The Girl who Vanished
“Madame, I have four daughters and I find no money to feed them, not even myself and my mistress”, an old man in his weak voice said. “Do not make your mind heavy, I shall give you some fine amount and employment to all your daughters. Aren’t they all a blessing”, said the very powerful aristocratic woman Madame Louis Monnier, in her kindest voice.
Louis Monnier was a widow, living in her late fifties. She had set a small gathering at her home, when all the guests came, she called for her daughter Blanche Monnier, who made every other Dukes and members of the aristocracy in the room go crazy for her right away. If beauty had a real definition it would be Madame Blanche Monnier. Louis Monnier wanted the best for her daughter. She was pushing Blanche to speak up to the gentlemen and to soon find a suitor. “This is my daughter Blanche Monnier, my daughter is one reason I am getting stronger everyday”, she praised her daughter in every possible way, in every possible ceremony.
No one could get into Blanche’s heart, she loved someone. She had devoted all of herself to a handsome lawyer. One day, when young Blanche was walking by the garden, he appeared all out of sudden. They were holding hands, enjoying the warm breeze immersed in love in every possible way.
Louis Monnier’s eyes filled with rage. She said “I want you to end whatever you have with that man out there.” Blanche remained silent.
“Do you know the shame you will bring into the Monnier family? An old penniless lawyer? Is he in any way smarter than your brother Marcel? I am not doing charity inside my home!”
To which Blanche replied, “He is my suitor”.
Blanche then just vanished. Nobody in France saw her. The Monnier family mourned her death, behind the tears, they were keeping a horrific secret. Madame Louis Monnier had locked up Blanche in the attic. She covered the windows, so that Blanche would never see another person, not even sunlight. Blanche was isolated from the whole world. She was tied up to the bed and was never allowed to get off the bed in her room. Blanche had no other way but to lay in bed, eat, urinate, and defecate. The food she got was the scraps of food waste, after her mother, brother and the servants ate. And when she was not given any food, she started eating her own excreta, and drinking urine. Her mother decided to keep her daughter there until her mind changes and forgets the lawyer.
Years passed by, but Blanche stayed firm in her decision. And one day, her servant came near her door, “ Miss Monnier, your lover is dead. Madame wants to ask you, If you are ready for another suitor now?”. To which Blanche firmly said, “No”. Blanche continued to stay in the darkroom, with heaps of faeces, urine and bugs. She was never forgiven. No one helped her, not even her brother nor her servants. She lived in these pathetic circumstances for 25 years, without even getting some air to breathe.
“Sir we have a mysterious letter here against the Monnier family”. A letter came after twenty-five years, into the Attorney General’s office stating this,
“Monsieur Attorney General: I have the honor to inform you of an exceptionally serious occurrence. I speak of a spinster who is locked up in Madame Monnier’s house, half starved, and living on a putrid litter for the past twenty-five years — in a word, in her own filth”.
The letter was unsigned.
The Attorney General was first reluctant to doubt the Monnier family and their reputation. Especially Madame Monnier, who runs charity missions all across France. But somehow he makes up his mind and goes for an investigation. The house was all empty and no such malicious acts described in the letter were found and they were about to leave. But suddenly they noticed a rotting smell, from above the stairs. They opened the attic’s door and a horrific smell plunged into their noses. And what they saw was described this way:
“The woman looked extremely malnourished whilst lying completely naked on a rotten mattress. All around her formed a crust made from excrement and fragments of food… We also saw bugs running across Mademoiselle Monnier’s bed. The air inside the room was so unbearable, it was impossible for us to proceed with our investigation any longer.”
The room was covered in darkness and when the officials tore off the window covers, Blanche could not open her eyes for nearly an hour. For the first time in twenty-five years, sunlight touched her skin. Blanche nearly forgot how to talk, how to stand on her legs and nearly everything. She was malnourished and weighed nearly 20kg at the time of rescue.
Madame Louise Monnier was arrested at the age of 75, but she died a fifteen days after the trials.
Blanche has once asked, “ Is air so wonderful?”, smiling widely at her caretaker in the hospital. She had to live the rest of her life under several physical and mental health treatments, and died a few years later.
Love,
Dona
