Her name is Anastasie. We met her in a retirement home near Paris last July, while visiting Yukki’s grandmother.
Anastasie’s room is ajar. In a fragile voice, the 90-year-old begs us to come in.
As the television blasts a boxing match live from the Olympic Games, the frail woman sits in her wheelchair, struggling to hold a yoghurt pot. She shares a few snippets of her life story.
Originally from Brittany, she moved to Paris a long time ago to work in a large shoe store.
She describes her existence like a list of sad headlines:
“- I’m all alone.
– I’d like someone to support me.
– I’ve had a life of suffering.
– I lost my husband when I was 35.
– I’m so unhappy.
– I have felt at times like throwing myself out the window.”
However, Anastasie didn’t want to hear about God.
Recently, we visited the Old Folks’ Home again. The nurse told us that the little woman on the 1st floor had recently passed away.
Every day, millions like Anastasie die, often alone and forgotten by the world and the Church.
The other day, we were having lunch with Fabrice and Élodie, a Christian couple whose calling is to sing in retirement homes.
May God raise up believers to communicate His life to those at the door of death.
Timothée and Yukki