A creator’s career often promises the moon but is rarely surrounded by a sea of tranquillity. Is it because we are so flimsy that our destinies should be so united? The driving force behind authors and composers is often individualism, but I don’t know what mysterious chain unites the small links that we are in a fellowship whose invisible reality we all feel. 

Indeed, fragile and united, such is the nature of our lives. The pages of our lives turn, grey, white or pink, and only reaching out hands can support us when their colours fade. 

The Comité du cœur, like refuges in high mountains, welcomes travellers surprised by the storm, women and men whose path has become, often brutally, “steep, rough and bumpy”.

For others, straight lines and quiet roads. For us, the twists and turns, the hazards, the wastelands. 

So few roses for so many thorny bushes…! So, yes, more than ever, fragile but united. Our charity has been there, come what may, as a support, a lifeline, for 70 years. We saw it again recently, during the pandemic, when the Chevalier committee worked tirelessly to help thousands of us keep our heads above water. 

Such is its mission, its raison d’être to serve our fragile but united community.

Claude Lemesle, author, vice-president of the Comité du cœur