Odette’s last letter

 My friends,

          Defend yourselves against grief, I beg you. Alone, and therefore free, and over 84 years old, it is very reasonable to put an end to life. In fact, I died at the same time as Moussa. I still had a few matters to settle – that is done – and above all I had to have printed or published the last two works he wrote with all his talent, his humour and his tenderness. They will last, of course, as long as your memory lasts: knowing that, we were already happy. Yet I am convinced that the two books of “the Jews of Damascus” deserve to become classics in their field, and I ardently hope that one of you will succeed in winning them the place they deserve.

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          I could never have followed my “programme” if some of you had not supported me so wonderfully, each in your own way. I want to tell you how much I was helped by your presence and your attentions – the phone calls, the letters, the visits… and how much I admired the persistence of my faithful friends, despite my withdrawal. A withdrawal explained both by the fact that I had lost the meaning of my life and the taste for life, and by my refusal to take up too much room in your daily lives and among your attachments, so that your grief today would not be too overwhelming.

          That is why my last thoughts will be to thank you infinitely and, in the name of freedom, to bless you, believers and pagans alike, with all my heart.