Christopher Redman told his story to producer Sarah Fuss Kessler for an episode of The Daily Rally podcast. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Content warning: This story discusses suicide.
As a kid, I had certainly never at that point been close to death. The sneaky thing about real hypothermia is that it’s pretty comforting. You want to go to sleep and kind of shut down.
My name is Christopher Redman. I’m 43 years old, and I’m called Bra and Dude and Chrissy by my seven-year-old son. Professionally, I am an actor and have been making a living acting since I was 12 years old.
I grew up about an hour and a half north of Toronto. The doors would open and my siblings and I would be out in the fields and in the forests and in the river. I knew the branches I could swing on. And I knew the stumps where the raccoon bones were hidden in holes. It was a very magical place to grow up
Back in the ’80s, we would get really, really deep snow and in the field behind the house in the wintertime. I would go out by myself all bundled up and dig a little hole and put myself in it, and cover myself up with a little…
