Saint-Genis-Laval

 “Marist Brother Émile Helvic was born on 15 October 1911 in Metz (Moselle), but we postponed his birthday so as to have amaximum of people present», explains Brother Paul Boyat, of the community of Le Montet. Accordingly, on Monday, 17 October, some sixty persons came to the Ehpad (Retirement Home for Dependent Elderly People) Le Montet, a good number of them Marist brothers and former colleagues of Émile Helvic, alias Pierre Victor, his name as a Brother.

As a youth, he knew the misadventures of a border region with Germany, which forced him to change nationality several times.

After his Marist formation in the North and in Belgium, Brother Émile taught in various establishments, notably in the Drôme and the Ardèche. Then, after a long stay in Tarare as catechist and librarian, he retired to Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux (Drôme), before moving to the Montet retirement home in 2005, after a very full lifetime as teacher and college director.

Today, although weakened by age and infirmity and confined to a wheelchair, it was with a huge smile that he received the City Medal from the hands of Mayor RolandGrimier.