The family had promised themselves: failing to have been able to organize a funeral worthy of their name, Alexis and Thérèse would have a beautiful ceremony for the first anniversary of their death.
A plaque would be unveiled.
But now, a year later, the Covid-19 virus is still there, the ban on assembling is back.
The tribute is postponed.
“It's a bit tough these days.
Finding each other would have been really good, ”breathes Alexis, their son, apologizing for being“ not the expressive type ”.
Like his father or grandfather before him, he inherited this first name given to all the elders of the Huet line.
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In view of the statistics of the Covid-19, Alexis and Thérèse, 82 and 84, are only two victims in an ocean which now has nearly 100,000 dead in France alone.
“For us, they are much more!
A couple who go away together, like that, it is not the norm, it is difficult to overcome the shock, ”retorts Ginette Cerisier, president of the Atelier du temps libre club in Sablé-sur-Sarthe. (Sarthe), where, after her traditional game of Scrabble on Thursday, Thérèse conceded: “We're not in great shape.
Alexis was embarrassed by an incipient cough on the pétanque court.
"In an hour, I had lost both my parents"
The rest went so quickly.
"We left without saying goodbye," Ginette is moved.
At the time, the coronavirus was still a somewhat hazy idea in the department, little affected by the disease.
At the hospital, Thérèse, the parishioner known to everyone, repeats it over the phone to her sons Alexis and Philippe and to her grandchildren: “Of course it will be fine.
And then, as always since their marriage, on October 11, 1962, the lovers are not far away, one bedroom apart.
But at 10 a.m., this Wednesday, April 1, 2020, Thérèse passed away at the Bailleul hospital.
At 11 o'clock, her husband joined her.
“In an hour, the phone rang twice, the first for mom, the second for dad.
In an hour, I had lost both my parents, ”sums up, sounded, Alexis.
"You know, it was not an insignificant couple," testifies Ginette, president of the Atelier du temps libre club in Sablé-sur-Sarthe.
They were rarely seen apart.
When one was there, the other was never far away ”DR
“For everyone, it's a trauma.
Here, they really mattered a lot, ”insists Paul Lambert, the mayor of La Cropte, a village of 230 souls in the heart of Mayenne, where Alexis and Thérèse had devoted their lives to the family farm, before retiring to Sablé.
“They were both old-fashioned farmers, hard workers, go-getters, and very innovative people,” continues the city councilor.
"They released the cattle for cereals - corn, wheat, protein crops, decrypts Alexis.
Today, it doesn't seem like much but, at the time, it took courage to be against the tide in a breeding department.
"
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TRIBUTE.
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Temperament also to be the first to bang his fist on the table and allow women to free time at the Workshop, where they were not invited, until Alexis father became its president.
A real symbol for Ginette, who has been its patron for four years.
“You know, it was not an insignificant couple,” she notes.
They were rarely seen apart.
When one was there, the other was never far away.
"
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Even at over 80, 58 of which was romance, they never went out without matching their outfit.
“There was always a color, a detail, a jacket that they coordinated.
They were truly inseparable.
Even in the face of a virus, even in the face of death.
