Next week’s 80th anniversary of D-Day might bring stories of war to the forefront. But for two families separated by the Atlantic Ocean spanning four generations, one story tied to La Jolla from that time comes to mind.
And it’s a love story.
Lt. Donald Johnson was an engineer for the Navy when American troops stormed the beach of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. During his overseas service, Johnson befriended a young French orphan named Gilbert DesClos, who lived next to the military base with a caretaker.
“My dad reached out to Gilbert because he could tell Gilbert was hungry,” said Johnson’s daughter Diane Covington-Carter. “Gilbert was 7 years old at the time but looked about 5 because he was so small. They had so much food in the officer’s mess [hall], so my dad would take the leftover food to a different farmhouse every night for those that might need it. He took Gilbert through the food line in the officer’s mess each day.”
The two formed a bond, so much so that Johnson considered adopting the boy and taking him home to San Diego. French authorities declined Johnson’s request, and the pair’s relationship ended when Johnson went home months later.
But Gilbert was never forgotten.
“I grew up as part of the postwar baby boom, and dad used to tell stories about his time in France, including the story about Gilbert,” Covington-Carter said. “I was very close to my dad and could always feel this deep sadness when he would tell stories about Gilbert and the war at the dinner table. … I asked him one day what happened to Gilbert and he looked really sad and said he didn’t know.”
Johnson died in 1991 and spoke of Gilbert right up until his death, wondering what happened to him. Though Covington-Carter was living elsewhere at the time of Johnson’s death, her mother lived in La Jolla.
Covington-Carter traveled to France in 1993, the year before the 50th anniversary of D-Day.
“I stood where they stood. It was just stories when I was a child, but seeing where it happened made it feel very real,” she said. “Then I started thinking about how Gilbert was real, too. I decided to find him.”
She went back to France for a month the following year to accept a medal in her father’s honor. Committed to finding Gilbert, she put an ad in a local newspaper, using information from her father’s stories and a guess as to the spelling of Gilbert’s last name. Assuming it would take years to get a response, she proceeded with her planned itinerary.
But in a shockingly short time, Covington-Carter got a response.
“It was this amazing dance. He saw the ad and wrote to my home address within a few days,” she said. “I was still in France, but my sister saw the letter and faxed it to me. I stood there reading this very moving letter and used the nearest phone to call him. We had one more day before we had to leave. So we drove to Normandy to meet him.”
It turned out that Gilbert had spent his whole life thinking about Johnson.
“He had been waiting for 50 years for some word from my father,” Covington-Carter said. “He had told his wife, his daughter and his grandsons about the kind lieutenant who had wanted to take him home to America. When I told Gilbert that my father had never forgotten him, he wept.”
The families kept in touch, and in 1996, Gilbert’s family hosted Covington-Carter’s family for a celebration in France. The newspaper in which Covington-Carter’s ad had been placed covered the event. The following year, Gilbert and his family traveled to La Jolla for a party with 40 people between the two families.
The visits continued over years, even after Gilbert’s death in 2008.
“The family asked me to put a photo of my father on the casket at his funeral because the whole village knew the story of their connection,” Covington-Carter said. “This is one of the most important things I have ever done. This experience has given me a French family.”
Covington-Carter authored a book about the experience, “Finding Gilbert: A Promise Fulfilled,” and often reflects on the experience around the anniversary of D-Day.
“There was this love between them, like a little fire that was burning, so when I found Gilbert, there was love that continued for 30 years and across families,” she said. “His widow is now one of my best friends. I see her like a sister.
“There are so many awful stories, but this is a love story. It doesn’t die if it’s real and it matters. The story touches people, and we need that right now. We need to remember that relationships and caring for others is important.” ◆
