Emilia, Jean-François and Christiane died from the coronavirus. Their relatives relate the fear and "shame" to see their bodies stored in a building of the national interest market (MIN) of Rungis. A place that some avoid and that others face, with "fear".
“At Rungis, she is naked in a plastic bag. I am ashamed of myself"
Emilia was "a Parisian, a real one." "She wanted to live there and nowhere else," says her son, Bruno. One day, he was offered to go to the Lot. She said that over there she would die faster. Mom loved everything in Paris: her pigeons, her cars and even her pollution. She loved it. "
Emilia was a “dynamic woman, even at 89,” continues the man who lived by her side on the 16th floor of a building in the 14th arrondissement: “Every morning I had to bring Le Parisien back to her. It was his diary. She read it once, twice, and did her little summary for horse racing. Then she went downstairs to buy her half-wand, her little scratch games. And she was doing her third. Especially when it was trotting. Mom, she was trotting more than gallop. "
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Emilia died on Sunday of the coronavirus. In the hospital very close to her home, where she had entered ten days earlier for a fracture, after a bad fall. Since the death of "the most important person in [his] life", Bruno, 62, has not slept any more. Monday, at 10:15 a.m., he will have 20 minutes to meditate near her, in Rungis. "I can't wait, but I'm very scared," says the son. It is abominable to know there. Mom asked me to put her best clothes on. At Rungis, she is naked in a plastic bag. I am ashamed of myself. "
"We are not rich people but I wanted something decent"
Bruno is inconsolable. But he took it upon himself, Thursday evening, to denounce on BFM the prices charged by the OGF group, charged by the State to manage the temporary morgue. On Friday, the company promised to "cover all costs".
"Tuesday April 7, it was mom's birthday, and I signed a check at the funeral home," cries Bruno. […] We are not wealthy people, but I wanted something decent. This is business. I was mad with rage. Again, it is we, the little people, the last of the rope, who toast. "
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Emilia will be cremated on Monday. Bruno promises to take the ashes to the Oise as soon as he can. She will find her father and her last husband there.
Before hanging up, the sixty-something "dares": "May I ask you to write the name of my nephew, Michael?" He is 39 years old, and he is also affected by the coronavirus. I forgot to quote it on BFM, I was so upset. "
"It was out of the question for my father's body to be found between pallets of fruit and vegetables"
On March 16, Jean-François, 69, entered the Necker hospital in Paris. A "routine visit" four months after a kidney transplant. The retiree will not come out. He died Tuesday of Covid-19, diagnosed a few days after his admission.
"In our misfortune, the staff were of great dignity, even helpless, greet his Géraldine, 36, his daughter. Very quickly, they told us that he would not go to intensive care because he was over 60 years old. It is totally absurd. "
And even if "the caregivers have done more than they should", she recounts "shocking last hours": "It was appalling, long and painful. One to two hours to see him choke, surrounded by people with diving masks from Decathlon. It is an excruciating disease. We are still in France, not in a third world country. It is unworthy to let people die in these conditions. "
"We must have respect for the dead"
The day after the death, "hell", always. Géraldine and her mother run up against “completely saturated funeral services”. "It is already very hard to lose a loved one, but when they told us that he had to go to Rungis ... It was just out of the question that my father's body was found between pallets of fruit and vegetables. One has the impression that they are messy. "
Thursday, mother and daughter shake up what they have on the network, and make around fifty calls. At the end of the day, they obtained the transfer of Jean-François' body to the Pontault-Combault funeral home (Seine-et-Marne) on April 15, five days before his burial in the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
"We know that some families will not even have a choice, sobs Géraldine. But Rungis, no, it was not possible. Beyond the very strong connotation, I saw on BFM images of coffins placed pell-mell. We must have respect for the dead. We don't treat it like merchandise. At each stage of illness and then death, we are put sticks, obstacles. It's outrageous from A to Z. ”
"I rather want to hide this passage to Rungis"
Christiane was a "real grandmother". "The one who hugs you very tight when you have a nightmare, and prepares you a pound cake with apricot jam to taste it," recalls Laurent, one of his six grandchildren.
"She was also a great lover," he continues. She met my grandfather in high school, at 15 years old. They loved each other very much. We know that she went to join him. This is what consoles us. "
Christiane died Monday, at 98, in the retirement home where she had lived for a few years, in Villecresnes. "Officially, no coronavirus," adds Laurent, 48. But on his door they had pasted a poster with Covid-19 written on it. And when my aunt was able to see her one last time, she had to put on the total: blouse, gloves, mask and charlotte. So… "
"Her grandchildren called her Mamoune"
Christiane will be buried next Friday in the family vault, at the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris. Until then, his body rests in Rungis. "It's a bit ugly," blows Laurent. He knows the place well: “I passed not far when I was principal of a college in Antony [Hauts-de-Seine]. And then it reminded me of the heat wave, when we had already used a warehouse there. "
But Christiane's family will not make the trip to the MIN. "It would not occur to me to go there," explains Laurent. I rather want to hide this passage to Rungis. She doesn't deserve this. "
When the interview is over, the forties sends a message: “One thing I forgot to tell you: his grandchildren called him Mamoune! "
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Coronavirus: the sadness of a closed funeral
