the events. In doing so, she sheds light on the mental health challenges resulting from such events.
Ultimately, this book, albeit tragic, focuses on the love, hope, and empathy people and communities have for each other, especially during tragedies.
In conversation, Landry and Triny Finlay discussed Landry’s experience writing this book, as well as key messages, coping mechanisms, and reevaluating one’s life after trauma.
Landry states that her focus while writing these books is to “connect with the one person who needs to know that they are not alone and that people genuinely care”
It’s important to her to “let the people reading see themselves or others in a range of emotions that’s portrayed in the books, but mainly that they know that there not alone in the journey that they’re taking”
A key message in the book is the importance of reevaluating one’s life after tragedy. Landry emphasizes the need to give oneself permission to not be okay all the time and to allow oneself to take time to heal.
This message resonates strongly, particularly considering the shared trauma experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic and the recent events that affected Nova Scotia with fires, floods, and extreme heat.
Another crucial theme discussed by Landry and Finlay is the significance of therapy. Landry affirms that therapy is one of the key messages in the book, and they address some of the barriers to accessing therapy, such as confidentiality and access.
Landry references the call to action in her book “If we know better we have to do better” and she calls on all levels of the government to allocate more funding to these vital practices.
They discussed how the Covid-19 pandemic exposed a lot of these cleavages in mental health systems, with Landry stating that “we won’t know the fallout effect of what we have just gone through so we have to keep the pressure up on government that mental health has to be a top priority”
Landry and Finlay’s conversation is a powerful exploration of resilience and the human capacity to endure and heal after experiencing trauma. She provides hope for healing through these stories. By highlighting the importance of mental health support and challenging the stigma surrounding it, Landry advocates for better help, and brings awareness and insightful stories from these events to the light.
Written By: