Her “families”

In previous “miles­tones” of Claire’s life, we travelled chro­no­lo­gi­cally from childhood to adulthood, espe­cially her profes­sional life as a medical doctor.

In this chapter, we wish to remind all those who crossed her path, as a child or an adult, often for long periods. Claire had chosen not to get married, in order to be more helpful for others, but she has created “family ties” around the world and throu­ghout her life.

We tried to gather all those friends in three “families” :

  • her biolo­gical family, in which she was born, mostly present in Belgium, but several members have migrated to different parts of the world;
  • her “AFI-ICA family” the asso­ciation to which she joined as a teenager, to which she remained attached to the end, Claire made many journeys to visit her “sisters”, scattered in several countries, because they were important to her;
  • her family in India, which is more diverse because it includes both her “family of adoption”, some colleagues or people with whom she lived almost daily, and finally some longtime friends with whom she has been sharing a lot. This is probably the largest “family” as Claire remained 55 years in India.

Good discovery of these families !