Historian Donald McClarey posted another gem, a moving tribute to Charles DeGaulle and his wife Yvonne that I encourage all our readers to read. It recounts the couple’s devotion to their severely retarded and handicapped daughter Anne. Anne was Charles’ pride and joy. She loved her father and he loved her. When he died in 1970, he was buried, as he requested, beside his beloved daughter. She had passed away in 1948 when she was only twenty. When she died Charles said these simple words to his grieving wife: “Maintenant, elle est comme les autres.” (Now, she’s like all the others.)
The American Catholic: Charles de Gaulle could be a very frustrating man. Churchill, in reference to de Gaulle, said that the heaviest cross he had to bear during the war was the Cross of Lorraine, the symbol of the Free French forces. Arrogant, autocratic, often completely unreasonable, de Gaulle was all of these. However, there is no denying that he was also a great man. Rallying the Free French forces after the Nazi conquest of France, he boldly proclaimed, “France has lost a battle, France has not lost the war.” For more than a few Frenchmen and women, de Gaulle became the embodiment of France. It is also hard to dispute that De Gaulle is the greatest Frenchman since Clemenceau, “The Tiger”, who led France to victory in World War I. However, de Gaulle was something more than a great man, he was also at bottom a good man, as demonstrated by his youngest daughter Anne de Gaulle. Read full article here.
