At the Pamiers Seniors Club, Claude Dupeyron finds the time long. So the president is working hard to keep in touch with the elderly who are even more isolated by the pandemic.
“It’s a real heartbreak! Usually, there are so many people here… You would see, that between two activities, the coffee machine looks like that of a business! There, everything is black.” At 7, bis rue d’Enrouge, Claude Dupeyron continues to run the store. Empty, silent, sad. But the president of the most important seniors club in France is not disarming, quite the contrary. “Since the first confinement, every day, I send an email to the 433 members who have an Internet connection. I give them news from the city, find out what is open, authorized and I often add small cartoons, jokes. It’s about keeping the connection and trying to make them smile. “
For the others, it binds itself every month to the Trait d’Union, the monthly for the elderly. Not easy when the country is at a standstill and the 35 activities offered by its team are dormant. But the former editor-in-chief can count on his experience as a journalist to produce a quality newspaper for the most isolated. “The other day, at the supermarket, a lady came to me with tears in her eyes to ask me when we could take back the belotte. It touched me a lot”, confides Claude Dupeyron who follows very closely the evolution of the health crisis.
Partial resumption on January 7?
“I am in regular contact with the prefecture, which recommended that we not open between the two confinements. Perhaps we can resume our activities little by little from January 7.” Like his thousand members, the one who has made social and proximity his leitmotif wishes it with all his heart. Because after having distributed gel and masks free of charge, the seniors’ club is at a standstill.
No more trips to Russia, Montenegro or Spain. Ditto for heritage discovery outings, concerts, the Barrière casino or the Appaméthon. The ballroom, the lair of the choir and quarterly birthdays, seems to be frozen in time. “We hear all the time that we are among the people at risk, that we are the most vulnerable. But in reality, we are taken care of last. We are not a priority and it is frustrating. , we have a past, of course, but also a present and a future. “
But because he is not the type to let himself be defeated, Claude Dupeyron has already planned to postpone the trips to the fall of 2021. Not to mention all the birthdays that will have to be caught up.
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