A 100-year-old American World War II veteran plans to marry his 96-year-old fiancee in France as part of that country's 80th anniversary celebration of D-Day. Harold Terens and Jeanne Swerlin of Boca Raton, Florida, have dated since 2021 and enjoy dancing, kissing and holding hands.
Harold Terens and his fiancee Jeanne Swerlin kissed and held hands like high school sweethearts as they discussed their upcoming wedding in France — a country the World War II veteran first visited as a 20-year-old U.S. Army Air Forces corporal shortly after D-Day. World War II veteran Harold Terens, 100, right, and Jeanne Swerlin, 96, share a laugh as they speak during an interview, Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, in Boca Raton, Fla.
The couple, who are each widowed, grew up in New York City: her in Brooklyn, him in the Bronx. They laugh at how differently they experienced World War II. She was in high school and dated soldiers who gave her war souvenirs like dog tags, knives and even a gun, trying to impress.
Terens soon contracted dysentery, which almost killed him. In another close call, a British barkeep refused to serve him past the mandatory closing time despite his pleadings for just one more drink. Moments after he was kicked out, a German rocket destroyed the pub. Swerlin married at 21 and was a full-time mom to two girls and a boy before being widowed in her 40s. Her second husband died after 18 years of marriage. She then lived with Sol Katz for 25 years before his death in 2019. She has seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.She met Terens when her children attended camp with his grandchildren years ago and remained friends. She and a friend thought the two might hit it off, so invited them to lunch.
After that date, Swerlin said, Terens “didn’t give me a chance” to turn him down. At 94, she also was in love.
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