Handy’s father, Marcel, turns 98 today. We celebrated his birthday yesterday; five of Handy’s six siblings were there. (His youngest brother lives in California and couldn’t make it.)
Marcel was born just after the first world war ended, he joined the army in 1943, and landed at Omaha beach two days after the initial assault.
He got home from Europe on November 12, 1945 and got married 12 days later. The rest? Family history.
Many happy returns of the day, Marcel!
Julie-Ann Baumer 
When we were born WWII was not even two full decades behind us, and it was far gone even then. Now the boys sent to slaughter are in their nineties. It is ancient history to all but a few.
Congratulations on your 98th birthday!
I was thinking about this post and your comment today while reading an article about The Fourth Turning. Jim Quinn wrote on The Burning Platform: “As the Greatest Generation departs this earth, there are few left who lived through the last Fourth Turning. That’s why the living generations are always surprised when another predictable crisis arrives. We never seem to learn the lessons of history.”
How true. Just think of what we know and remember compared to the average teenager, and then think of how much we thought we knew as teenagers. It’s a cold reminder of why the study of history is truly the only human study.