TOGETHER, the collective age of the bride and groom was nearly 200. But American World War II veteran Harold Terens and his sweetheart Jeanne Swerlin proved that love is eternal as they tied the knot near the D-Day beaches in Normandy, France.
Their respective ages – he is 100, she is a youngster of just 96 – made their nuptials on Saturday an almost double-century celebration.
Terens called it “the best day of my life”.
On her way into the nuptials, the bubbly bride-to-be said, “It’s not just for young people, love, you know? We get butterflies. And we get a little action, also”.
The location was the elegant stone-worked town hall of Carentan, a key initial D-Day objective that saw ferocious fighting after the June 6, 1944, Allied landings that helped defeat Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
Like other towns and villages across the Normandy coast where nearly 160,000 Allied troops came ashore under fire on five code-named beaches, it is an effervescent hub of remembrance and celebration on the 80th anniversary of that day, festooned with flags and bunting and with veterans feted like rockstars.
As the swing of Glenn Miller and other period tunes rang out on the streets, well-wishers – some in WWII-period clothes – were already lined up a good hour before the wedding, behind barriers outside the town hall, with a rousing pipe and drum band also on hand to serenade the happy couple.
After both declaring “oui” to vows read by Carentan’s mayor in English, the couple exchanged rings.
“With this ring, I thee wed,” Terens said.
She giggled and gasped, “Really?”
“To everybody’s good health. And to peace in the world and the preservation of democracy all over the world and the end of the war in Ukraine and Gaza,” Terens said as he and his bride then clinked glasses and drank.
The crowd yelled “la mariee!” – the bride! – to Swerlin, who wore a long flowing dress of vibrant pink. Terens looked dapper in a light blue suit and matching pink kerchief in his breast pocket.
