Instead of our weekly Throwback Thursday, we decided to focus on some charming old ladies who made the headlines this week : Danielle !
In the aftermath of the attrocious Paris attacks, turning on the TV on Saturday morning, we got one more piece of evidence that Old is cool! The proof came from a grandma which intervention on BFM TV – the French 24/7 news channel – just came like a rainbow after the rain of bullets Paris has undergone on Friday night.
Danielle on BFMTV
Who is this charmingly refreshing old lady ?
This 77-year-old French woman was laying flowers near the Bataclan where 89 people were killed on Friday when she was interviewed by BFM-TV.
Here is the video and bellow the English version of what she said to the cameras:
“It’s very important to bring flowers for our deads. It’s also important to see several times Ernest Hemingway’s book, “Paris est une fête,” (the French title of “A Moveable Feast”) because we are a very old civilization and we will uphold our values at the highest level. And we will fraternize with five million Muslims who practice their religion freely and kindly and we will fight against the 10,000 barbarians who kill, supposedly in the name of Allah”
The video was and is still widely shared across France, and around the world (US : French Embassy) on social networks, because this statement deeply touched people, especially Muslims who fear the confusion between terrorism and Islam.
#DesFleursPourDanielle
However, there is much more to the story. Danielle got even more viral when a Twitter user asked his followers, using the hashtag #DesFleursPourDanielle (Flowers for Danielle), to help him find the lady in order to offer her flowers.
Je cherche l'identité de cette personne. C'est pour lui envoyer des fleurs.Le dernier qui RT est fan de Phil Collins pic.twitter.com/fB9yHIThwm
— Karim Boukercha ll (@Karim_Boukercha) November 16, 2015
At that time he knew nothing about her but eventually, a BFM TV journalist revealed she is called Danielle and later on, a guy recognize Danielle as one of his grandfather’s friends.
After that, Karim Boukercha launched a fundraising campaign to buy this kickass old lady a bouquet. The movement quickly gained momentum, and with the 14 000 € he managed to raise (at the moment we’re publishing this article), he could probably buy her something much fancier than a single bouquet – which had been offered by a French florist by the way.
Le voici ❤ #DesFleursPourDanielle pic.twitter.com/kKhGBwUsbx
— Interflora France (@Interflora) November 17, 2015
And actually, Danielle stated she would be donating all the extra money to NGO’s and associations she supports among which the association helping the victims’ families of the attacks.
So to sum up, Twitter knows her as Danielle and it’s said she broke the Internet… Well, in fact, her complete identity is Danielle Merian and she’s much more than “the grandma who breaks the internet after Paris attacks”. Her life is so cool that she should have had her 15 minutes of fame long before! What she said on BFM TV is nothing compare to what she’s done throughout her life. Learning more about her, just made it even cooler. A former lawyer, she is a woman of multiple causes, explaining she is trying to fight against all forms of stupidity, it being gender discrimination, death penalty, …
Thanks again Danielle!
Is your grandma as cool as Danielle Mérian? Share with us how your grandparents reacted after the Paris attacks!
