The Courage of a Mother

The story of a dying mother’s fight to find a foster family who will take care of, and protect, her four children.

Her story, and her personality, have deeply moved people all across France.

How do you live out the end of your life, when you’re not even forty, and a mother? Last autumn, Marie-Laure Picat is told that she has cancer, in its final stages. Her first thought is for her children: what will become of them after she’s gone?

Determined to fulfill her role as a mother until the end, she chooses a foster family herself. Right away, she hits a wall: it’s not for her to decide who will take care of her children, it’s for a judge, after her death. And there is no guarantee that Julie, Thibault, Matthieu and Margot will be raised together. They won’t live in the place where they grew up.

Appalled by the absurdity of the situation, Marie-Laure goes to the media. And thus, an extraordinary movement of solidarity takes place, the press transmits her message: the courage of this young mother moves the country, and she receives more support than she could ever hope for.

Marie-Laure wished to leave a mark, and this is why she wrote down her story, firstly for her children, but also to show that the administrative shackles binding families in distress should be loosened.

So that her fight doesn’t die with her.