“I find this world very beautiful; I don't understand why man is mortal. I'm having a hard time getting used to the idea that there's nothing afterwards.“In 2010, in his autobiography How to succeed on television when you are small, Breton, with big ears? (Flammarion), Philippe Gildas confided his fear of death and the unknown that follows it.
Eight years later, on the night of October 27 to 28, 2018, the Grim Reaper caught up with him, shortly before his 83rd birthday. Placed in the Jeanne Garnier palliative care center of the XVe district of Paris, the native of Auray (Morbihan) succumbed to a kidney cancer metastasized to the brain, diagnosed six months before.
In April 2018, small daily forgetfulness, fatigue and back pain led Philippe and his wife Maryse to the Parisian Montsouris hospital where Doctor Brice Gayet – Julie's father – performed examinations on him. Maryse then does not want to worry, as she revealed last Tuesday, May 28 in the show At Jordan's on C8: “He felt very tired and had back pain.but not more than that. I often have back pain.“
Last vacation in Corsica for Philippe Gildas
However, the surgeon takes Maryse aside to tell her that he has discovered a tumor on the left kidney, metastasized to the brain. “He called me over and told me that it is not operable.” At the time, however, she does not realize the seriousness of the situation and she is not afraid. She then makes a big decision.
In order not to spoil her last months of existence, the ex-host of Europe 1 chooses not to tell the truth to her husband. She simply tells him about a tumor.”and some immunotherapy sessions that he would have to do.”
Just a few weeks after the diagnosis was made, time accelerates and the disease imposes on the journalist times when he feels disoriented in space. A few weeks after his last vacation in the Gildas family home in Corsica, the patriarch was placed in the Jeanne Garnier center. But when her husband worries, Maryse reassures him and continues not to tell him the truth.
“From there, there was nothing more to do, she confided on C8 to explain her choice to say nothing. I already knew… He left in seven months…He wasn't in pain. He didn't know it… He had delusions when he was in palliative care. He stayed there three months (…) I told him: “It’s a nursing home because you need to get back on track.” He never knew about his illness…”
Philippe Gildas no longer had his wits about him
Affected by illness and medication, Philippe Gildas was delirious in his last days. “When Muriel Robin came to see him, he did it again Nowhere else in Barcelona, smiled his widow. We were wondering why Barcelona? Me, he took me for his assistant…He would tell me to go get this guest.“
As is often the case in these moments, the patient's departure is a relief, for him and for his loved ones. “It was the moment, believes Maryse Gildas. Alas, he had to leave anyway. It was no longer possible.” Maryse and Philippe's three children then had the comfort of receiving many messages from journalists. “I didn't think there would be so many. I still had a few doubts about the job. I don't have any more. It's extraordinary. The messages I've had since last night. I didn't think there would be so many people.“
In How to succeed on television when you are small, Breton, with big ears?Philippe wrote that faith would be of no help to him because he had lost it: “For a long time I was Catholic and Breton. Too long I was an altar boy to completely forget it. With my eyes closed, I believed with all my strength in eternal life.” By mutual agreement, Maryse and he had decided to be cremated. “Saving tombstones and useless eternal regrets. And when I pass to the other side of the flames, also save the urn: spread my ashes randomly, having funlike me I never stopped doing it!”
