This is the the almost precise spot from which, 80 years ago, my father took the photo of the blander, more family peeking over this wall.

And he took that photo and placed it in his photo album and inscribed beneath it the blander, more family.

Our neighbors at Mayhew.

And this is the photo that I found and wondered, was curious about and so sought out Mayhew and the bland more family.

And from that led to these wonderful new relationships forming.

My grandfather was stationed in France during World War two, and while he was there he took a good amount of photos.

He was a photographer for the Army, but he had a camera with him, and one of them happened to be a photo of a family.

They were leaning over a wall and kind of their heads poking out to look at the soldiers.

And my grandmother written down the name of the family and the location that the photo was taken.

A few years ago, my father found that photo and looking through some of my grandfather's old memorabilia, and he decided that he really wanted to see if he could find this family.

This all began on the 75th anniversary of D-Day, when I decided to take the day off and honor my father, my going to his scrapbook from World War Two, and digitizing the photos so that my siblings and I could have them all.

There's a second scrapbook that my brother has, but most of the pictures in the latter part of the scrapbook are of hospital wards, because dad was in the medical section, and that was his logistical role to set up the forward field hospitals and ensure that they had the right supplies and, staffing.

But in the early portion of the book, it's when they are at Peever Hall, when Wales staging for the war for the Third Army and then when they get over to Normandy.

So I was just taking pictures with my phone and came across, you know, here's a picture of Captain Avery in the barracks at Knutsford, England.

And here's a swan and here's a, picture of Captain Hood riding a bike.

And so that puts a caption under each of these photos.

And as I move through these pages, I got to the portion on Normandy.

And literally the first photo in the Normandy section is this picture at the top right hand corner of, French family looking over a stone wall and dad's caption reads, the land of your family, our neighbors at Mayhew, Normandy.

And that just immediately struck me because all the other pictures are of fellow soldiers colleagues.

And I just wondered about what drew dad to take this picture when this picture was taken, where they who was, why they were in Mayhew and then began to do the research.

So he got in contact with me.

I've been living in French speaking countries for three years and asked if I would translate a letter to this family, he found the location or the town Mahou, France through Google and good amount of work on his part on the internet, he was able to track down a family name that was the same that Landon Morse, who had lived right across from this apple orchard in New France.

And so my dad asked me to translate a letter to this family, kind of introducing himself and saying, I don't I don't know if this is you, but here's a photo.

My grandfather took it when he was stationed in Normandy, and the name and the town's name was on this photo.

So he wrote that letter, I translated it, and then he and my mom went to France, and they ended up finding this house.

They knocked on the door, but no one answered.

And so they left the letter in the mailbox.

We weren't sure you know what contact would be like when we first went over there.

So my dad had prepared this, letter that he would drop off, if nothing else.

So we knocked on the door and, you know, nobody answered.

But it turns out mom was there and had no idea.

You know, these strangers kind of walking up to the house making a ruckus.

But geez, I think 93 I want to say I wasn't able to kind of pop up and answer the door because, you know, after an initial few seconds, we just kind of decided to leave the letter and see what happens.

They had entered the Army.

He was, he was an old star.

He was 30 years old when he went to boot camp.

And I have a picture of him as a private Cooper.

You know, when he's 30 or 31 years old at that point and just graduating from boot camp.

And he ultimately went through Officer Candidate School and became a member of what became the staff of the third U.S.

Army, which was ultimately led by General Patton.

Is task was both to ensure that the field hospitals had their supplies, and also to keep the history of the medical section.

Because he was a fast typist, Rommel, who had been defeated by Patton in North Africa, did not want to be unprepared for patterns.

Arrival in Europe.

The third Army actually began landing on July 6th and then trickling over into this area of Normandy, where they were secreted, and that's why they were encamped in these apple orchards.

And nobody knew who they were.

And so they spent that 2 or 3 weeks in Normandy making final preparations for the breakout.

