Founded three years ago, “Ambulance des rêves” helps people at the end of their lives to make their dreams come true. Marguerite, 83, was able to spend a few hours with her loved ones thanks to volunteers.
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In Maisons-Alfort, in the Val-de-Marne, the stretcher of Marguerite Benoit, 83, leaves the ambulance that picked her up from the palliative care unit. For four hours, Marguerite finds her home on a tree-lined street in the city southeast of Paris, where she spent 70 years of her life.
“It was a deep joy to live there,” remembers Marguerite, very moved. She is then taken to a medical bed. The ambulance drivers hang up oxygen bottles, a doctor from the association stays nearby, but very quickly, the medical aspect disappears.
Marguerite’s hands grasp the feet of Suzanne, her two-month-old great-granddaughter. “I’m happy, this is my family,” smiles Marguerite, surrounded by her loved ones and her family photos. Her entourage, sometimes from the United States, follows one another. Marie, the eldest daughter, slips away, very moved: “It’s really his last dream, it’s great,” she said, her throat tight with emotion, very touched by the action of the Ambulance of Dreams.
“We couldn’t have done that, especially on a voluntary basis.”
Marie, daughter of Margueriteto franceinfo
The association relies only on the motivation of about twenty volunteers and the free help of ambulance companies, museums and swimming pools to make these dreams come true. There have already been nearly forty cases taken on by the association, co-founded three years ago by Maxime Bolou. “The team tells us: people come back feeling calm. Demand for painkillers drops dramaticallyhe assures. There’s no longer that feeling of ‘I wish I could do that.’ We do it and they say, ‘Thank you, I can finally breathe.'”
Marguerite, for her part, was able to breathe with her loved ones. A simple dream, but very common according to the association, which has already led a patient… to a tattoo parlor.