Isabelle is 45 years old and has been raising her six children alone for 13 years.

Her husband, Charles, is serving a 25-year prison sentence.

Despite his absence, this family has managed to stay together.

Isabelle and her children tell Olivier Delacroix how the incarceration of their father and husband changed their lives.

TESTIMONY

It has been 13 years since Charles, Isabelle's husband, has been imprisoned.

He is serving a 25-year prison sentence.

Isabelle has been raising her six children alone since then.

Despite his absence, Isabelle explains that the family has remained united.

Each month, they take turns visiting their husbands and fathers who still hold an important place in the family.

Isabelle and two of her children, Patricia and Daniel, confide in Olivier Delacroix.

They tell of the absence of their father and husband and their love for him.

>> Listen to Isabelle, Patricia and Daniel's testimony in full here

Since her husband's imprisonment, Isabelle has been raising her six children alone, including a 'visiting baby': "A visiting baby is a child that we conceive in the visiting room. There are many. It is a source of pride. because we're separated, but I still managed to have a baby with my husband, a baby we both wanted. She never missed a single visit. It's been six years, that's her own life too, she only knows that.

It's our own life.

By condemning a man to 25 years, they condemn the woman and the children.

He is locked behind bars.

We are at home and we can walk around, but it is the same for us.

We forbid ourselves everything.

I'm not going on a trip alone.

What is fun when you are a single mother and the man is behind bars?

You feel guilty for wanting to have fun without your husband.

"

He's a full father

"

At first I felt very lonely. We are not well, because the husband is missing. You have your habits and everything collapses like a house of cards. There is a part of him that has always stayed at home. Over time, we get used to it. He is always there. He phones two or three times a day. He phones when the kids are all at home to check in on them, find out if they had a good day and if everything went well at school.

He's a full-fledged father.

It is not because he is not there that he no longer manages anything.

It's not easy to find yourself alone with teenagers.

When I can't do it anymore, he's the one who settles things over the phone or when we go see him.

He is there and he still imposes his father's law.

That's why children respect him.

There is a lot of respect for this father. 

"

He's my man, he's my other half, he's my life 

"

What I felt when I heard '25 years' I can't even explain. We no longer project ourselves. It's a big void. He said to me: 'I took a long time, you are free. If you want to get a divorce, you can, I'll give you back your freedom. ' But it was not possible for me. I don't see myself ending my life without him. It is not possible. To hold on, you need a lot of love and respect for your man. This man made me happy. When you have a great story with a man, you can't give up overnight. Nothing has changed. He's my man, he's my other half, he's my life. 

You can't be good like that, it's not possible.

I think I have shed so many tears that there isn't a single one left.

You cry so much that you don't know what crying means anymore.

They condemn us along with our husbands.

Me, I was lucky to have my children with me.

Children are moral support.

They were there to support me.

We have to fight.

We have remained a united family.

But not all men are so lucky.

They lose everything, wife and children. "

"

I haven't benefited from anything in life

"

Isabelle and Charles' daughter, Patricia, was 11 when her father was jailed. She recounts his departure and his absence: "It was hard. I had the impression that he had abandoned us. I was constantly with him before. Overnight, they took my father from me. Said maybe it's a bad dream and we'll be waking up soon. But today I'm grown up and I realize it's been a long time since he's been gone. It's still hard. 

My daddy is everything to me, like when I was little. I'm afraid we'll be judged. I closed in on myself. It was the only way and it still is. That's why I don't have too many friends. It does not interest me. It is as if life has been wasted for 13 years. Sometimes I blame him for abandoning us. It's still hard. Yet I have to accept it. I hope it will be released soon and that I will be happy. "

Daniel, their eldest son, was 14 when his father was arrested.

He is now 27 years old and has a child, but the absence of his father weighed heavily on him and gave him new responsibilities: “I play the role of the big brother and the father. choice. I didn't have a life like all the other children who had normal lives and took advantage of their daddy. I didn't benefit from anything in life. I did it for the good of the small. "

>> Find all the episodes of In Olivier's eyes in replay and podcast here

Every month, Isabelle travels 400 kilometers to visit her husband. She and her family then stayed at the Fraternité Saint-Bernard, a reception house run by sisters and installed next to the Clairvaux prison: "This trip costs 300 euros. It figures quickly. I could not afford to 'go to the hotel. If it weren't for the Brotherhood, maybe I would come just for the day, I would go back and forth, but I couldn't stay. It's expensive. hotel and we always come to four or five.

I come here confident because I know that I am finding a family.

There is a bond that is created when you arrive here, especially with the sisters.

I feel at ease.

Sunday night is the time I hate the most.

We must set off again.

We count the days until next month.

We're a different person when it's time to go.

There are still a few years left.

Four years is not nothing, but we are soon at the end.

We're not going to give up now.

We fought this battle together, we will continue it together. "

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