Harold Terens was part of the supply team in Ukraine. (File)
Boca Raton:
Americans Harold Terens and Jeanne Swerlin promise that their courtship is “better than Romeo and Juliet”: he is 100, she is 96, and they will marry next month in France, where the groom-to-be served during World War II.
Terens, a U.S. Air Force veteran, will be honored June 6 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Normandy landings, the historic Allied operation that changed the course of the war.
Two days later, Harold and Jeanne will make their vows in Carentan-les-Marais, close to the beaches where thousands of soldiers waded ashore – and many died – that day in 1944. The mayor of the city will preside over the ceremony.
“It is a love story like you have never heard before,” Terens assures AFP.
During an interview at Swerlin's home in Boca Raton, Florida, they exchange glances, hold hands and hug like teenagers.
“He's an incredible guy, I love everything about him,” Swerlin says of her fiancé. “He's handsome, and he's a good kisser.”
The youthful centenarian is also cheerful, witty and gifted with a prodigious and vivid memory, which recalls dates, locations and events without hesitation – a kind of living history book.
Shortly after Terens turned 18, Japan bombed the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. He, like many young American men, was eager to enlist.
By age 20, he was an expert in Morse code and boarded a ship bound for England, where he was assigned to a squadron of four P-47 Thunderbolt fighters. Terens was responsible for their ground-air communications.
“We lost the war by losing a lot of planes and a lot of pilots… These pilots became friends and they were killed,” he laments. “They were all young kids.”
His company lost half of its 60 aircraft during the Normandy operation. Shortly afterwards, Terens volunteered to travel to that region of northern France to help transport German prisoners of war and liberate Allied forces to England.
– Secret mission –
One day Terens received an envelope with instructions not to open it until he had reached a certain destination. Thus began a remarkable journey that took him via Casablanca, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Cairo, Baghdad and Tehran to Soviet Ukraine.
When he finally arrived in Poltava, a city east of Kiev, a Russian officer told him he was part of a secret mission. American B-17 planes took off from England bound for Romania, where they would bomb Ax oil fields under Nazi Germany.
Terens was part of the supply team in Ukraine that provided the Flying Fortresses with fuel and ammunition.
The operation lasted 24 hours until the Germans discovered and attacked the Allied base in Ukraine.
Terens says he escaped but was left in no man's land. He contracted dysentery and only survived thanks to the help of a local farming family.
When he returned to England, he cheated death again. When a cafe owner refused to serve him a drink because she was about to close, he shrugged his shoulders and left. He had barely walked two blocks when a German rocket destroyed the establishment.
'Happiest man in the world'
After the war, he returned to the United States and married Thelma, his wife of 70 years, with whom he raised three children.
Terens worked for a British multinational and when he and Thelma retired, they settled in Florida.
Her death in 2018 devastated Terens, and he had to spend “three years feeling sorry for myself and mourning my wife,” he recalls.
But life offered him a new start. In 2021, a friend introduced him to Jeanne Swerlin, a charismatic woman who was also a widow.
Sparks didn't fly. At their first meeting, Terens could barely look at Swerlin.
But perseverance was rewarded. A second date changed everything, and they haven't been apart since.
“She lights up my life, she makes everything beautiful,” he says. “She makes life worth living.”
Terens, who wears a World War II-era cap with the inscription '100 Year Old Vet' on the side, is thrilled about his return to France, where President Emmanuel Macron presented him with the country's highest award, the 2019 Legion of Honor, awarded.
Of course he is also very happy about getting married. Surrounded by family and friends, December lovebirds Jeanne and Harold will say “I do” during a ceremony in which a granddaughter of Terens will sing “I Will Always Love You” while a great-granddaughter scatters flower petals on the ground.
At age 100, this decorated military veteran acknowledges his good fortune.
“I have it all,” he says. “I'm probably the luckiest guy in the world.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
