They found their business but above all came to pay tribute to the couple who had run it for years. This Monday morning, the emotion was palpable in the town of Beaumont-de-Lomagne (Tarn-et-Garonne) where the bakery of the couple found dead in Madeira reopened. “It was important for the employees and so that customers could find the comfort of having a local business,” explained their daughter Johanna.
It was she who alerted the authorities when she did not see her parents return from a hike on March 16 in Sao Vicente in the north of the Portuguese island. Ten days ago, Madeira police announced the discovery in the area of two bodies which are very likely those of two tourists aged 58 and 56. Everything indicates that they had an accidental fall in this steep and difficult to access area.
“I would have preferred to see them alive,” says a customer
“In their memory”, Johanna and her other sister decided to reopen the family bakery more than a month after the disappearance. But “passing the doors and not seeing my parents is very difficult,” testified the young woman. Customers also had difficulty containing their sadness. “I would have preferred to see them alive and go get my bread elsewhere,” says Michel, who lives a few meters from the bakery.
Behind the counter, Véronique, an employee of the establishment for years, shares the same pain: “It’s difficult,” she confides, her lip trembling. Despite her grief, this employee is satisfied with the reopening: “It’s to pay tribute to them.” A feeling shared by Nicolas Frédéric, a baker in the business for four years who considers the shop “the soul of the village”. “We are very happy, for the employees but also for the villagers,” he says.