My Second visit to a Special Cemetery

I first visited the Rhone American Cemetery in 2013. I was fortunate to be one of the chaperones on an exchange trip to France with 27 of our students. The students were asked to find information about Maine soldiers buried in the Cemetery. Despite a good deal of effort, only one student was able to make a contact with family of one of the soldiers. This student led a presentation about George Arsenault at the Cemetery when we visited and was later profiled on local media. His brother, Leo visited our school and told us about George. As a result of the media attention, an elderly gentleman  named Bob Goddard visited our school and told us about his brother was also buried in the same Cemetery. We learned the story of Lewis Frelan Goddard from Bob and later erected a memorial to him on the Maranacook campus. I had the chance to visit the graves of both Fallen Heroes today.In addition, we heard a very special story of two sweethearts! It was a very special day!

Alison Libersa and another Interpretive Guide at the Cemetery

This the relief map depicting the landings and movement of Allied forces in southern France.

The Chapel at the Rhone Cemetery features this mosaic meant to express US sacrifice on the left and French culture on the right.

Ceiling of the Chapel

The sight of the Cemetery is a former Olive grove that was gifted to the US for the purposes of the Cemetery. There are still some Olive trees in the Cemetery.

We were fortune to have a special guest at the Cemetery today. Under the umbrella is Catherine Gorder who is in her 90's. Catherine's sweetheart, Ward Sackal is buried in the Cemetery. She only found where he was buried in 2010 and has visited every year since.

Alison and Catherine chatting. Alison then proceeded to tell us the story of these two sweethearts which I captured on video below. Be warned, have some kleenex handy before you watch!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ward Sackal's grave with the flower left by Catherine

Catherine Groder

Six of my colleagues delivered eulogies today and they were all powerful. What I looked forward to was a chance to deliver my own eulogies. My first eulogy was for George Arsenault of Rumford, ME. A former student of mine told his story at this Cemetery in 2013. I was proud today to create the video you see below and pay my respects once again to George's grave.

Arsenault's patch from his uniform

Bob Goddard first visited my school after seeing the media coverage of our story on George Arsenault. Bob shared with me and my students a scrapbook about his brother, Lewis Frelan Goddard. Though Frelan was born and grew up in Tennessee, the Goddard family was from Maine and Bob lives there now. After learning Frelan's harrowing story of OSS training and how his body was hidden by the French Resistance, students raised money to erect a memorial on the campus of Maranacook. Below is my eulogy to Frelan Goddard.

The Special Forces patch Frelan would have worn on his uniform

What an emotional morning. As you can probably guess after hearing these stories and the love story of Ward Sackal and Catherine Groder, there wasn' t a dry eye in the house! Rhone is the smallest American Cemetery from World War Two, but it remains the most engaging and memorable for me! It was my visit here 3 years ago that kick started my interest in these stories, so it will always be a special place for me. Its hard to believe we've been here a week already and have only one Cemetery left to visit. At that Cemetery I will tell the story of Harvey Madore. I'm very excited to see his grave!

After getting back, I took a little stroll around Nice. There is a heavy police and military presence in the city. Despite this, I found myself feeling nervous walking around for no rational reason. I think this is what terrorism does to people. Above is a famous work of art in Nice.

Typical menu you would find in Nice

This park in Nice has a replica of the statute of David

I made my way to the beach and watched the Mediterranean Sea for a while.

Statue of Liberty near the beach in Nice!

One of my favorite restaurants in Nice! I've eaten here two other times and its amazing! All you can eat Mussels and Fries and they have 10 different flavors of Mussels. Good stuff! The first time I ate here it was 10 Euro, next time it was 12 and now I see it is 14,90.

This is the actual restaurant

It was a lovely evening in Nice. France is in the midst of three days of mourning, but I could see children and adults out on the streets and enjoying the beautiful weather. Tomorrow we have a 5 hour bus ride to Milan. Then we have a 4 hour bus ride on Monday to Basel, Switzerland before a 2 hour bus ride Tuesday morning to Epinal and our final American Cemetery. So the next two days will not feature anything related to World War Two and will feature a lot of riding in a bus! After Epinal we go to Metz for the night and then will be visiting Bastogne and related Battle of the Bulge sights as well as the Museum in Bastogne. Thursday is a day to explore Brussels a bit and then we come home on Friday. We really are over the half way mark!