TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/830943
After the war, a monument was erected across the street, and a ceremony is held by the town each year on D-Day. Bob often at- tended until his death in 2013. Ken died two years later, in 2015. Lucienne died from her wounds on June 7 or 8, 1944 and is buried in the cemetery. Almost 73 years later, Genevieve still lives in the house in front of the church. At the end of his talk, Guillaume takes us out back behind the church. He says that in 2014, Bob's son attended the ceremo- ny, and told officials he had brought them something: his father. He points to a simple gravestone with the initials R.E.W. The im- pact of what happened here was so power- ful to Wright that it was his wish to be bur- ied here, in this small corner of Normandy, 70 years after the events that shaped his life had transpired. I stand and look at the gravestone, and the church, and the peace- ful field of grazing sheep that now stands alongside it, and fight back tears. My father was never able to go back to the area in which he served, and so I was somewhat surprised to hear Guillaume talk about so many who had. Recently, a veteran from the 1st U.S. Infantry signed up for Guil- laume's tour, and told him, simply, "I once spent five hours in your country." Omaha Beach is seven miles wide, and all the veteran knew was that those five hours had been spent somewhere behind two con- crete blocks on the beach. He landed early on D-Day, was shot three times but help was unable to reach him until exits from the beach were established, and the Ger-