Madame Françoise Frangeul, an associate in the Pipriac group since 2009, left us on the 8th December 2015 at the age of 74, after having battled courageously against the cancer that had attacked her some months before. Here the other members of the group remember and pay tribute to her.

These words from the song with which we said good-bye to Françoise Franguel, an inhabitant of Saint Just (Ille et Vilaine) and associate of the Daughters of Jesus, could in some sort sum up the life of a person who really knew how to give of herself and get involved. The large assembly, present in the church of Saint Just the 11th December in order to say “good-bye” to her, was a witness to all of the links of friendship that she successfully created throughout her life. Mother of 4 children, 10 grandchildren and a great grandson, she knew how to create relationships not only within the family but also at work, with neighbours and in her different engagements in a variety of associations.

In his homily, the parish priest Father Joly, emphasised the important place that she held in the life of the Christian community of the parish of Saint Amand de l’Aff, to which she had given generously of her time and her competences. Competences which she applied equally to cycling touring clubs, to the Hospitality Notre-Dame- de-Lourdes of the Rennes diocese and to the vocal ensemble Friendship in Song, where she had sung and been an active member for many years. In her everyday life she shared a part of her route with all those around her:

“a way full of all that goes to make up a life: joys, sorrows, hours of light
and of darkness … daily life shared for the better and for the worse.”

But it was perhaps at the end that she knew how to touch us the most. After having struggled with much courage against cancer, with its share of physical and mental suffering, she accepted that the moment of the final departure was approaching. She entered the palliative care unit at Bain de Bretagne Hospital where she was cared for with great sensitivity and gentleness. Sustained by her faith in God, and by visits from those close to her, she surrendered herself to what was to come. Preparing herself day after day for the meeting with the Father she received the sacrament of the sick with full lucidity. Right to the end she continued to be interested in the life of others and in the group of associates. Her only question was to wonder jokingly why the Lord was so slow in coming to fetch her! It is well possible that the Lord knew of the great confidence that Françoise had in his Mother, because it was finally on the morning of the 8th December, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, that she parted peacefully.

We will miss Françoise in the group of associates, but we will keep in our memory her cheerfulness, her friendship, the warm welcome when we went to her house for meetings, the lively discussions that we had with her. At the same time we will make our own the final words of her “good-bye”:

“The memory of what we lived with her … will help us to make her present at the heart of our life in another way. She who has left us loved during her life on earth and she will continue to love us with the very gentleness of the heart of God …..

“what you have given, Françoise, will flower in others …

What you have sown will grow in others. She who loses her life will one day find it”.

May the Lord welcome our friend into his house and may this be the hope that inhabits us and helps us to give comfort to one another.”