Late love and the last year of the life of Edith Piaf

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Starting a conversation about your personal life famous French diva Edith Piaf, it is worth noting that in front of the altar of an Orthodox church, despite the fact that she was a Catholic, Edith was only 47 years old - a year before her death. Due to cancer, the singer turned into an emaciated old woman, with a face covered with deep wrinkles and with sparse, almost falling out hair. And this while her husband was in his prime, healthy and handsome as a Greek god.

Read the beginning of an amazing story about the personal life of a French pop star in the review: Husbands and lovers in the life of the legendary French singer Edith Piaf.

The tests that fell on the fragile shoulders of Piaf

Fate has tested the little sparrow for strength all his life. And again she played a cruel joke with Edith. Favorite man Marcel Cerdan, flying to her across the ocean, crashed in a plane crash. Edith, who blamed herself for his death, fell into a severe depression: she began to use morphine and alcohol, which led her to delirium tremens and mental seizures, and once she almost jumped out of the window at all. She returned to the street again. Dressed in old clothes, she performed on the streets of Paris, and at night she brought unfamiliar men to her place.

This tragedy, it seemed, broke Piaf forever, many thought that no one and nothing could return her to the stage and to her former life. However - she could! This little fragile woman stepped onto the stage and sang, delighting the audience, not only with her talent, but also with her tremendous unbroken strength of mind.

And life, as before, mercilessly continued to be and to break it. Two car accidents, in which Piaf got in the 50s, finally broke her fragile health, it seemed that life had stopped. But even at this terrible time for the singer, a young Greek emigrant appeared on the horizon of her life, a hairdresser by profession, who extended his hand to her in difficult times and offered his heart. His name was - Theophanis Lambukas, the last love and second husband of the Parisian star.

- these words belong to Edith, who could not bear even the thought of loneliness.

Edith met Lamboucas when he came to visit her at the hospital with a gift: a small doll brought from Greece, supposedly bringing good luck. The young man began to visit Piaf often, each time bringing a small gift, which she rejoiced like a child. This continued until Theo dared to propose to Edith.

The 47-year-old diva definitely refused, she did not even allow the thought that after Marcel could fall in love with someone else and let her into her life. Plus, Theo was 20 years younger than her. And she is a small woman crippled by life, standing on the edge of eternity.

She refused, but did not drive away. And so he could sit for hours at her piano, listening to how Piaf played. He caught her every move, trying to predict her desires. The young man was not embarrassed by either the twenty-year age difference or Piaf's disease, at that time the doctors already diagnosed the singer with severe arthritis, and after a while - liver cancer.

And she, seeing more in the young man as a son than her husband, tried, as in the good old days, to become the producer of Theo, who, while working as a hairdresser, was thinking about a career as a singer, and to bring him to the big stage.

"Friendship in Love". Edith Piaf with Charles Aznavour

Now it will be appropriate to remember how in the mid-50s Edith, in addition to Yves Montand and the American singer Eddie Constantine, gave a start in life to Charles Aznavour. It was she who revealed his talent, financially supported for some time and gave money for plastic surgery to reshape the nose: - joked about the poor fellow Edith. And he was her secretary, wrote songs for her. And they were connected only by "friendship in love", if you believe the words of Charles, who for many years kept the correspondence with his virtue as a valuable relic.

Read also: As the son of an Armenian émigré who was booed in clubs, he became a great French chansonnier: Charles Aznavour.

If Edith could do something to help, she certainly did it without hesitation. She helped the poor and the poor, made considerable donations to the church, and once saved the famous Olympia concert hall from bankruptcy. She was always generous and selfless:

She said yes

Returning to the story of Theo Lambukas, it should be noted that Piaf did not succeed with the development of his career - the audience received him very coldly as a singer. Almost all of Paris grinned at this extraordinary couple, considering Theo a gigolo. In fact, idolizing the French pop star, he was her real fan.

By the way, Piaf was in no hurry to get married, although she was really happy with Theo. And it was she who would come up with a new name for him - Sarapo, which from Greek meant - "I love you." Edith thought for a long time before accepting his offer - in principle, she was against unequal marriages.

But one day Edith had a dream, which, repeating, she dreamed from time to time. He has always been a harbinger of parting with loved ones. However, this time she clearly heard Theo's voice on the phone. And the next day she agreed to become his wife.

Superstition and mysticism in the life of Piaf

The singer was always very superstitious, and after the death of Marcel Cerdan, she became carried away by spiritualism and everywhere carried a magic rotating table, thanks to which Piaf allegedly communicated with the spirits of the dead. She assured others that once this table saved her life. Touring America, she and her team flew from city to city by plane - this was the usual procedure. When they were about to fly from Chicago to San Francisco, the spirits predicted Piaf: "March 22nd - plane crash - everyone is dead." The singer immediately canceled the flight, and the next day it turned out that the scheduled plane crashed, and all passengers on board the liner were killed.

Down the aisle with a beggar bride

So this time, little Edith entrusted her fate to the sign sent to her by fate, giving her consent to the marriage. Paris literally buzzed, accusing Theo Sarapo of self-interest, but no one could even imagine that the great star had not a penny behind the soul: everything was spent on drugs, thoughtless spending, and later on medicines with which she supported her mutilated body.

The young spouse had to completely support the fading Edith, from day to day, proving his love: he tenderly looked after his beloved, personally fed from a spoon, read books aloud to her, gave gifts, brightening up the last days of his dying wife. This continued throughout their joint family life, which was very short. Edith lived only 11 months after the wedding, and literally on her deathbed, Piaf said:

The last thing that the Lord gave the singer to see during her lifetime was the tender look of her husband's faithful and inconsolable in grief. Piaf all her life fearlessly struggled with adversity, bravely enduring the blows of fate. She always lived with hopes, and when they dried up, she reached her end with dignity. On her last journey, the great singer was seen off by half a million Frenchmen. Piaf was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in the same grave with his father and daughter (later Theo Sarapo will be buried in the same crypt). The Catholic Church refused to perform the funeral service for the deceased, arguing that "she lived in sin."Church Mass took place, half a century after the death of the greatest singer of the 20th century, in October 2013.

Life after Edith

Theo Sarapo, more than once suspected of selfish motives, after the death of his wife inherited only her debts of seven million francs. He knew about them before, even when he proposed to Edith. Therefore, without regret, he left the apartment for sale, where he lived with Edith. And in 1970, almost seven years after the death of his wife, he died in a car accident, he was 34 years old.

The stormy and tragically eventful life of this little Frenchwoman makes many think about the essence of life. Therefore, before you once again want to complain about your fate, remember the story of the Parisian "sparrow", a woman inspired and gifted with the power of love, who went forward until her last breath, without giving up, conquering the hearts of millions.

Continuing the topic of unequal marriages, read: When age is not a hindrance: Famous women who loved men much younger than themselves.