Antoine Leiris, one of radio France Bleu’s team, lost his wife in the attack at the Bataclan in Paris. He responds on Facebook with a moving post that has been shared over 200,000 times. Below is an English translation along with the original Facebook post in French.

 

“You will not get my hatred”

On Friday night you stole the life of an exceptional human being, the love of my life, the mother of my son, but you won’t get my hatred. I don’t know who you are and I don’t want to know, you are dead souls. If this God, for which you indiscriminately kill, made us in his own image, then every bullet in the body of my wife will have been a wound to his heart.

So no I don’t give you the gift of hate. You have tried hard to get it, yet to respond to your hatred with anger would be giving in to the same ignorance that made you what you are. You want me to be afraid, to look at my fellow citizens with suspicion and to sacrifice my freedom for security. You lose. I get to play again.

I finally saw her this morning after days and nights of waiting. She was as beautiful as when she left last Friday night, as beautiful as when I fell head over heels in love her more than 12 years ago. Of course I’m devastated with grief. I give you this small victory, but it will be short-lived. I know she will continue to be with us every day and that we will find each other again in this paradise of free souls to which you will never gain access.

There are only two of us, my son and I, but we are stronger than all the armies of the world. Now, I have no more time to spend on you. I must go to Melvil who is waking from his nap. Just 17 months old, he will eat his snack as he does every day, then he will play as he does every day. All his life this little boy will oppose you by living freely and happily. You will not get his hatred either.

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