100-year-old World War II veteran Harold Terrence will marry his 96-year-old fiancée on Saturday in the French town of Carentan-les-Marais, just days after he was honored on the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings that took place just kilometres away.

Sarah Pasquier, the town hall’s representative for the D-Day commemorations, said Terence’s wedding to Jean Swerlin at 11am (0900 GMT) would be followed by a celebration “with his loved ones, in a small group”.

“We are very proud that Mr Terence has decided to get married here in Carentan, where the Allied troops who landed on Utah and Omaha beaches met in June 1944,” Mayor Jean-Pierre Lhonneur told AFP.

“We will give them champagne and a gift to thank them for their part in the liberation of France.”

According to Pasquier, after the ceremony, “depending on possible fatigue”, Terence may join the veterans’ parade in the centre of Carentan at noon.

He added that as part of the D-Day commemorations, a liberation ceremony will also be held in the evening, with attendees “invited to dress in a 1940s theme, and welcome troops from the nearby US base.”

he said, “but Mr. Terence and his wife will probably be too tired to attend.”

Terrence, who lives with Swerlin in Boca Raton, Florida, was awarded the French Legion of Honor by President Emmanuel Macron in 2019.

After the war, Terence married his first wife, Thelma, with whom he spent 70 years and raised three children until her death in 2018.

In 2021, a friend introduced him to Swerlin, a charismatic woman who was also a widow, and the two have been practically inseparable since then.

“She brightens up my life, she makes everything beautiful,” Terrence said in an interview with AFP in Florida last month. “She makes life worth living.”

In the same interview, Swerlin said her fiancé is “an incredible person.”

“He’s handsome – and he kisses well, too.”