General de Gaulle and his "special" daughter Anna: An invisible connection that persisted even after death

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

Charles de Gaulle and his wife did not publicly report that their daughter, born in 1928, had Down syndrome. In the archives containing the chronology of de Gaulle's life, there are very few references to the girl's disability. Historians associate the silence of the spouses with the eugenic movement that swept the West at that time, and with the family's fear of avoiding the shame associated with the presence of a "special" child. Alas, the society of that time was cruel. Meanwhile, for the stern general, little Anna was the best and most beloved.

They decided not to despair …

Anna was born on January 3. The parents were looking forward to the birth of their third child with joy and impatience, and when Professor Levi-Solal informed them that the baby had Down syndrome, that she might not be able to eat, climb the stairs, take care of herself, she would have very poor eyesight and hardly able to talk, de Gaulle and his wife were in despair and shock. They could not find an answer to the question of why this cross fell to them. And the girl's grandmother (de Gaulle's mother-in-law) even put forward a version that Anna was born this way due to the fact that her daughter Yvonne experienced stress during pregnancy, becoming an accidental witness to a fight during a walk.

- My husband and I would sacrifice everything - and wealth, and ambition, and luck, if only this could make our Anna healthy, - the girl's mother wrote to her close friend when the baby was one year old.

On the one hand, the de Gaulle family did not hide their daughter's diagnosis, but on the other hand, the couple did not intend to discuss this with journalists and other outsiders. Relatives rallied to make Anna's life as comfortable as possible. There was no question of giving her to a specialized hospital, as was customary to do in those days with such children.

In 1834, General de Gaulle acquired a large picturesque estate three hundred kilometers from Paris. The first reason was the proximity to the place of service, the second - the peace and quiet, which were so necessary for six-year-old Anna. Here the "sunny girl" received care, treatment, and the boundless love of her loved ones.

The stern general was the most gentle father

According to the recollections of relatives, after returning from service, the head of the family first went to Anna - sat her on her knees and began to shower with compliments. She listened, smiled, with curiosity twirling his military cap in her hands. Sometimes a happy girl fell asleep right on her dad's lap, and then he carefully carried her to the crib.

They had a special spiritual bond. De Gaulle said more than once that this child was for him a kind of message from above, which allowed him to get to know people better and reconsider his views on life. The maid of the de Gaulle family recalled that she saw with her own eyes how the stern general, playing with Anna, crawled around the room on all fours and sang: "How beautiful you are, Mademoiselle."

The daughter responded to her loving father in return, giving him boundless love. The only word she knew how to pronounce was "daddy."

A photograph of 1933, in which de Gaulle was captured sitting on a beach in a sun lounger with Anna on his knees, later became known all over the world. In the picture, the girl looks carefully and seriously at her dad, and he, holding her palms in his hands, tells her something. And it seems that no one else around for them exists …

If with older children (at the time of Anna's birth, Philip's son was six, Elizabeth's daughter was four), de Gaulle could be too strict and demanding, then he showed incredible patience with the baby. He was unfazed, even if she played out, began to pinch and scratch his face with her little hands, leaving pink marks on the skin. And if Anna was crying in the house, the father, leaving all his affairs, flew to her like a bullet - he took her in his arms, soothed, rocked her.

If the general's family had to move or the spouses went on a journey, they invariably took Anna with them, trying to provide her with all the necessary conditions.

In 1940, during the war, the general had a conversation with the regimental priest, in which he mentioned Anna. “Believe me, this is a very big test for me as a father, but I also perceive it as a blessing, as a mercy. This girl is my joy,”he said.

Memory of Anna

Alas, the parents' happiness was not as long as they would like. In January 1948 (by the way, the age of twenty in those years was considered critical for people with Down syndrome), Anna's already poor health was completely undermined. The flu, which the girl caught, gave a complication to the bronchi and lungs. Her heart could not stand it, and in early February she died.

Charles de Gaulle took this grief very hard. The funeral was modest - only relatives were present, and so that the spouses were not disturbed by strangers, they even set up a cordon.

After Anna's death, the general wrote to his eldest daughter Elizabeth: “Her soul is now free. But the disappearance of our little suffering child, our little girl without hope, has brought us tremendous pain. " As contemporaries recalled, de Gaulle said more than once: "During her lifetime she was special, but now she has become like everyone else."

Anne de Gaulle's legacy lives on. Yvonne and Charles established a foundation in her honor and established a hospital for girls with mental disabilities. The medical institution is located in a beautiful castle near Versailles.

Today the Anna Foundation is run by descendants - de Gaulle's nephew and his granddaughter. They pay great attention to the integration of people with disabilities into modern society.

“At the time, no one knew how to deal with people like Anna. And on the initiative of Charles de Gaulle, a corresponding law appeared, and then the foundation itself. It was created not for Anna (her grandmother took care of her herself), but thanks to her, - explains the granddaughter of Charles and Yvonne de Gaulle. By the way, she also bears the name Anna - in honor of the "sunny girl".

The love story of the legendary politician for his "special" daughter gave hope and confidence to many families with such children, and the general himself became an example and guideline for them.

By the way, Anna's death did not interrupt her invisible connection with her father. Moreover, in fact, the daughter became his protector. According to the general himself, when in 1962 his car was fired upon, his life was saved by the fact that the bullet hit the frame with the photograph of his daughter, which de Gaulle always carried with him.

The general died in 1970. They buried him in the cemetery in Colombey-le-de-Eglise next to Anna - that was his will.

Read in continuation of the topic about what did the families of presidents and monarchs do with the "special" children.