“I need to repeat that the carelessness of youth can kill or leave one disabled”insists Delphine, who tirelessly testifies in schools and high schools, businesses, wherever we want to hear her talk about her disability and her eternal sorrow. The company she set up to do this is called BMG, the initials of the first names of the three passengers in the car which wrapped around an electricity pylon on April 17, 1999 on a road in Orne: “Bernard was my little friend, Guillaume our big friend”whispers the sole survivor.
“It happened after an evening chatting in a village square, without drugs or alcohol, because of the speed, at 180 kilometers/hour. At that age, we think we are immortal…” An accident that firefighters in the region, although experienced, still talk about: “The impact was so violent that they were unable to distinguish who, Bernard or Guillaume, both seated in the front seat with their belts fastened, was driving the car… Without doubt Bernard. I had no life only saved because I was thrown fifteen meters. But statistically, the belt saves more lives than it takes!”Delphine always insists. The driver, the first witness to the accident which raised the alarm, also remained traumatized. To the point of changing jobs and becoming depressed.
Delphine, completely broken, spends a month in a coma between life and death. When she emerges, her body entirely to be reconstructed, notably her torn jaw, she has no memory of the accident, nor any memory of her previous life. She learns to drink again, to eat, then to sit, sheltered from the past from which she has forgotten everything and from which all those close to her protect her. But one day, she questions them: “And Bernard and Guillaume, they don’t come to see me?”
When her parents tell her of the accident, the death of her boyfriend and her friend, the psychological pain is added to the young girl’s physical pain: “We had our lives ahead of us. I was going to take the French baccalaureate two months later. I was in love with Bernard. Learning that they were dead made me feel guilty forever. Why had I survived? I hadn’t didn’t even attend their funeral…” Delphine’s father went to those of Bernard and Guillaume, while his mother remained at his bedside: “My father saw devastated parents. My parents always considered that their pain was common. They never wanted to enter into a legal battle. Bernard and Guillaume were in their eyes co-victims, not guilty”says Delphine.
Today, she sometimes accompanies Bernard’s mother to the cemetery: “All three of our lives are sealed. Bernard and Guillaume are my angels. I say good night to them every evening”she smiles, convinced that there is something “after” as their spiritual presence has helped her to cling to life. Added to the guilt of having survived for Delphine is the guilt of depriving her three brothers and sisters, aged 22, 7 and 4, of her parents. They took turns at her bedside, trembled for her, accompanied her multiple operations, eleven in all. Delphine remains in a rehabilitation center for two and a half years. She left with paralysis on the left side, urinary incontinence, a strabismus that is difficult to correct and speech difficulty, for life: “These differences were enough to make returning to my social life complicated. I found a job at a switchboard, but I was treated like an idiot.” In 2003, Delphine learned to drive again with an adapted car.
“For years, I thought I wouldn’t start my life again, but I met my future husband in 2005, through a patient at the rehabilitation center. We got married in 2010. My pregnancy in 2011 was a shock: “How am I going to do this?” Especially since the separation from her husband took place a year and a half later. “For my daughter, I did not have the right to give up. I managed to become 100% independent, in the sense that I manage to accomplish all the daily tasks, even if it is with tips and tricks. a lot of pain and fatigue I will be in pain for life.sighs Delphine.
His daughter Liloo has been his constant support: “Now that she’s 23, she’s also my best friend. She wants to become a professional firefighter!” Still so close to his parents who made him “to be born a second time“, Delphine travels across France to say the words that can prevent others from what she endured, and still endures, valiantly: “It took me years to rebuild myself, physically and psychologically, and launch major projects. That of my house and the creation of BMG to bear witness. Despite the after-effects and the physical suffering, I have no right to complain. My angels are there to remind me, and I hope that where they are, they are proud.”
