How to continue living after losing three of your four children? This is the painful question to which Anne-Dauphine Julliand attempts to provide an answer in his latest book Adding life to the dayspublished by Editions des Arènes. This author spoke on October 14 to the media Lou, in a long interview published on Instagram. He evokes, with enormous courage and strength, the impossible mourning of three of his children. 17 years ago, this woman learned that Thaïs, her 2-year-old daughter, was suffering from a serious degenerative disease and that she only had a few months to live. “I cannot describe what happens in the heart of a mother who learns that her child is going to die. It remains the most intimate, suffering”she explains.
Two months after learning this terrible news, Anne-Dauphine gave birth to another little girl named Azylis. “At six days old, we learned that she had the same illness as her sister”reveals the one who then asked herself a simple question: “How can our family survive this?” » Following the advice of a cancer specialist, she then decided toadd life to their daysfailing to be able to add days to their lives. “Life is going to be a party. Life is going to be a glut of pleasures. From one day to the next, I decide that Thaïs will do what she wants”she explains before admitting that this was not the right solution. “Adding life to the day means living each moment as it was”confides Anne-Dauphine Julliand. The little one Thaïs dies shortly before her fourth birthday while Azylis was died of illness after her tenth birthday. “The first thing I did was listen to my pain […] How do we survive? By living his pain, I believe »explains the mother.
In the rest of the interview, Anne-Dauphine confides that two and a half years ago, her eldest son, Gaspard, committed suicide. He was then 20 years old. “That’s what scared me the most in the world”she admits, while explaining that she accepted that she would never understand the real reasons for her son’s death. “Gaspard’s death is the most painful thing I have ever experienced”assures this mother who ends by explaining that her biggest fight is now not to be afraid for Arthur, the last of her four children.
