THE MAYOR, JÉRÔME COUMET, COMES FOR THE CHRISTMAS APERITIF
He tells residents what City Hall is done during the year and what it plans for the future.
The caretaker, Cindi Laurent, is to his right. Members of his team surround him.
He gives everyone a box of chocolats and speaks personally to all who come up to him.
Madame Laurent takes groceries up five flights of stairs for elderly residents when the elevator is stalled and the muscular young man hired to help carry groceries is on a break.
When a neighbor threw himself out of a window in sight of some of the residents, she had City Hall send two psychiatrists to meet with them. She thought particularly of Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees, for whom the tragedy might evoke terrible memories.
Seeing Madame Laurent in her kitchen at night is always reassuring.
"The residents are like my family,"
she said with tears in her eyes
when an aged man died.
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