100-Year-Old 'D-Day' Veteran Marries 96-Year-Old Bride: "For the End of War"

Mr. Terence, Normandy Landing Operation Veteran
Wedding Toast: "World Peace and the End of War"

A 100-year-old American veteran of the Normandy landings, who turned 100 this year, married a 96-year-old French woman on the Normandy beach.

On the 8th (local time), the AP news agency reported that the 100-year-old groom, Harold Terence, and the 96-year-old bride, Jeanne Swellin, exchanged vows and rings in Carentan-les-Marais, Normandy.

Terence participated in the Normandy landings as a member of the U.S. Air Force during World War II when he was 20 years old. The Normandy landings, commonly known as "D-Day," were the largest amphibious invasion in human history, carried out by the Allied forces landing in northern France on June 6, 1944. It was also the first operation that laid the foundation for the Allies to reclaim Europe.

Carentan-les-Marais, where Terence and Swellin were married, was a site of fierce battles at the time. Terence said on his way in, "The best day of my life."

On the 8th (local time), Harold Terence and Jeanne Swellin, who got married on the Normandy beach in northern France
[Photo by Yonhap News]

After the war ended, Terence helped transport Allied prisoners to Britain and returned to the United States a month later. He married in 1948, had two daughters and a son, lived an ordinary working life, and lost his wife in 2018. Swellin married at 21, was widowed at 40, remarried twice, but both husbands passed away before her.

Terence and Swellin first met in 2021, arranged by Swellin’s daughter, and soon fell in love. Swellin said, "Falling in love is not just for young people."

However, since Terence, an American, held the wedding in a French village, the ceremony has no legal effect, so they must return to Florida to complete the marriage procedures, AP reported.

In this village and throughout Normandy, the atmosphere continues to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the landings. Veterans are welcomed like rock stars, and many crowds gathered in front of the venue that day, cheering.

Raising a champagne glass, Terence toasted, "To everyone’s health, world peace, the defense of democracy, and the end of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza." They were also invited to the state dinner hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron at the ?lys?e Palace, welcoming U.S. President Joe Biden that evening.