He never talked about war experiences.

I knew nothing about these pictures, literally until many years after his death.

I had not seen this scrapbook, and every once in a while he'll identify a nurse or a doctor.

But mostly not.

These were his more official photos that he would take along the way about the operations for which he was in charge.

And they had said, you know, you always had to be ahead of the lines to know where you were going to set up your next hospital and have everything moving in that direction.

So it was a busy, busy time for all of those folks.

Obviously with war, it's difficult because people don't want to talk about it always, and it kind of depends on the person.

But there is so much history and just the idea of a photo getting to two friends to me who didn't meet this family that my grandfather had taken a picture of.

I mean, I think it's really exploring your curiosity as an exploring the history and asking the questions, because even if people don't necessarily tell you, I think expressing that interest in what happened is very, very important.

It was amazing to see the war exactly as it was.

I'll read the opening paragraph from dad's report on the medical section of the third U.S.

Army.

The alert, which reached third U.S.

Army Headquarters on 1st January 1944, obviously portended a succession of missions which would have small similarity to the first assignment as the Army of Occupation during World War One.

Koblenz, Germany, which had been occupied by the headquarters in 1919, lay approximately 7000 miles away from Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

Between these two points, in 1944, there interposed a four day train trip, a three weeks huddle on the banks of the Hudson River, an eight day crossing of a not insignificant body of water, four months of intensive preparation in the United Kingdom under the leadership of a new commanding general.

One month of obscurity and anonymity in Normandy, and historic one month eruption across France, two months of restlessness, one month to accomplish the downfall of that and the tactical surroundings.

Three days to pull out of a hard won positions in the SAR and bring major pressure on southern flank of a counterattack by the Germans, which was influencing friendly armies to their detriment, and two months of another year to cover the remaining distance.

It was a year of personal and collective tragedies and accomplishments.

It was a year of interest, but then we talked about the rest of the crew leaving on the 4th of July and arriving in Normandy on 6th July, where they proceeded to bivouac at Mayhew.

So it was June 6th, 2019, that I found the photograph and knew I wanted to go to Normandy and knew there was this family and this wall and this place.

We wanted to go to rest.

The Pacific, the city on its own for some reason.

You may say you're the who resorted to this terrible.

If you, find your soul very horrible.

Well, I consider it a battle in one week and one more place.

If you.

You know who has smaller.

Nobody.

You know what?

You know, you have a bouquet.

I suppose you, put them here.

And so this relationship kind of started.

That was a few years in the making.

Communication was in and out because life gets busy.

The heart of America is not in America.

It's a novelty.

I think it's first of all, it's fun.

It's fun to reconnect the dots and to bring the strands that have been frayed back together.

So there was Christophe Bond more.

And he says, can you help me?

These are like 21 notes of what the next room will.

Cooper will address as or photo on the right.

And I think, talk to me.

I'm here to help talk to Romain.

I'm here to help, you know.

And that's how it all happened in Sequoia Town.

Nobody avec love to refer to the familiar group with, it's, this some is that on that the last photo is, there's an island to see.

The island.

It's it's it's on some rough seas.

So you don't see it, and you want to see what it is here.

But I was the one who came all this emotional, new issues.

But I'm sure that all the new systems you see on that picture that the memory as a result of a new election, if you don't get them, I don't even know an adequate footing.

Don't.

Zeros 10123423.

People still need a new enough of civil.

Don't we do this here?

Some on the road.

Who's on the football ground?

Ready for duty.

He might as well known as sort of come before the fabulous.

Well, I see you soon.

I'll see you soon.

Yeah, cuz.

Send me my see one.

From what I see to to lose.

You used to rely on Twitter some you and the more you 20 some music the visions the more like found this person.

If it wasn't for me, I not only can see who left me.

He's.

He said the influences were going on the music.

I. When do I have to do something?

To do something?

And it was finally when Michelle wrote me and said, we would love for you to be guest in our home.

