Will Dr. Jean-Jacques Razafindranazy one day rest alongside Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Jean Moulin, Pierre and Marie Curie, or Simone and Antoine Veil?
It is in any case the wish of Jean-Pierre Lemoine, former senior official, who took up the pen to ask the President of the Republic for the entry into the Pantheon of the emergency physician who died in Covid-19 on March 21.
The retired doctor, who practiced at Compiègne hospital (Oise), was the first healthcare professional to die from coronavirus in France.
"We are talking about great men, but wouldn't it be time to pay tribute to the invisible? Asks Parisian Jean-Pierre Lemoine, whose daughter, journalist Anne-Elisabeth Lemoine, hosts the daily program for France 5 "C à vous".
"We were surprised and touched"
A solemn request with which the family of Jean-Jacques Razafindranazy has not been associated. "It was a friend of my daughter who alerted us," says Lydie Razafindranazy, the wife of the deceased emergency physician. We were surprised and very touched by these expressions of sympathy. But I don't even know how a pantheonization takes place . "
"A tribute to all caregivers"
What would the family say if Emmanuel Macron called him tomorrow to formalize this request to enter the Pantheon?
"It would be an honor but, knowing my husband, who did not like to put himself forward too much, I do not believe that he would have wanted to be the only one honored like that, wants to believe his wife, pediatrician by profession . We would prefer a more general tribute, or a plaque in honor of all the caregivers whose commitment has been exemplary. "
Like the national holiday, July 14, where the President of the Republic must greet "the recognition of the nation to all those who are committed to the fight against Covid-19".
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Rather than the Pantheon, the Razafindranazy family first plans to go to Madagascar, the island from which the emergency physician hails, in order to deposit his ashes. "We had a tomb built there, but in the context of confinement, this trip was not possible," blows his wife.
"We expected him to heal"
Two and a half months after the death of Jean-Jacques Razafindranazy, his family slowly did their mourning work.
"We are moving forward, little by little, we must continue," blows the pediatrician. We had plans, we didn't expect that. It was brutal. We returned from three weeks in Madagascar, everything was fine. And very quickly, he lost his appetite, he was losing weight. No one realized that it was the coronavirus. He was expected to heal. I was flabbergasted. "
At the Compiègne hospital center, where the emergency physician practiced until his death, a fresco in which his face appears must be produced soon, with the agreement of the family.