A little story, a part of a great story…. in The odd entries from life …….

June is here and so is the rain, sitting in side with the stereo or the television tuned off all we can hear is the rain out side; and out side is the best place for it! Perhaps the weather as caught the D-Day 70’th anniversary, back then it was the weather that pushed D-Day back to the 6th of June while that huge army was all ready to go on the 5th.

The BBC have programs about D-Day all this week, and on Friday the 6th D-Day programming will run through the day. It was the same twenty years ago, the story of the day relayed via a series of news programmes as if it were June 1944; then I recall talking with Dad and Par-in-law.

I watch a programme on Monday, a woman and her daughter talking about their husband – father who was there that morning. He had never talked about D-Day and had never retuned to Normandy, they had asked if he wanted to back, after a moments thought he said ‘yes’

They arrived on 5th, and visited the beach he landed on, but it didn’t see where he landed, they retuned to the coach and went a little further, a road was closed and the coach had to stop at the end of the beach. The old man walked on to the beach and smiled, this was the spot and that distant day came back to him.

The old solders and their families were invited to lunch with Prince Charles, back at the hotel he said he would have a early night, time to shower and then he would polish his medals; all to be ready for the 6th of June. His daughter took him up a hot drink before bed, the old solder was on his bed; he didn’t see the D-day again he had died that night.

Looking back they said he had have a good day, that night had been very difficult, but his joy at being there again and finding that place he wadded out of the sea on the a beach in Normandy, he had been a special day for him; Listening to this story, a small part of the D-Day story, and his having his last day there once more brought a tear to my eye ….