French Woman Marries a Dead Guy

‘Til death do us part?

In these days of marriage equality, men can marry men; a woman can marry a warehouse or a bridge or a corporation; so why can’t a woman marry a dead guy?

Now, a French woman is planning to do just that.

Michel died two years ago of a heart attack; but his fiancee, Pascale, is ever the romantic–and the lovebirds will soon be wed with the express permission of French President François Hollande.

Charisma News explains the little-known French law which allows posthumous marriages.  The law was introduced in 1959, after 420 people died when a dam burst in southern France.  A young pregnant woman was so upset at losing her fiancé in the accident that President Charles de Gaulle permitted them to marry.

In the current case, Pascale Liéard, 48, wrote to the French president four times before receiving word that he had granted her request for a posthumous marriage.   A police investigation confirmed that the groom, who was serving a prison sentence for an unnamed crime, had indeed planned to marry Pascale in prison near their hometown of Saint-Omar, in northwestern France; but he died of a heart attack a month before the wedding day. 

Michel, the groom will be represented at his wedding by a portrait of himself.  Pascale, the blushing bride, will wear a white top and a black skirt.   

The bride is quoted in Charisma News:

“There are tears in normal weddings, so I can’t imagine what will happen at ours….It will be like any other wedding ceremony except that there will be a photograph in the place of Micheel. Even though he is not here anymore, he is still my man.” 

This is not the first time the French law permitting marriage après la mort (after death) has been applied.  In February 2011, 35-year-old Christelle Demichel married her dead boyfriend, a policeman who had been killed by a drunk driver nine years earlier, in September 2002.