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Christiane Mallet passed away on May 27, 2019. She was born on November 23, 1918, a few days after the end of the First World War, which earned her her middle name of Victoire. Her father, Baron Robert de Watteville-Berkheim, had trained as a diplomat. Her mother, Diane, had joined the Red Cross as a nurse, notably at Verdun. In 1932 the couple met the Oxford Group, which later became Moral Rearmament and then Initiatives of Change, at a meeting organized by the movement in Paris. Robert and Diane welcomed one of its leading members into their home, and their conversations with him played a key role in reorienting the life of this Parisian and Alsatian aristocratic household. They found a meaning in life: working to build peace between France and Germany. As a young girl, Christiane took her place in this adventure.
Christiane’s life had its high points and its trials. After her marriage, when their first child was born, little Isabelle’s brain’s blood circulation was cut off for a few seconds, a fatal lapse that left her handicapped. Then came two boys, both without problems. The family lived through the Second World War, with all the day-to-day hardships experienced by every family in France.
The family lived through the Second World War, with all the day-to-day hardships experienced by every family in France. During those four years, one of Christiane’s two brothers, François, was killed and for a long time the family didn’t know where he was buried. This led her to courageously go to German military headquarters in Paris, armed with a letter of recommendation from a German friend she had known long before the war, to ask for help in finding her brother’s body. The officer who received her took the letter and, with a scornful gesture, threw it to the ground without opening it. In front of him, Christiane had to bend down and pick it up, her eyes brimming with tears. Humiliated, she had the grace to forgive the officer.
Christiane joined her parents in deciding that their mansion in Boulogne would be an ‘embassy’ for Moral Re-Armament. It was here that the first German delegations were received after the war, paving the way for future Franco-German reconciliation.
As her children grew up, Christiane was faced with the need to find a home for her daughter Isabelle that would enable her to flourish despite her profound handicap. Christiane made the providential acquaintance of Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche community. Isabelle found a real family in this home in Trosly-Breuil, north of Paris. And Christiane felt she had to make her own commitment to the disabled. She trained to become a speech therapist for handicapped children. This took up a lot of her time, but didn’t stop her from giving herself to the initiatives of Moral Re-Armament-Initiatives of Change, and not just in France. She took part in several missions to Lebanon during the civil war in the 1980s.
Her ability to listen to others enabled many people, from all walks of life, who sometimes needed to empty their hearts, to do so without fear of being judged. She retained this quality until she had no strength left. But the look in her eyes spoke for itself.
Author: Anne-Marie Tate
