Posted on 05/27/2008 8:09:38 AM PDT by BGHater
Eight years ago, a French couple founded an organization that adopts graves of American servicemen who died during the Normandy invasion of World War II. The volunteer group encourages French families to lay flowers on the graves when the Americans' own families can't do it.
High on a bluff above Omaha Beach, the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer is a place of stunning beauty and tranquility. Rising from thick, manicured grass, rows of white crosses and stars of David face westward, towards America.
It's hard to imagine that 64 years ago, war raged here. But there are the 10,000 graves to prove it.
Among them is the uncle of a North Carolina NPR listener, Jennie Malcolm. Walter Malcolm was killed near here, two month after D-Day. Last summer, while investigating her uncle's death, Jennie Malcolm came across the French volunteer organization, Les Fleurs de la Memoire, or Flowers of Memory.
Malcolm said she mustered up her best French and asked if flowers could be placed on her uncle's grave. Two months later she received a photo of his grave in the mail. "It was quite an emotional experience," she says.
Malcolm was particularly touched because her uncle's immediate family are all now dead, and no one had ever visited his grave. MarieTherese La Vieille, who founded the organization eight years ago with her husband, says its important that each soldier be remembered when their own families cant come anymore.
"When we joined, we promised to visit the grave once a year and to lay flowers on the grave," she says. "Sometimes people take flowers from their own gardens. And they say it is like a son, like a cousin, like a brother. It is a member of the family."
This year dozens of members of Les Fleurs de la Memoire have shown up at Colleville-sur-Mer for the annual Memorial Day ceremony, which begins with a flyover by U.S. fighter jets in the missing-man formation.
A French priest recites the Lord's Prayer, then a rabbi chants the Kadish. And a French military band plays the "Star-Spangled Banner."
But behind the grand ceremony, a simple tribute unfolds at the back of the cemetery. Jean Michel Miette, 50, kneels in front of the grave of Jennie's uncle, Pvt. 1st Class Walter C. Malcolm. Miette is the one who adopted Malcolm's grave and he has come from Paris this morning to honor him.
Miette, like Jennie Malcolm, discovered Les Fleurs de la Memoire last summer. He says the organization has enabled him to honor the American soldiers who sacrificed their lives for his country and for liberty.
"With enormous emotion in my heart, I want to say thank you, Walter," Miette says. "I will never forget you or your heroic compatriots."
Since Les Fleurs de la Memoire brought them together, Jean Michel and Jennie Malcolm now speak regularly on the phone. She says she feels her uncle finally has family to visit his grave.
bump
until the muslims take over...
The French take a lot of abuse on the pages of FR. One should remember stories like this before hitting the [POST] button.
I pick on the French regularly. I would never pick on these Frenchmen, however. God bless them!
Why is my screen all blurry right now?
Great post, thank you. Vive Les Fleurs de la Memoire!
Merci beaucoup Les Fleurs de la Memoire
*sniff*
Some still remember.
Merci beaucoup Les Fleurs de la Memoire
I was in a post office line, and standing behind me was a very dapper older gentleman that realized that I was an American. (He helped me figure out what French money I needed to have for postage). Then he said to me:
"Forty years ago today, you're young men stormed the beaches of Normandy and saved France from the Nazi's. I want to personally say thank you to the USA!"
He then tipped his hat and walked away. I confess to standing there with tears in my eyes, I was so touched.
I have heard that outside Paris, the average Frenchman has a good attitude toward Americans. Particularly in Normandy. Go to some photo archives and take a look at photographs taken in late summer 1944 of places like Bayeux, St. Lo, and Caen. They were heaps of rubble, destroyed in large part by allied bombs and artillery as we wrested them from the Germans. You’d think they’d hate us for destroying their homes, businesses and churches. Having lived under Nazi occupation, they know the love of freedom transcends material possessions.
Agreed. From time to time I come down on the French, but there are definately a lot of solid people there. This is a very touching story.
I appreciate this group of Frenchmen. God Bless them. If you have never been to this cemetary, I highly recommend it. It is very solemn, and yet, beautiful.
So many of our fallen heroes lie in rest without their names
engraved on the cross. Hopefully, they are remembered by their families, we know they are “Known by God.”
Yup. Then they will have a mosque built on them.
A friend of mine (she’s Canadian) serviceman father crashed somewhere in France during the war and was held prisoner.....they found pieces of the plane in recent years, and I think made a “shrine” to it or something....she went back with her brother and some family a year ago....they were treated like ROYALTY.....Like the US (think Wash DC) France has it’s idiots....but in the countryside (think IOWA)....they are genuine, wonderful people.
But these are the French people one rarely ever hears about.
Imagine living in a country where Democrats rule forever, the only reason to have an election is to decide who gets to hold the whip for a while.
That’s France. Most French don’t like it any more than you would, but after two Monarchies, five Republics and three Empires they’ve pretty much given up on revolutions.
And don’t forget the French underground. They proved their honor and courage before, during, and after the Normandy invasion.
BTTT
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