CAEN: Hundred-year-old World War II veteran Harold Terens will marry his 96-year-old fiancée, Jeanne Swerlin, on Saturday in the French town of Carentan-les-Marais, just days after Terens was honoured on the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings that occurred a few kilometres away.
The wedding ceremony will take place at 0900 GMT and will be followed by a small celebration with loved ones, according to Sarah Pasquier, the town hall’s representative for D-Day commemorations.
“We are very honored that Mr. Terens has chosen to get married here, in Carentan, where the meeting of Allied troops from the Utah and Omaha beach landings occurred in June 1944,” Mayor Jean-Pierre Lhonneur told international media. He further stated, “We will thank him for taking part in the liberation of France.”
Following the ceremony, Terens may join a veterans’ parade in Carentan’s center in the afternoon, depending on his fatigue, Pasquier added.
Furthermore, a liberation ball will be held in the evening as part of the D-Day commemorations, with attendees encouraged to dress in 1940s attire, and soldiers from the nearby American base are welcome. However, Pasquier noted that Terens and his wife might be too tired to attend.
Terens, who resides with Swerlin in Boca Raton, Florida, was awarded the French Legion of Honour by President Emmanuel Macron in 2019. After the war, Terens married his first wife, Thelma, and spent 70 years raising three children with her until her death in 2018.
In 2021, Terens was introduced to Swerlin, a charismatic widow, by a friend. The couple has been inseparable since then. “She lights up my life; she makes everything beautiful,” Terens told international media in a recent interview in Florida. Swerlin added, “He’s an unbelievable guy. He’s handsome.”
