A la recherche du pere perdu

23/06/2009

 I wonder if anyone reading this can help me? During 1944-1945, my grandmother was a cleaning lady, working for Madam Marie-Louise Clerget, at Luc-sur-Mer. My grandmother’s name was Christiane Thouan (pictured left) .

 

She met an English-speaking soldier after the D-Day. She was young (almost 20) and did not speak English. However, they had a great time, and love was here.

 

She remembers that his name sounded like ‘Kelly’. But we do not know if it is a first or last name. He seems to be an engineer. He wasn’t tall, and had brown hair and was around 20 years old too. My grandmother became pregnant during December 1944. She chose to vanish, instead of informing ‘Kelly’. My grandmother went to public assistance in Caen. We know that ‘Kelly’ tried to find her in this location. My mother was born in Benouville Castle (which was a maternity hospital during the war) on 11th of August 1945.

 

We know that Luc-sur-Mer was the beaches dedicated to British and Canadian forces (Sword Beach). But unfortunately, most of the information that you can find about the army units are about fighting and heroic actions – and nothing about the units that stayed on during the months after D-Day to organise logistics.

 

We do not know why my grandmother chose to hide all these things from my mother. I guess that she felt guilty, but at least what she has chosen to share it with us after 60 years. I hope that this letter can catch the memory of a veteran. We hope to find names of English soldiers that stay on the place of Luc-sur-Mer after D-Day. Or at least references of units. I hope someone can help!

 

Stéphane Thabouret
10, Rue de la Grande Rotonnière
69520 Grigny
France