A World Of Good

Darlene L'Archeveque, and her wonderful, powerful memoir: a world of good.

In 2007, award-winning author Darlene L’Archeveque was ahead of her time. In the past year or so, the traumatic and far too often, deadly, effects of schoolyard bullying has become a catalyst for high profile celebrities and others, to share their own tales of torment - and hope. Darlene’s powerful memoir a world of good, presents the first 17 years of her harrowing, extraordinary childhood. Not long after it was published, this amazing book went on to win the Independent Publisher’s Book Award.  

 

Darlene Larcheveque (left) & me. June 2008

At a publishing convention in Toronto, in 2008, I was privileged to meet Darlene, who I’m delighted to say has become a cherished friend. Darlene says, “I decided to write my story because I was often asked, “How did you get into the music industry as a musician and sound engineer? I certainly didn’t have a stage mother and I didn’t meet my father until 2000. The culmination of my life groomed me for that work. It wasn’t conducive to sitting and chitchatting, and saying, ‘Well you’d have to go back to my childhood.’ So I decided when I retired from the industry it was time to put my thoughts down on paper and address that.”

The pivotal moment when her life transformed from idyllic to nightmare was when her mother suffered an emotional breakdown. Darlene explains, “My mother attempted suicide when I was an infant. She probably had a bipolar disorder.  I was the only one left at home with her as my sister and brother were in school. My mother put me in my crib in one room and then barricaded herself in another room with some music blaring very loud. My 11 year old sister, who found my mother, says she discovered her because she heard my screams over the music. That’s when our mother-daughter bond was severed. I was very young just under two. But I was very aware that my mother was my world at that point and that I depended on her for everything. I felt that she had ‘left’ me. In the meantime my mother was taken by ambulance to hospital and my sister and 9 year old brother and I hid from the social workers who were trying to apprehend us until my mother got back from the hospital a few days later.”

“When she came home from the hospital it was evident that she had not completely recovered.  As a baby, I kept waiting for my mother to return. I was convinced that this woman wasn’t my mother - just a look-alike replacement until my mother was ready to come back. She had her physical features, but her eyes showed me that she wasn’t my mother. It took months until I realized that my mother wasn’t coming back. I felt motherless from that point on.” 

She continues, “As a result of that, music and I didn’t start off on a very good footing. It took me several years to get over that. When my mother uprooted us and brought my brother and I to Calgary, insisting that we never speak French again, it was a shock. At school there was no way to catch up and learn a language I didn’t know. In those days there weren’t any ESL (English as a second language) classes. So I turned to music.” 

In a world of good Darlene recounts in heart-wrenching detail, how as a sensitive child, she coped along with her two much older siblings, in a broken home, when her father deserted the family shortly after she was born. Darlene endured frequent neglect and brutality from her mentally unstable mother - and her maternal grandmother; barely survived poverty in the Welfare System; suffered sexual abuse from various pedophiles; culture shock from being uprooted at the tender age of 7 from Francophone Montreal to Anglophone Calgary; and schoolyard ostracization - due to being forbidden by her Anglophone mother to communicate in French, the ONLY language she could understand at the time and was unable to converse in otherwise.  Apparently her mother was trying to wipe out any connection to her previous life in Montreal with her Francophone husband.

In Montreal, Darlene was able to escape the insanity of her home life by going to school, excelling as a student, and playing with her friends during and after class. In Calgary, there was no such respite. At school she was taunted and beaten for being different – for being the ‘Frog’. 

To escape this type of horrific reality some kids might turn to drugs or the streets, becoming runaways or delinquents, or to contemplating suicide themselves. Instead Darlene turned to music for serenity and empowerment. She initially found it by listening to Karen Carpenter’s songs because Karen enunciated clearly, slowly, and precisely. Darlene says, “In the song, Yesterday Once More, I learned 150 English words! That was when music became a driving force, reaching out to me.”

Karen Carpenter

Her saving grace was, and remains to this day, her sunny personality, and the magical and comforting effects of music on her soul. In Darlene’s case, it was the nurturing, angelic voice of Olivia Newton-John, which inspired a growing belief in herself, and the possibilities of a happy and fulfilling future. “Instinctively, when kids have a void in their lives, they will reach out for something else, they will go look for it.” With creativity and determination, the elfin teenager managed to meet and unwittingly elicit kindness and encouragement from such stars as Cheryl Ladd and Cliff Richard, and ultimately, Olivia Newton-John. Darlene met Olivia under the most unusual circumstances, which I won't reveal here, as it's a must-read.

Cheryl Ladd

Cliff Richard

Darlene with Olivia Newton-John

The book not only has the requisite photographs of Darlene’s childhood, and the celebrities she’s met, astoundingly she’s unearthed and included government documentation, explicit proof of her days subsisting on welfare, and social workers commenting (confirming) her mother’s unstable behaviour.  

In her late teens and early twenties Darlene escaped the grim trajectory in which her life was headed, and got involved professionally in the music industry.  She says, “My sister, who is 11 years older than I am, became my legal guardian. She signed my first contract when I was 17. At 23 I was on the Board of Directors for the Alberta Recording Industry Association. I began to write my story in 1998 when I retired, after a lucrative, diverse run in the music industry.

Steve Kipner (who wrote Physical), Darlene and John Farrar (who wrote Olivia's other hits & producer) at the Beverly Hilton, Los Angeles.

These days Darlene is an EMS Practitioner and Examiner for the Alberta College of Paramedics. She frequently works as the medic at NHL games, and travels as a trainer (den mother) with various AAA teams. “They are my boys.” She announced proudly, introducing me to the team when they recently visited Ontario for a tournament.

Darlene (far left) and her 'boys': 2009-10 Sutter Cup Bronze Medal Champions! A/C Avalanche

The book’s title a world of good encapsulates my friend Darlene’s optimistic, cheery attitude. She didn’t buy what life tried to sell her when she was a youngster. She ploughed through the emotional and physical landmines like a superhero, and was reborn via the healing powers of music. As an EMS Paramedic, she’s become a true force for good in the world. She’s proof positive that life does get better and she's paying it forward. 

 

Best of all, Darlene has a joyful family life with her terrific, supportive husband Darin and their four children. Unbelievably, to me at least, she’s also a grandma of two. Oh and for someone who wanted to become a Veterinarian when she was a youngster, Darlene is also 'mom' to a house full of pets including dogs, cats, parrots and turtles! 

Currently she's working on a sequel, and a screenplay based on her memoirs. As Cheryl Ladd enthused in a glowing endorsement on the back cover: (a world of good is) "an inspiring, uplifting story.” Don’t we all just love a happy ending? I know I do. 

Darlene at a book signing event.

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