A 97-Year-Old Veteran Reconnects With The Girl He Fell In Love With In 1944


Army veteran K.T. Robbins is 97-years-old and once served in northeastern France during World War II. He was only 24-years-old when he met a young French woman named Jeannine Ganaye and the pair fell in love. When Robbins was transferred to fight on the Eastern Front, he and Ganaye had to part ways, only getting the chance to say a quick goodbye. The did not know then that they would not see one another again for 75 years, according to Today.

Eventually, the war ended and Robbins returned home to America. He married a different woman and although he still thought about Ganaye from time to time, he came to accept the fact that he’d most likely never see her again. All the while though, he never got rid of a tattered black-and-white picture of an 18-year-old Ganaye.

Meanwhile, Ganaye moved on with her own life but still thought about the lost love she’d encountered when she was young. Per Today, she is now Jeannine Pierson, and now 92-years-old and living in a retirement home in France. She was married in 1949 and had five children, though as noted, her husband has already passed away.

Meanwhile, Robbins’ wife Lillian passed away in 2015. They were married for 70 years.

With a little help from a French television station, Pierson and Robbins were reunited after 75 years apart. The meeting between the two long-lost lovers was arranged in honor of the anniversary of D-Day. It was on D-Day that allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy.

While Robbins speaks English and Pierson speaks French, their connection was as powerful as ever. While Pierson couldn’t understand every word Robbins said, she understands the important part.

“I always loved you. You never got out of my heart,” he told her.

“He said he loves me. I understood that much,” she told reporters after the pair had reunited.

Pierson recalls her devastation when Robbins got on the truck to take him to his next assignment. She cried, not knowing when they would see one another again and if they ever would. Once she got married, she knew she couldn’t think about him anymore. But even now, she says she wishes he’d never returned to America.

“When he left in the truck I cried, of course, I was very sad. I wish, after the war, he hadn’t returned to America.”I’ve always thought of him, thinking maybe he’ll come. I wish he had come back.”

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