Her calling as a physician began with a desire to heal. A brilliant researcher, she participated in the discovery and description of numerous conditions caused by chromosomal abnormalities. She was elected to the French National Academy of Medicine in 1995. For more than forty years, she was the closest colleague and trusted partner of Professor Jérôme Lejeune, and one of three founders of the Institut Jérôme Lejeune in 1998. Over six decades, she cared for thousands of patients who came through her clinic. Her compassionate gaze left a profound mark on everyone—patients and families alike—whose lives she touched.
Christel Quaix, ombresetlumiere.fr - April 20, 2023
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An excerpt from Marie-Odile Rethoré's remarks at the Grandparents' Celebration organized by OCH on January 16, 2010.
"Look at this child not as a disabled child, but as your grandchild—someone who carries your genetic inheritance, with shadows and light both.
This child holds a secret that only he or she possesses. Your entire task in raising him is to help that secret bloom, to let him become what he truly is. It takes firm tenderness—or tender firmness. Don't be intimidated: pull his hair, snatch his glasses, let him get angry with you! Sometimes all you need is to say no, no, no—quietly, without shouting, while looking at him with love. When he moves violently, wait a moment in silence after you've moved him away.
A father's suffering is as deep as a mother's, but it shows differently. If they seem distant, don't judge. Often it's shyness. Perhaps your son-in-law is simply afraid to cry. We forget so often to help fathers. Yet so much of what happens at home depends on him.
Grandparents must help your disabled grandchild take pride in himself. Anything that gives him—whether child, teenager, or adult—a sense of his own dignity matters enormously.
Your disabled grandchild is neither an angel nor a broken doll! Help him have plans. Make him responsible for others, even as a child. Give him a responsibility no one else will carry: watering the plants, filling the dog's bowl. And if he doesn't do it, too bad—no one will do it for him. Let him carry a responsibility he can manage.
Be watchful, be wise, but don't be timid! We must find ways—every day—to help this child grow in his own eyes, in yours, and in the eyes of others.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated on Tuesday, April 25, at 11 a.m. at Saint Sulpice in Paris.