Marie Monguillot, is the youngest daughter of Philippe, the bus driver brutally attacked on Sunday evening in Bayonne. Five days after the drama, she confides, strong and mature from the height of her 18 years.
How would you describe your father?
MARIE MONGUILLOT. Dad, he was the coolest of dads. We talked to him like he was our boyfriend. He had his big character and we often hung on to him but hey we went on and in the end we had a good time with him. He crunched life to the fullest. He also worked a lot to be able to benefit from it at his retirement, he wanted to "attack the last stage of the rocket", as he said.
That is to say ?
He dreamed of his motorhome and driving, with mom, in France, Spain, Italy. He had lots of plans in mind. Dad is someone simple, smiling, he likes all the little things in life. I start talking about him in the present because he is still there and he clings. We love it, we hope only one thing: to find it.
How is he doing?
With my mother and my sisters, we see it every day. The nurses tell us that there is something better. Her heart is beating. It is the brain that is not responding at the moment but they are dropping the dose of certain drugs to see how it reacts. We cling to small details. For example, we were told that his pupils had returned to the correct axis. On the other hand, we are completely ignorant of how it will be if it does. We are aware that he can have a very serious handicap. But we're in the dark, we don't know yet. We're a bit lost. We put the big photo that we carried along the walk in his hospital room, he has it with him. For us, he is fighting with all his might.
This white march in honor of your dad gathered 6000 people on Wednesday evening, how did you feel?
We imagined things but we didn't think there would be that many people. It was impressive. We really realized the support we had. Among the crowd were people we knew, others not at all. It was great to see all these people gathered for our dad. When I arrived, my mother, my sisters and I cried a lot. It was very moving. Then we looked up because on the course people were applauding and that gave us courage. It will remain etched in our heads, in our hearts. All this is for our dad.
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VIDEO. "I am furious": the wife of the driver attacked during the white march
How do you imagine the future in relation to your papa's state of health?
For the moment, we are in the present. At the medical level, we can learn things every hour, we do not yet know how the situation will develop. After, we do not know how to imagine, dad is still there. We know that doctors can call us very well to tell us: it's over, we have to stop or he had a gesture, a reflex . On the night of Sunday to Monday, just after his assault, we were told it was a story of hours so we expected to lose him. There, we see small progress and we hold on to that, we tell ourselves that he might be able to make it.
Do you also think of your father's alleged assailants, barely older than you?
For the moment, not really, we are mainly focusing on Dad's health. We want justice to do what it has to do, commensurate with what these people have done. Via social networks, we also had messages from witnesses to the attack. They tell us it was extremely violent. There are two teenage girls who saw the scene and who were paralyzed. At the time, one of them called her father and told him Papa, papa, they are killing the driver.
What do you know about his way of doing his job?
Sunday evening, my father wanted to instill respect in his bus, let's say. If someone came on the bus without saying hello, he asked to say hello, he was like that. Everyone knows that you have to take a ticket and that currently with the Covid-19 you have to wear a mask. These people came back without a mask, without a ticket, so Dad decided to control them. Dad was pushed out of the bus and that's when they got mad at him.
And your mom, Véronique, are you worried about her?
Monday with my sisters, we were really worried. Mom was very angry. Since the assault, I sleep with her every night. I used to do this all the time when I was little when Dad left early to work. But we don't sleep much and in the morning, mom gets up crying. But then we will walk our dog and I talk to her, I try to reassure her, I tell her that it will be fine, that justice will do the right thing. In the morning, it is at its lowest, and then as the day progresses and the messages of support that we receive, it takes over. As she said during the white march, we have no more tears because they came out a lot at the start. Now, with all this support, our sadness has turned into strength.