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| No equality even in death |
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| Wednesday, 09 April 2008 | |
 Dear French News,
Égalité? No, not even in that most fundamentally egalitarian of all human conditions: death.
On my wandering through France over many years, I have noticed this salutory inscription outside many cemeteries; an intimation of our mortality; the great leveller, a reminder to the high and mighty. So when my wife died recently and was laid to rest in our local cemetery just a few metres down the road, I thought it would make a fitting tribute to erect a similar plaque there. She was a fiercely believer in equality. But when I asked the undertaker to apply to the mairie on my behalf to do this, at my own expense, the global response was a definitive “no”. They said it might set a precedent. A ridiculous excuse considering that precedent was set hundreds of years ago. I pointed out that the nearest such plaque was in Loiras du Bosc, just 10km away. I’ve even seen them in England. This incident has made me very sad. I have had to leave France for a while, after 12, very happy years. I will return but not to Lodève - unless they relent. Graham Chadwick |
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