What was Patrick’s mistake?
“Me Before You”, the Story of the Will Traynor, a quadriplegic and his caretaker Louisa Clark has been favourites for millions since it was published in 2012. The film adaptation was also a huge success at cinemas grossing 200 million dollars.
It’ s a heart touching story of Will, once enthusiastic, energetic head of a corporate company ending up being a quadriplegic after a reckless motor bike-pedestrian accident(Will being innocent pedestrian) and his caretaker, Lou (Louisa Clark) is well explained in the book and the movie. Lou falls in love with Clark breaking up with her boyfriend Patrick. Will’s decision to get mercy killing and the pain, worries of people around him is the plot of the story.
The story has been well discussed, debated and wept for 7 years now and will be a hot topic for discussion for decades to follow.
Angie : “I was crying all for the whole day. I was reading this book, the day I was supposed to fly from Cannada. I cried while reading the book at the airport and throughout my 16 hours of flight”
told Angie me sitting across the restaurant table of Helsinki Central Library with delicious Finnish breakfast buffet self-served in four plates in front of us. Angie (Angela Kogler), a smart, vibrant Austrian medical student in her 7th semester. Angie cannot stay idle even for a second — a true hyperactive person. She is so energetic that if human energy can be converted into electricity, she along would power an entire village in Finland. She is one of the very few people in Europe I’m certain to have a good friendship for years to come.
Yeah. “Me Before You” is a real emotional book. It really plays with your mind. Totally explains why Angie cried all her way in the flight. I’m an emotional person in general and I do get emotional over good stories. But not this one. Because… Because I had one question in my mind. That was haunting me since I finished the book. I was about to ask that to her that. But decided not to. I went with another cliche question.
Me: “What would you do if you were Lou?? Will you let Will die?? I’m interested in your reasoning more than your answer”
I asked her because, out of all other people, I wanted to know what Angie thought about that. Especially because she was almost a doctor. In less than a year she would actually be attending patients. Moreover, she is Austrian. Austria shares open boundaries with Switzerland and Germany, two among very few countries where euthanasia(mercy killing) is legal and places where people all around the world come to get euthanasia done. Which means she might have to do it in future. There was deadly silence for the next few minutes, she had already put on her thinking face on. Once she murmured “That’s a tough one”. Finally, she spoke-
Angie: “I would let him die. Lou Clark loved him soo much. One need to love someone soo mcuh to let go. In this case it would take so much love not only to let him escape from his never ending physcial pain of quadriplegic life but also knowing that Lou Clark would have to live with the regret of letting him go fore rest of her life. If I were Lou I would let him go so that he could escape the phyicsal pain and I would bear the mental pain for rest of my life”
I was like “WOW”. It made total sense when she explained it. As it wasn’t Will who had to bear the aftermath It was Louisa. Now that she made a sensible comment on this I was confident to ask her the question which haunted me for so long now, rather I was curious to know what her answer would be.
Me: “What was Patrick’s mistake? What did he do wrong for Lou to break up with him? Tell me your thoughts putting yourself in Patrick's shoes”
Patrick was Louisa’s boyfriend. He is portrayed as the antagonist of the story who was super focused on preparing for the hardest Triathlon in the world. True that he did spend much time with Lou during the training months. He was really ambitious and had all his top priorities for the training. But the author Jojo Moyes never refers anything about their past or how he used to be before. The author doesn’t mention anything bad about Patrick’s behaviour apart from Lou’s birthday dinner when he behaved rudely because he was made insecure by Lou. It wasn’t Lou’s fault for certain. But was it Patrick’s fault either. Maybe it was a communication gap. What if he loved Lou in real and his negligence towards Lou was temporary until he finished his Triathlon. What was his motivation to compete in the Triathlon for the first place?
Me: “ I felt for Patrick more than anybody in that story. Maybe I myself was Partick once.”
Angie had no answer for that apart from agreeing that everyone at some point in their life become like Patrick when they focus on what they want to achieve in their life.
Angie : “I was Patrick too.”
It would have been fair if Lou left Patrick just because she realized it’s not working out. Later Trevor Noah spoke to me in his book “Born a Crime” — “You do not own the thing that you love.”
I discerned the golden rule for unconditional love. Got to let your partner chase their goals + other should communicate properly that you are trying to get there.
