This Sunday, May 8, Catherine Laborde celebrated her 71st birthday. On this occasion, his sister Françoise wanted to send him a message on Instagram, in the caption of a photo that moved Internet users.
The journalist, writer and member of the Superior council of audio-visual thus testified to the deep affection that she has for her eldest, born a year before her. And it is a photo of a smiling Catherine Laborde, sitting on a terrace and holding the newspaper Le Monde on her lap, that Françoise has chosen to publish.
In caption of this shot, she wrote: “Happy birthday my Catherine. Always enjoy life and know that no one forgets you. You are always smiling, always courageous: many of them tell me every day how much they love you and think of you. 1000 kisses”.
A message that touched the heart of the former faithful of the sparkling brunette. “Wonderful photo we still love you Madam”; “A happy birthday to this pretty woman who is always so smiling, we are thinking of you”; “Happy birthday Katherine. Oh yeah ! We don’t forget it :)”; “Happy Birthday dear Catherine, we love you so much and we will never forget you. Thank you, Françoise, for sharing this with us”, we were able to read in the comments as so many testimonies of love that viewers still bear today for the former Madame Météo.
Suffering from an unknown disease
Very discreet since her withdrawal from the sets where for twenty-eight years she spoke of the rain and the good weather on TF1, Catherine Laborde had come out of her silence to pay tribute to Jean-Pierre Pernaut on Twitter, on March 3. “Farewell Jean-Pierre, farewell, you will have taught us to love each other a little better”, she had simply written.
Suffering more and more from the ailments of a degenerative disease, the former presenter had confided on October 4, 2020 in the “Portrait of the week” of “Seven to eight”, on TF1. “When you ask me if I’m okay, I’ll tell you yes, sometimes. And sometimes it’s not going very well, “she said before adding:” It’s the disease that will prevail I think at one time or another, it’s a shame, I would have liked liked that it lasted a long time. But I know there is a time when it has to stop.
Discovered in the 1960s, then described more precisely in the mid-1990s, the disease from which she suffers – called “dementia with Lewy bodies” – does not currently know of any cure. Doctors only try to manage as much as possible the many symptoms that can affect the lives of sufferers, such as hallucinations, behavioral problems and cognitive deficit.
“It’s one of those degenerative brain diseases that we know very little about. It’s a practically unexplored area, a bit like the bottom of the oceans,” said Catherine Laborde, who was diagnosed in 2014. “Needless to tell you that this mystery accentuates the frightening aspect of the thing”. Less known than Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies would however affect some 200,000 people in France, but 67% of them would not be diagnosed according to francealzheimer.org.
Françoise’s sister had explained how difficult her daily life had become: “I stumble at least once a day. But it’s not just the body that is gradually unraveling. I also feel like I’m a lot more emotional than before,” she revealed. She had also confided that the simple fact of going out in the street was in itself a test: “I am afraid of everything. There are so many things that I forbid myself to do, first of all for fear of not being able to do it”, she had said.
As a reminder, Catherine Laborde had presented her very last bulletin on January 1, 2017 and had punctuated it with a speech full of emotion. “That time is the time when I will leave you. (…) I leave with the cold, with the weather but also with all these memories that you have given me over the years. (…) I take you with me. You will forget me, not me. I like You.”.