I was lucky to be able to attend Adrien's funeral service. And I have written this short notice for those who wished to be there, but were not able to come.
Quite naturally, a group of members of his mathematical family managed to meet up already in the morning of November the 9th, at IHP. And IHP had kindly opened a special room for us. There was undoubtedly this strong sense of family reunion, as at each conference, except this time we hugged each other a lot stronger, without knowing what to say. There were, on the table, some old photos of various conferences and méchouis, some of them showing how we looked like 20 years ago. Among them, the most touching ones were those taken by the three young students Sara, Josh and Roland, during the last days of Adrien's life. He looked so happy there. And for sure he enjoyed life until the very last minute.
Then we headed to the Crematorium of the Pere Lachaise cemetery. The hall was filled with flowers. Again people were hugging each other and especially Regine. When the service were about to start lots of people were standing as there were not enough seats.
At 14h, when the music started, we all stood up and, slowly, 6 strong men carried Adrien's coffin into the hall. That moment, which seemed to last forever, was very very difficult to bear. Following the coffin step by step, holding on to myself as much as I could, I began to face this cruel reality that Adrien has indeed gone.
Then Roland, supported by Sara and Josh, explained what happend November the 2nd, and how sorry he felt for not being able to safe Adrien's life, despite all the effort they have put in. It was very very touching.
It was followed by many many tributes to Adrien, paid by his childhood friends, his classmates, his colleagues, his mathematical descendants, his children, his grand children and finally his wife Regine. Regine described some of the other adventures that she had taken alongside Adrien, and how close they had been to losing their lives. Through her tributes, as well as the others, as well as the films showed by Francois Tisseyre, you could really see the aliveness of this human being, so real, so true, so present and so special.
Among all the descriptions of Adrien, there was one word that strikes me. It was freedom. Indeed, he was a free man. And it was probably this internal freedom that released his extraordinary mathematical creativity, his exceptional capacity of communicating with people, of implementing love among people, and, in return, being loved by all.
11th November 2006, Tan Lei