When you think of the holiday season, you may think of holiday meals, gatherings, some decorations — maybe even some of your favorite family traditions.
But what if I told you some of your very own neighbors are working to keep their traditions alive from generation to generation, not just through the holidays, but year-round?
If you met Eldridge Touchet, better known as "Bozo", on the street in Abbeville right now, you might know him as a fellow who goes all out decorating for the holidays. What you might not know, however, is he's got a gift — and it's hidden in plain sight.
Touchet is a Cajun traiteur, or "treater." For the last 15 years, he's used the power of prayer to heal people or simply make them feel better.
"It feels good to help somebody out around Christmastime that's in pain or having migraines with all the stress that's going on today," he tells me. "I have texts for maybe 15, 20, 50 people a day sometimes. All I need to know is their full name and I can treat them on my doll."
As far as traiteurs go, Touchet is a jack of all trades. While some who treat specialize in certain ailments, he says he can treat for pretty much anything — from migraines, pneumonia, and shingles, to sprained ankles and arthritis. He tells me he can even treat animals. It's something he does for free, a gift passed on from generation to generation, usually from a male family member to a female, or vice versa. Still there are skeptics.
"Some people say it's not true until I treat them, but you've got to believe," Touchet says. "If you believe in the good Lord, He's gonna help you out, I don't care what it is, but I'll be honest, if it's really bad, they need to go to a doctor because I'm not a doctor, I'm just a traiteur."
"Just a traiteur" — yet, it's something Touchet worries is fading from families, which is why he makes an effort to keep it in his, teaching all his granddaughters except one.
"Since my granddaughter died, I started to treat more because I want to help people out."
Touchet's granddaughter, Destiny Rose Hargrave, died in a head-on collision while heading out for the day back on November 8, 2021. He says he remembers the day, not only because it was one of the most painful losses in his life, but because it happened just eight days before his birthday.
"I was supposed to teach her because she wanted to learn but I didn't get a chance to do that, but she was a great kid, she loved to help people out, she was all right, beautiful, just beautiful," he shares with me. "I feel like she's with me, helping me help them when I treat, and that's why I do it."
Head into Opelousas and you'll find Rebecca Henry, Director of the Creole Heritage and Folklife Center. A proponent of folk medicine who grew up in a family of sharecroppers, she's a treater herself. It's a skill she says has been in her family for centuries — and for good reason.
"We had to do the treating with traiteurs because we had no medical doctors in our area and you couldn't afford it anyway," Henry tells me. "There weren't many hospitals, not like we have today, so you had to rely on spiritual healers."
To this day, Henry stems back to her roots, not only practicing treatments, but cultivating natural cures from plants and animal byproduct, something she shares in her exhibits at the center.
"People wanna know how, they want me to actually tell them step-by-step, but it doesn't work like that, it just doesn't work like that," she says. "We heal everyday. We don't realize how much our body has its own healing agents and I don't know any other treater that would tell you exactly what goes on."
These traiteurs, hidden healers in Acadiana, want to make one thing clear: they don't discount the benefits of modern medicine. What they do, they tell me, is simply a calling on their heart and the sharing of faith to anyone who might need it.
If you'd like to contact either of these individuals, here is how you can do so:
- Eldridge "Bozo" Touchet - Facebook; (337) 652-2177
- Rebecca D. Henry - Creole Heritage Folklife Center;(337) 945-5064
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