By Michel Moriceau
Published on
The rain came to mix with tears on Saturday morning December 19, 2020, at La Ferté-Macé (Orne), during the ceremony organized on the initiative of friends and relatives of Melanie Lemée and his family. On July 4, this young 25-year-old gendarme, native of La Ferté-Macé, was killed by a driver during a roadside check in Lot-et-Garonne. She was also a high level judokate.
To keep his memory alive, a gingko biloba was planted next to the martial arts hall, rue des Noisetiers, in the presence of mayor Michel Leroyer, José Collado, departmental councilor, and many guests including Jacques Dalmont, outgoing mayor.
Five months after the tragedy, the emotion was still very strong. Trying to contain their tears, Anne and Clémence, from the Fertois Judo-club, paid a vibrant tribute to their friend on the tatami mats, but also in life. Faced with this “bad nightmare”, they shared some memories with Mélanie. While the rain redoubled, it was Noëlle Poirier, a friend and a neighbor of the family, who explained the process of this plantation of a gingko biloba, the tree with 40 crowns *, which can reach 20 to 30 meters in height. height and is intended to be very robust (it is one of the 40 recorded species that have withstood the radiation from Hiroshima).
“In a few years, the young judokas will be able to come and put themselves there in the shade in memory of Mélanie” concluded Noëlle Poirier, moved to tears, who greeted the parents of the young girl, Danielle and Christian, and her brother Marc .
A room in his name
At the beginning of the morning, during the municipal council which was held at the Gérard-Philipe room, the Municipal Council decided to name the martial arts room with the name of Mélanie Lemée.
“On the sidelines of her career in law enforcement, this talented young woman was passionate about judo, a discipline in which she won national and international trophies,” recalled Olivier Breuil, deputy mayor.
Promoted posthumously, Mélanie Lemée received the decoration of the Legion of Honor and the military medal during a national tribute with Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior. “It is quite natural that his native town, shocked by his sudden disappearance, wishes to pay tribute to him and honor his memory”.
The official baptism of the room will take place in a few months “when the sanitary context allows us to do a ceremony” confided the mayor.
* The tree with 40 écus: it is the astronomical sum for the time that a French botanist of the XVIIIth century had spent to buy five copies of this tree.
