He Was 100 and She Was 96. The World War II Veteran Married His Sweetheart Near the D-Day Beaches, and France Cheered

In 1944, Harold Terens was a 20-year-old corporal in the U.S. Army Air Forces.

On D-Day he was in England, working as a radio repair technician for a squadron of P-47 Thunderbolt fighter planes. Days later, he went to Normandy himself, helping bring freed American prisoners of war back to England.

He came home, married, and spent 70 years with his first wife until she died in 2018. He thought that part of his life was over.

Then, in 2021, he was set up on a blind date with Jeanne Swerlin. Like him, she was widowed, and like him, she grew up in New York City. He was smitten almost instantly.

On June 8, 2024, two days after the 80th anniversary of D-Day, they married at the town hall of Carentan-les-Marais, a Normandy town that saw fierce fighting after the landings. He was 100. She was 96.

Bagpipers played them in. The bride, dressed in pink, entered to Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.” The mayor read the vows, and both answered with a happy “Oui!”

“It’s the best day of my life,” Harold said.

Jeanne had a message for anyone who thinks romance has an age limit. “It’s not just for young people, love, you know? We get butterflies.”

That evening, the newlyweds were guests at a state dinner at the Élysée Palace in Paris. President Emmanuel Macron congratulated them in his toast, and the room rose in a standing ovation led by President Joe Biden.

In February 2026, the couple, now 102 and 98, told the New York Post they still feel like teenagers. Their advice for everyone else: “Never give up.”

This Veterans Day, here is a man from the Greatest Generation reminding us that it is never too late.