Marie-Claude Borel 1927-1989
On October 26, one week before her 62nd birthday, Marie-Claude Borel passed away. It is difficult to describe in a few lines what she brought and gave to so many people through the years. We know that many of you were with her in thought and prayer during her last weeks in the hospital as she felt her strength diminish.
Below we reproduce some excerpts from the text that Marcel Grandy read at Marie-Claude's funeral in the church in Montreux.
One of the things we can say about Marie-Claude is that she had the secret of friendship - true friendship - which does not attract others to itself, but which creates bonds between people of all ages and conditions - a friendship charged with all her intelligence, imagination and availability.
Marie-Claude was perfectly at ease in the kitchen of a peasant woman in Vaud, in the office of the Mother Abbess of a convent in Fribourg, in the home of one of our leaders in Bern, in a multitude of homes.
She spelled out her life from the needs she saw around her and tried to respond to them in her conversations, her phone calls, her visits, her letters. Didn't she send 80 of them from the hospital in the last two weeks? Marie-Claude had gone to Poland two years ago to see some of her father Henri Borel's acquaintances, who have become forces of hope in today's Poland.
Marie-Claude went into social work, as you have heard, and found herself, along with many Swiss, in Caux after the war. She found, as she said, "a motivation to make my life worthwhile." And since then, she has given of herself, with her keen mind, her great intellectual faculties, her gift of perception of essential things, her heart.
Marie-Claude certainly had a good dose of humor. She was easy to tease, defenseless, and not too serious. However, she knew how to take her revenge!
While in Sri Lanka, some twenty years ago, Marie-Claude was confronted with a situation that was to be the beginning of an adventurous phase in her life. Typically, she decided to help a great French lady, Irene Laure, by translating for her and then accompanying her on a mission to Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia. And since then, for many years, Madame Laure and Marie-Claude have visited Asia together on several occasions and have travelled the world.
Marie-Claude returned each summer to carry out her hosting duties and other responsibilities. Many have been strengthened by this Swiss woman of faith and vision, with her wide-ranging interests, over the years and on her travels. This international dimension did not make her forget her beloved country. She thought about 1991 and asked herself many questions about what Switzerland could give to the world on its 700th anniversary - and what our country should learn on that occasion.
She did not find it easy to accept the limitations of her illness, to no longer make plans, to no longer have projects for her who loved to move around. But through her letters, during these last three years of illness, we can discern a wonderful spiritual deepening, a blossoming of her heart.
Today we want to express our gratitude to God for what Marie-Claude's life and work has been - to express our gratitude for what she and her brother Serge have given of themselves over the years. We promise them to take the baton and continue the fight with the same faith and the same availability;
OTHER THOUGHTS ABOUT MARIE-CLAUDE
Marcel Grandy alluded to the part Marie-Claude played in the contacts with Poland, and among the many messages received by the family, we wanted to note the one from Professor and Mrs. Stanislaw Stomma, Dean of the new Senate in Warsaw: "I met Maríe-Claude in the summer of 1986. I was immediately very impressed. I immediately understood what kind of personality she was. One rarely has the chance to meet such extraordinary people. It's hard to explain why: you feel it. They radiate 'peace and spiritual peace - that is, the radiance of peace in the deepest sense of the word. I can say, with all sincerity, that Marie-Claude belonged to those people who are a living example of metaphysical values, and who do this without being aware of it and in silence. She was like the person described by the magician in H.C. Andersen's fairy tale: "We can't help you, but you help everyone." In her was alive the wise Catholic Truth of the "Cornmunio Sanctorum" (Communion of Saints), and in this sense Marie-Claude will always be among us.
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