Line Renaud in Lausanne

“It is a sign: the TGV was called Heart Line”

New friendship

Line Renaud with (from left to right)

Suzanne, Guy and Pascale Lilla

Difficult to get a great Lady like her to come and support a humanitarian project. She is very, very solicited. Yet, for Pascale, Suzanne and Denis she responded present!

By Patrick Baumann

And Philippe Dutoit (pictures)

“Mrs Line Renaud. By kind courtesy of the postman, Bougival”. This is how it all started. Her letter, Suzanne Lilla sent it by haphazard, without imagining what would follow. A hazardous letter from this fan of 73 whose figure and glance have something in common with the two years older French singer. Suzanne lost her husband, like Line. Like Line who explains it in her last book Loulou, send me a rainbow, Suzanne believes in signs, these small precious indications, stones of Petit Poucet, to find her way in sorrow and persuade herself that the dead continue to look after us and to let us know.

And, on 6 th January, 2002, Suzanne lost her grandson Denis of 18 who died in a car accident. A big sensitive guy who had always confirmed his desire to donate his organs to save other lives. Pascale Lilla, his mother, respected this wish. Seven organs from Suzanne's grandson went to eight receivers. Eight small resurrections, eight families in happiness again. One could not stop there. Pascala went farther, leaving her job as marketing manager in order to create with her son Guy the Foundation Pass The Baton –which today counts many voluntaries- with very simple goals: talk of organs donation, encourage it, break taboos and, above all, establish a donor's card details of which will be recorded in an electronic data-base. Forty-five people died last year in this country due to lack of organs. This is what Suzanne wrote in her letter to Line Renaud: “Help my daughter, you are her model, what you have done for AIDS, she would like to do it for organs transplantations.”

And Line Renaud responded. OK, she is living in Rueil-Malmaison, and not in Bougival, but both cities are neighbours and the postman knows the address. The smile intensifies under her glasses when evoking the facts. “I receive tens of thousands of solicitations each year. I cannot engage everywhere. If I disperse, I am not credible anymore. But that letter had something particular…”. Suzanne could not believe it when the voice on the phone said: “Hi, this is Line Renaud.” Since then, both women have found a number of points in common and they chat regularly over the phone. Above all, Line accepted to be the Foundation's ambassador with all important people she meets. And this personal friend of Jacques and Bernadette Chirac does meet people. With the public utility association “Together against AIDS” created in 1994, tens of millions of Francs have been collected over the last ten years.

Generous, this is what they are from mother to daughter in Line's family, this daughter from the Corons. For some people, generosity diminishes with age, like sight and energy; for Line, it does not stop growing. And she has always nourished a scholastic passion for scientists. “There was a great doctor in Loulou's family. You will notice there is a Gasté memory under the Arc de Triomphe”.

Last Thursday, she reached Lausanne to honour with her presence the gala of the Foundation Pass The Baton at Lausanne Palace. Line, Las Vegas shows leader who has frequented the greatest American music-hall stars, from Sinatra to Dean Martin, gently applauded the choreographic exploits of Mrs. Tise and Mr. Juvet, sporting dancers, as she was discovering with delight the jet-set of Suisse Romande, from Charles Favre to Denis Halsall. She raises her hand to the shoulder and, amazed of having received another sign from Loulou she says in a warm voice: “The TGV was called Heart Line”. Usually I only take Thalys”.

One understands without difficulty, with this enveloping warmth of hers, why she became the substitution mother of a Muriel Robin or a Michele Laroque. Without talking of President's daughter Claude Chirac who calls her regularly on her mobile to enjoin her not to go to bed late. Sorry Claude! She went to bed very late on Thursday night. For a good cause! She remembered, just before leaving for Switzerland, she heard that a well known comedian –for whom she had alerted certainly highly placed people- had at long last received the heart she had been waiting for since long months. “For the time being I cannot tell you the name. But maybe this person will come to Lausanne next year” she murmured to Suzanne.

Life and death. She spoke of José Giovanni, cinema producer established in canton Valais, who discovered –in the archives of Lyon prison, whilst shooting a film on his father's life- a letter addressed to Line Renaud 40 years ago by a death sentenced prisoner. “He stated positively he would walk more quietly to the guillotine thanks to Ma cabane au Canada. I never received that letter!

Time flies and the train should not be missed: Line had invited Sylvie Vartan for dinner and she does not know yet with which sauce she will be eaten. Her large smile once more: “She will be the first to whom I shall talk of the extraordinary work of Pascale and her family.”