On July 2, 2023, in Châtellerault, Roland, 58, suffering from cancer, discovered, collapsed, his car in ashes. Burned in the night by rioters, like seven other vehicles in the Ozon district. Inside was all his fishing equipment, his breath of fresh air between two chemotherapies.
“It brings a lot of things back to mind.”
The story, told in our newspaper, had moved many people. Three associations and residents of La Plaine had spontaneously mobilized to find him a new vehicle. Three days later, they gave him a second-hand station wagon plus €475 in vouchers for fishing equipment. Strong emotion in the neighborhood wounded in its flesh.
A year later, we found the fifty-year-old at the foot of the Saint-Exupéry residence where he lives. Deprived of speech due to a tracheotomy, he gives a thumbs up and shines his eyes when asked how he is.
He bought a car
His daughter, Alexandra, confirms: “Dad is doing pretty well, much better than a year ago. It was very hard for him to discover his car burned. Finding one quickly, thanks to the tremendous generosity of people in the neighborhood, helped him a lot. He immediately found the desire again. »
In the parking lot which still bears the scars of car fires, father and daughter struggle to contain their emotion. “It brings up a lot of things. » The ” anger “She has passed. “I hope this will be resolved for all the victims”says Alexandra, thinking of the shopkeepers who have lost everything.
A month after the riots, Roland was compensated by his insurance and was thus able to buy a Citroën Picasso, “the same one that burned, with a few more miles but newer and more comfortable.”
“It’s his autonomy”
As for the station wagon, he wanted to return it to his donors. But “They didn’t want it, so Dad sold it at a low price to a mother from Nantes who was destitute and needed it to transport her son.”
In the building’s parking lot, the scars of the car fires from the night of July 1 to 2, 2023 are still visible, one year later.
© (Photo NR-CP, Anthony Floc’h)
For the former driver, the car is an essential companion. “It is its autonomy, sums up her daughter. He travels 10,000 to 15,000 km per year to go for walks, to visit his brothers and sisters and his daughters… Also to go fishing on the banks of the Clain in Naintré, where a friend lends him his spot. “He bought himself some rods, a fishing box, a landing net, a keepnet.”
“Waiting for exams” To assess the effectiveness of the treatments, Roland, his morale boosted, ” projects ” in mind, which he hopes to achieve as soon as possible: “Be in remission to be able to have a jaw reconstruction, and perhaps secondly, to be able to speak and eat normally again. »