And I just let.

What?

This is a French family we have never met.

None of us speak the same language.

That's just crazy.

And then I said to Bill, I said, okay, I think we're going to have to I think we're going to have to go to Normandy.

I think this is something and it's going to be something big.

So essentially we just bother showing up.

It's probably the best decision we have ever made because now we have this incredible French family and all the history.

It's just opened up a whole new world of friendships and family for us.

We can't wait to see them again.

The actual caption of the photo I think.

So the blue in the more is our neighbors and Mayhew, and I think that a picture is worth a thousand words, and seeing their faces and their curiosity for what was obviously a traumatic time, you know, with the curiosity of who are these soldiers, what's their next move, things like that.

I think one of the things that I really took from the photo and from the experience that I've had is the neighbors part.

It really is.

I mean, we may be a world away.

We were a world away then, but all of these small connections come together and that is so significant.

I mean, you think even today when you're taking pictures, there are strangers in the background and you have no idea who they are, and yet you've captured them and they live on forever, whether you have a story to tell about them or not.

Well, that that really, I think to me was this undergirding message of this whole is that we are all part of a historical journey that has richness in the past and meaning in the present, and possibility in the future, and to honor the past and to learn from it, and then to see how you know what the connections are or could be.

And so when dad referred to our neighbors at Mayhew, and this is the only civilian picture in his album, and he remembered their names, and it was clearly a meaningful moment to him, and that was almost to me, an invitation to explore and to be open to possibilities.

The children that were in the photograph, only two were surviving, and we were able to meet with one Marguerite, who we were able to meet.

We're still living not in the farmhouse, but kind of in an adjacent house nearby, so able to walk over and have a little conversation with her.

And so were the picture and kind of introduce ourselves.

It was pretty incredible.

She didn't have, you know, specific memories of my grandfather, but certainly the troops and everything there.

She had very strong memories of the army, for sure.

And that period.

So being able to kind of see that and from that perspective as well, you know, it's not something that's very well documented.

That kind of interaction between, the troops and civilians in the area.

Yes.

It was just incredible.

Meaning there was Marguerite, who was the youngest in the photo, just staring at her, thinking she was that little girl on the block in World War Two.

And here we are.

And now we're part of this remarkable family that lived through it all so completely.

Our neighbors in Maine, who are now our neighbors and our family.

You know who?

Wherever I go, they'll think so.

That photograph must see me.

See me somewhere in my home.

Yeah.

Welcome home.

You know, you know, you'd be up here.

Who is your mom?

And and what do you do?

You're supposed to wear no.

To, Yeah.

I don't know.

Do.

So he sort of evolved into the me, can be wanted to make it at home.

And also then, of course, you feel like you've been chosen.

Whether or not I'd be happy to let.

You'd be free to say I love you for beautiful.

Cuz I. Yeah.

You know, I've never had to do it before.

That's how this all began.

It's really an indescribable because it was.

Comes.

There's this sense of connection to this place.

I would have never known about in these people.

We would have never met.

And their appreciation for what the American troops did that we really don't experience back in the States, in the same way that appreciation is so alive today, that changed the world, that came together to fight for a just cause and prevailed and then we're just a bunch of kids, but every five years they do something in addition to the D-Day celebrations, they do what they call an immersion camp, where they really strive to bring in children to learn about the U.S.

Army's life and presence, and what they did for the French people to really continue this sense of appreciation.

We offered to, you see the 2012 we reached the this such funny, some of this well, this this was stories and more to present me and my mom to design meaning for a moment.

Like, there's so many more lovely, love stories.

I, I when I, when I saw the Fisher, orphanage films and family, affairs and then.

About two performances.

Filmmakers who the civilian kind of a surreal experience.

You know, there's, obviously this, familial connection.

But then just in general, the history of that area, multiple different ways.

So being able to go over there with them and essentially being able to find that hamburger, you can sit down and walk around in this very serene and peaceful which.

