Words fail and are inadequate, Dear Colleagues and Friends, for the sad message I have to deliver to you all. On Saturday 15th of October 2011 Doctor Patricia Leroux left us after a terrible traffic accident in Paris. Born in Lyon in 1958, educated in Aix-en-Provence at the Music Academy and at the Faculty of Medicine of Marseille, Patricia had a truly European background, a Scottish mother and an Italian father made for a perfect Frenchwoman.

Our thoughts are first of all with her family, husband, children, parents and in-laws. The whole of the Homeopathic Community shares in their loss and wishes them strength for the long weeks and months to come where they will have to learn and cope with this enormous loss. We all know Patricia as a “family-person”, amidst a hectic professional life all her love, her protection and her wisdom went to that marvellous family she created. We were always privileged to be invited into this intimate circle and bestowed with Patricia’s love and warmth, her natural gifts.

Motherless, the Homeopathic Community and E.C.H. feel Patricia’s departure very deeply. We were looking forward next year to having such a dynamic, multilingual and loving personality as President for our organisation. A great musical talent, she lived for her music and shared this love with the members of the choir she founded in Marseille. A gifted navigator, she participated in many a sailing trip. A prolific author, a paediatrician beloved by her children-patients and their parents, Patricia was a towering figure in France, where she promoted homeopathy tirelessly. Patricia was active all over the world, bustling with ideas, supportive of her colleagues and making us all feel well.

During her long and eventful career, Patricia served since many years on the Board of the national French SNMHF and the European E.C.H.. Her books, seminars and lectures are permeated by her unfailing energy and her warmth. A perfectionist in all she undertook, Patricia felt it was her duty to transmit her knowledge all over the world; lectures in Russia or South Africa, clinics in Peru, never tired her. Simplicity, dignity, empathy were the qualities that touched all of us in our contacts with her.

Goodbye, Patricia, our thoughts and prayers are with you and with your beloved family. You have found eternal rest in the family grave in Provence. A Flemish singer sang it so well “you only die when you have been forgotten”. You will always be with us, Patricia, you will feel the warmth in our hearts and the deep appreciation in our minds for all you have done for your patients, for homeopathy and for us all. Thank you.

Yves Faingnaert
E.C.H. – L.M.H.I. treasurer