Harold Terens, a 100-year-old World War II veteran, and Jeanne Swerlin, his 96-year-old sweetheart, tied the knot at the town hall of Carentan, France, on Saturday, near the D-Day beaches of Normandy. The ceremony took place just two days after the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
The couple, who have been dating since 2021, are both widowed and are natives of New York City, Terens from the Bronx and Swerlin from Brooklyn.
Onlookers, some wearing WWII-era clothing, gathered at the town hall an hour before the wedding to wish the couple well on their big day.
A pipe and drum band provided sweet serenades. Although Carentan’s mayor, Jean-Pierre Lhonneur, read their vows in English, the couple still said “Oui” instead of “I do,” meaning “Yes” in French.
Lhonneur’s office stated that the wedding was not legally binding. Still, it was a symbolic ceremony since he could not wed foreigners who were not residents of Carentan, and the couple did not ask for legally binding vows.
After the celebration, Terens proposed a toast to the crowd gathered outside, wishing for good health, peace in the world, the preservation of democracy worldwide, and the end of the war in Ukraine and Gaza.
On Saturday night, the newlyweds were guests of honor at a dinner at the Elysee Palace in Paris, home to France’s President Emmanuel Macron. Macron and President Joe Biden were also in attendance.
Terens enlisted in 1942 and served as a radio repair technician for a four-pilot P-47 Thunderbolt fighter squadron. All of his original pilots died in the war. On D-Day, he aided in repairing planes coming back from France and said half his company’s pilots died that day.
The D-Day landings, which occurred on June 6, 1944, ended the war. More than 150,000 Allied troops invaded five Nazi Germany-occupied beaches in Normandy. D-Day was the largest naval, air, and land invasion in history, claiming the lives of 4,000 Allied soldiers.
The couple’s wedding was a heartwarming celebration of love and life, proving that age is just a number for finding true love.
