War is a terrible thing, and losing someone you love to war is an unspeakable heartbreak.
But what if that’s all you knew, that your loved one was “missing”?
For one woman, it took over 60 years to finally learn what had happened to her newlywed husband on June 6th of 1944.
Peggy and Lt. Billie Harris were married a mere 6 weeks before Billie shipped out to act as a fighter pilot over Nazi-occupied Northern France.
It was during D-Day, June 6th, 1944, that the world lost track of Lt. Harris.
Peggy received multiple reports about what happened to Billie, all of them different.
The first report said he was missing in action, then that he was alive and would be home soon, then she got a report that he, in fact, was not alive and had been buried in a certain cemetery.
Even after that, however, Peggy got more letters about her husbands status; one said that perhaps he was actually buried in a different cemetery, the final letter said they could not be sure the remains were Billie’s and that he was now being reclassified as missing in action.
After all that, Peggy waited on the next bit of news, but none came.
For 60 years she waited to find out what had happened to her husband.
She never moved on from the love of her life, “Billie was married to me all of his life,” she told CBS News, “and I choose to be married to him all of my life.”
In 2005, she reached out to her congressman, who was also the vice-chairmen of the House Armed Services Committee, and asked him to look into it.
She received a letter back saying that the records still showed him as missing in action; that was not, however, the case.
Billie’s cousin decided to do some digging himself and learned almost immediately that Billie had in fact been killed in action on that fateful day in June, and his remains were buried in the soldiers’ cemetery in Normandy, France.
As it turns out, Billie’s plane was shot down and he was injured, but he still managed to navigate his plane to avoid the local village before he crashed.
The people of that village recognized what Billie did and have honored his memory ever since, they even renamed the main street in their town to “Place Billie D. Harris”.
His grave is also well tended by the local people, along with the 10 bouquets of flowers that Peggy sends every year to honor special moments in their lives together, from birthdays to anniversaries.
Although she hasn’t seen her husband in decades – her love for him has never faded.
Peggy is also known as the only remaining widow who still goes and visits her husband’s grave – she makes the trip to Normandy once a year.
During one visit, she was able to meet one of Billie’s fellow soldiers, Guy, who was able to tell her about exactly what happened to her husband.
“If only I was able to help.” Guy said, reaching for Peggy’s hands. “You did.” Peggy replied, pulling the man close and hugging him tightly.
Watch the unbelievable story unfold in the video below!
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