He may be 100, but Harold Terens still smooches like a teenager. It’s one of the many reasons his fiancee, Jeanne Swerlin, 96, is marrying him. “He’s such a good kisser,” Swerlin said.
The pair loves to snuggle, hold hands and make each other laugh. They are also excitedly getting ready for a historic wedding trip. Terens, a Lake Worth Beach resident, and Swerlin, of Boca Raton, will tie the knot on June 8 in France, the place where Terens faced some of the most formative experiences of his life as he helped the Allies fight the Nazis as a soldier during World War II.
Terens and other World War II vets are going to France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1944, when Allied forces landed on the Normandy coast to begin the liberation of Europe from Nazi terror. France will honor the former soldiers at several ceremonies this year, including a commemoration with President Joe Biden in Cherbourg on June 7. This 80th anniversary marks Terens’ fourth D-Day celebration in France.
There are not many veterans like him left: Only 119,550 of the 16.4 million Americans who served in World War II were alive as of 2023, according to the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. Terens, a native of the Bronx, did not land in France on D-Day but arrived 12 days later to help ferry captured German soldiers and freed American troops to England.
He became an expert in Morse code and participated in war missions in Iran, Ukraine and England before his service ended in 1945. He had .