2015 commemoration for Odette and Moussa Abadi

September 8, 2015

Our annual gathering with Odette and Moussa.

Montparnasse cemetery, September 8, 2015. About twenty people, a few more walking sticks marking the passing of time… but hearts still full of memories, of nostalgia, and also of the joy of being together again. The joy, too, of seeing the Friends – Robert Pouderou and Lucette, Marie Gatard, Victor Haïm… – and, unable to travel but present in their expressed thoughts, Jacqueline Denechère, Catherine Jourdan, Aude de Saint-Loup, Pierre-Emmanuel Dauzat, Françoise and Jean-Marc Gagnier… Fred Coleman was there too.

This year, dare I confess my pride? My granddaughter Anna, twenty, joined us. Daniel Farhi still does us the kindness of officiating. This year he read us the personal part of Odette’s letter, and all of us, who also had a part of her, turned inward to recall the words addressed to us alone.

Daniel had a very beautiful text, “Meditation on Remembrance”, which Anna read to us in a slightly trembling voice.

Victor Haïm held in his hands two moving pages by our “brother in Abadi” Simon Eine, from his very fine book “Des étoiles plein les poches”, describing his passage through the Marcel network.

The El Malei Rachamim and the Kaddish, sung by Daniel Farhi, closed this hour of gentle emotion.

As in previous years (could it be becoming a ritual?), we all met afterwards at “Papa’s” across the road. The friendliness and the pleasure of being together sparked an idea: what if we all met there once for lunch?

Andrée Poch-Karsenti