Virgilia Hess boarded an overnight flight to Reunion on August 6, 2025, with her daughter Lena-Rose, her dog, and years of accumulated belongings shipped ahead in a container. One year on, she has settled into a life she promised herself during chemotherapy.
The promise took shape inside Institut Curie in Paris, where images hung in the treatment rooms: a massive sea turtle suspended in ocean, a beach landscape with palm trees. Those images became anchors during the hardest months. If she survived, she told herself, she would leave the capital and move to the Indian Ocean island. Cancer had sharpened her sense of time’s fragility. Retirement felt too distant to wait for, and the professionally rewarding life she had built in Paris no longer fit who she wanted to become.
Safety concerns for Lena-Rose added weight to the decision. Hess, who is Jewish, worried about rising antisemitism in metropolitan France and wanted her daughter to grow up somewhere different. The considerations converged into a single departure date.
The arrival required what she describes as military precision. Her parents had traveled to Reunion ahead of time to help manage the transition. Despite the exhaustion of an eleven-hour flight, Hess felt immediate relief. She knew she would wake up surrounded by nature.
What holds her there now is not only the landscape, though she describes the ocean, mountains, and light as sources of constant wonder. The pace of life itself has changed. Reunion’s philosophy of vivre-ensemble, living together, emphasizes slowing down, noticing small moments, and finding contentment in simplicity. She walks far more than she did in the Parisian region, spends time with Reunion-born friends, and eats local cuisine more often than she prepares it herself. Most mornings, she steps onto her terrace to watch the Indian Ocean and feel the sun without the bite of cold. After a year, she still finds that unremarkable moment extraordinary.
Her daughter is thriving. Lena-Rose, who was two years old when they arrived, spends time outdoors exploring nature, the sea, and animals. She has already seen the volcano and waterfalls. Hess imagines future hikes and outdoor adventures as ways to pass along a love of exploration. More than the scenery, her daughter is growing up in a place where cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity is woven into daily life.
Professionally, Hess has begun a new chapter. She left her permanent position at BFMTV to become a weather presenter and journalist for Antenne Reunion, delivering forecasts on the 1 p.m. news Monday through Friday. Reunion’s weather patterns differ markedly from those in mainland France, and she is learning to narrate meteorology in new ways while engaging with climate issues that matter to the station. Next month, she will participate in special programming called Nout ter ansanm, which highlights ecological initiatives during Sustainable Development Week. A new program is also in development, though details remain confidential.
Meanwhile, her medical journey continues. Hess underwent a double mastectomy and experienced complications requiring ongoing care. Control examinations in July, conducted during a return to France, proved reassuring. She remains in remission and undergoes monitoring every six months for several more years, then annually for life. She had begun a five-year hormone therapy regimen but paused it months ago due to difficulty tolerating the treatment. A fourth breast reconstruction surgery is scheduled for mid-September to improve aesthetic outcomes.
Living in Reunion has accelerated her personal reconstruction. Cancer changed her fundamentally, sharpening her awareness of life’s fragility and value. She no longer postpones what can be done today. The move itself became part of healing, a declaration that life could resume after illness.
To women facing similar battles, Hess offers a direct perspective: treatment is brutal, but hope matters. Once you survive, do not wait for the perfect moment to pursue what you want. Travel, meet people, work on projects that excite you, spend time with your children. Do not hesitate. After such an ordeal, she says, everything becomes possible.
The question she has not yet answered is what the new program at Antenne Reunion will look like when it finally goes public.