Reg Pye met Huguette in 1944 for just a couple of minutes, as he waited to advance into France while World War Two raged on. But her memory lasted a lifetime for Reg. He kept a photograph of her in his wallet all those years.
When Reg turned 99, he finally met the French girl again. He tracked her down with the help of his older son and managed to meet her. “Nice to see you again after such a long time. We got older, but we’re still the same,” said Huguette, 92.
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Back in his time, Reg was serving with the Royal Engineers when he stopped for a break. He looked into the distance and saw a girl standing in front of him. “She had a shabby white dress on and kept looking down at me. When I looked down, it was the bread. So I offered her the bread. I never saw her after that,” recalled Reg.
The next morning, when Reg returned to his van, he found a tin with a photograph of the same girl inside, with her name and address written on the back. “And that is the photograph I have kept in my wallet all this time,” said Reg.
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He had always hoped to track her down through the photo, and after 72 years, he was finally able to meet Huguette, who was now a mother of three. “And she is still alive!!!”
“In the bleakest of times, this small act of human kindness made a huge mark on my life,” Reg told the BBC.
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