Fiancée who lost husband-to-be in London Bridge terror attack finds love again with hero of IS massacre in Paris
A FIANCÉE who saw her husband-to-be murdered in the London Bridge attack has found love again — with a hero of an IS massacre in Paris.
Scarred Christine Delcros and Sebastien Besatti met via an online survivors group, moved in together before March’s lockdown and say: “We are united proof that terror never wins.”
Sebastien, 39, saved a pregnant woman from death when three suicide bombers stormed the Bataclan Theatre and killed 89 in November 2015.
In June 2017, Christine’s partner Xavier Thomas died after he was hit by the terrorists’ van and thrown into the Thames.
Christine, 47, was badly injured and left “trapped in hell”.
But she slowly recovered with Sebastien’s help.
She said: “A few days before we started messaging I called for the angel of Xavier, begging for a miracle because I thought I’d die of grief. Sebastien was sent to me like a saviour.”
Sebastien added: “It is crazy to find happiness out of such darkness. Fate has brought us together. We’re so much stronger together.”
Sebastien, then a journalist, was watching rockers Eagles of Death Metal when jihadis attacked the venue. He fled upstairs and found a woman, Charlotte, clinging to the window and screaming: “Help me, I’m pregnant.”
He clung to a vent to pull her inside — an image that was seen around the world.
Gunmen took him hostage for two and a half hours and he recalled: “They pushed a Kalashnikov against my leg and screamed at me to do what they wanted.
“They made us watch as they shot at people trying to escape. They laughed as they did. I was severely marked by that night.”
TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCES
Sebastien quit his job, split from his girlfriend and fought PTSD.
He added: “I was lower than rock bottom. I could not see a way to move on.”
Bizarrely, Christine had a premonition about a terror attack on her and Xavier’s tragic trip.
As they crossed London Bridge on their way to cocktails in The Shard, a van mounted the pavement and knocked 45-year-old Xavier into the Thames.
His body was found three days later.
Devastated Christine struggled to walk and battled depression.
She sought help from other victims in the Life for Paris support group, also used by her fellow French national Sebastien.
Christine said: “Our traumatic experiences allowed us to understand each other like no one else, and to forgive ourselves when flashbacks haunt us.”
In March, Sebastien invited her to meet in person at Les Deux Alpes where he was working to build a fresh start.
Christine added: “My heart was pounding hard. Then, as I walked into the bar where he was waiting, our eyes finally met as he played Aerosmith’s I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing he’d put on to welcome me. It was so intense when he hugged me hard, as if the life in me had sprung again. I cry when I think back to it.”
Sebastien added: “We met again on the Sunday and decided to spend lockdown together and moved to her apartment in Paris.”
Christine added: “We are the proof that having been left for dead — a slow, personal and gnawing death from the inside — love and joy can spill over and put the most beautiful smiles back on our faces.”
Both return to London Bridge and the Bataclan to mark the attacks each year but Covid lockdowns have prevented them doing so together.
Sebastien, now a lawyer’s assistant, added: “Returning is part of moving on with life. We cannot be afraid. We are only affected if we let things torment us and only understood it after being there.”
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When France’s lockdown eased the couple travelled 25,000 miles across the country — surfing, hiking, swimming in the sea and enjoying beach breaks.
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Sebastien said: “Christine accepts my past and my flaws and, in return, I’m accepting her extremely sensible nature.
“We are on the same road to recovery and there is no need to run away. I’m the luckiest man alive to have this second chance to live, learn and love.”
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