Juliette Danguy (1929-2008)

Juliette Danguy 1929 - 2008

Juliette Danguy died on November 11 in the early morning hours. Daughter of Irene and Victor Laure, she was born in Marseille in 1929; In 1967 she married Charles Danguy. Anne, their daughter, has three children. In 1978, the family welcomed Say, a young Laotian refugee, as their second daughter. Her five grandchildren, as well as her nephews and grandnephews in France and in Brazil, always remain close to her heart.

In 1947, with her younger brother Claude, she accompanied her mother to Caux. She immediately joined the young people who were enthusiastic and dreamed of "remaking the world". Mixing Mediterranean carefree spirit with the rigor of those who grew up during the war years and lived closely with the Resistance, she learns to look at other peoples with clarity and compassion. In the following years she travels through Italy and Latin America with shows of Moral Rearmament.

In 1967, responding to a call from industry partners, she arrived in Lorraine with her husband to promote social dialogue in this region, which had been hit hard by one industrial crisis after another. Her smile, her listening skills and her compassion opened the doors of many homes, from the most modest to the most affluent. In the heart of a still divided Europe, she actively participated, with her husband, in meetings that encouraged rapprochement, notably with the Germans.

She made her first trip to Leipzig in 1987. We find her in Croatia or Cyprus in the 90s. Her last trips led her, with the Lorraine team of Initiatives of Change and the Farmers' Dialogue, to India, Poland and England; Whether in a landscape or in a conversation, she always saw the invisible, like the wheat shoots she noticed in the middle of the ruins of Beirut, for her symbols of this life in which she believed with all her strength despite the physical hardships

Until the last day, Juliette was able to welcome her visitors with her affectionate look. When I thanked the nurses at the Thionville hospital, I discovered that she had called them "my angels. Her prayers were directed lately to the new generation that succeeded the "300 enthusiasts" of the post-war period, for she knew that their task would be both exciting and arduous.