Here is my translation of the article:
A Man Loses All His Savings
$18 000 in one year on escorts
by Kathryne Lamontagne, Journal de Montreal
$ 18 000. It's the sum of money spent in prostitution by a retired man in his sixties, where today he is more than $ 12 000 in debt directly related to escort services he has been using over this past year.
Divorced for the past twelve years, a reformed alcoholic, father and grandfather, Maurice (fictional name) had never considered one day paying for sexual favors. His view changed, however, one evening in December 2010 when a student in a bad situation asked him for a ride home with his car. Once seated, the young woman, barely 21 years old, candidly informed him that she was an escort. Aware of her driver's age, she made some 'suggestions', which he didn't refuse. The 'new' lovers then left one another, promising to meet again.
The beginning of the end
Surprised & charmed, Maurice had tried several times to get in touch with her, but in vain. Marked by what he had just discovered, with his savings in hand, the retiree then made the decision for the first time, to call an escort agency.
"Once you've tasted the candy, it's a drug. I'm a solitary person. I do not like going out, I do not dance. Spending time going to a restaurant with a woman, coaxing her to bring her to my bed and then being stuck with her the next morning, I was not interested", he said. A first meeting took place, with a first woman. Then a second visit, then a third. Maurice increased the number of his encounters, which were more & more frequent, which wound up costing him between $ 140 and $ 610. Today, he has totalled fifty encounters with a dozen escorts, aged 19 to 34.
Emotional dependency
Admittedly emotionally dependent, the sexagenarian enjoys seeing a few of them over a longer period. He has become attached. He enjoys giving them gifts & perform various services for them, whether he can afford it or not. He doesn't hide the fact that he fell in love with one of them last summer. A love which is "ridiculous", "impossible" and which makes him "suffer", he concedes.
To date, Mauritius has no more savings. Worse, his credit cards, at an interest rate of 17% per year, are now at their limit.
On several occasions, the man tried to put an end to his activities. Or at least, space out his encounters. "It's hard. It's like alcohol. Everything I earn goes through there. And more", he laments.
After a year of "love, suffering and debt," Maurice has often blamed the first young woman for her first "gesture", made totally unexpectedly, in his car. "But no one put a gun to my head that night or during the other encounters," he confesses.