Yeah, it's kind of movie.

They think that it was when the military came to ask the soldiers came to ask for the water, and they said, yeah, use the water from our well.

It's.

You never know where you came from.

So, yeah.

And it was this the chimney sweep?

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's.

What?

The photo he thinks is here.

And they very.

They could look over there, but he's only like this for 33 years.

Three year, three year three three.

And four year old.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

So then when the soldiers came looking for.

You.

You said issue.

This list.

Yeah.

So me.

And.

You and I, we had the opportunity to to plant an apple tree in this apple orchard with the wounded warriors.

And that I think, rooting that down into the ground and saying, this is this is something that we're not going to forget.

This is something that generations to come to, to learn about and to hear about and to be a part of.

And, you know, hopefully there's more generations that get to see that and more generations that get to experience just that, that memory, that history, really.

When we walked out to the middle of the apple orchard where they had lost a number of trees last year and, and a tremendous storm that went through there.

And Christoph had already dug a hole to place a new apple tree.

And and so Christophe and I took turns, getting that, that apple tree in place and the dirt around it.

And then all the family members participated in adding, dirt and getting that tree said, this is a little fake.

Yeah, yeah.

Similar to the one that occurred.

He was up here and I had, you know, for the super dope, the best solution for this for the for years and years and this is like, this is walk with me.

And it was just a really serene and special moment.

I think there were a lot of tears because it these two families that, you know, kind of knew each other 80 years ago to see them come back together and, and do something as communal as plant in an apple tree is really sentimental and very special.

I just thought, you know, the seeds of this photo that could have just remained, revealed by being close in this album forever because of something that I just decided would be valuable to do, and then paying attention and wondering and reaching out that led to these two families wallowing in the dirt, planting a tree.

Eight years later, in the very same apple orchard that my father had been and had taken these pictures.

And so when he wrote, you know, again, had kind of a wry sense of humor, but also a very wise, compassionate, insightful nature.

When he wrote the Blanda Moore Family, our neighbors and they who it's like 80 years later, we are neighbors and we are family.

And I think this exists in every family's legacy heritage, and that we in the present are the ones to tie this together.

And it's right here in our photo albums.

If we open them and learn from them and explore from there.

It was an incredible experience, you know, because of his documentation of this photo with the name of the town and know the family kind of brought together this connection.

Been there for that time.

The 80th anniversary of when he arrived and the things that he was there at such a different time in world history, living in it, the things that we learn about in history classes and history books.

Now, it was very, very powerful to be there and to know that he was there and, you know, to to think of the humanity that he was seen in this family peaking over at the time that he was doing what he was doing.

It was very powerful because it brought, you know, such connection for us 80 years later, war displaced people and more brutal, and it also changes the trajectory of history.

Right.

And so there's these connections that our grandparents, our great grandparents made.

And to be able to reconnect 80 years later with a new generation is it's mind, really.

It's it's wild.

And so think about how our families will now connect throughout the generations.

It is really unique.

And it's something that I guess wouldn't happen if it weren't for the war.

So yeah, definitely a wild experience.

Justin Long, to work with you on this ceremony.

Did you see the continue this track, Jamie?

See?

See everyone except for Thomas in the vision shift to me, the reason you see the family run them through a secret of music.

But I see dynamism with respect to song, so I think you should do it.

This a group do committee, please.

On foot two on the moon and the comets.

On the moon.

The beyond them.

So he says he's the one who's over.

Sister.

You you just came over to give constructive attitude.

It is so true that if we live life in the moment, which we that it just expands from there.

And so this photo that dad took, I mean, he just in the moment saw this family and took a picture, but he took the moments after that to remember and to honor and to to put that in here.

And then in a moment later in life, I saw it and knew there was something special here.

And then the moments that we have created since then, that theme of In the Moment, to me, is really a profound one that that spans across the generations.

And if we just live life that way, it can be a much richer process.