Reportage. In Gardanne, in the palliative care department, « it’s life until the end »

In the Bouches-du-Rhône, the Maison de Gardanne accompanies around 500 patients a year in palliative care. In this emblematic place, created at the start of the AIDS epidemic, caregivers, volunteers and artists accompany the sick with no hope of recovery.

In the hall, a white piano resonates to the rhythm of the chords of Jean-Jacques Goldman, Patrick Bruel and Nino Ferrer. Every Tuesday at 12:30 p.m., at the keyboard, Tom, an osteopath, takes caregivers on board with the refrains of « I give you », « Crack the voice » or « The South ». From the top of the stairs, a woman listens to them, tears in her eyes. In one of the bedrooms upstairs, her husband sleeps, exhausted by cancer.

“Here, it’s the permanent contrast. The force of life and…