Raoul ultimately takes me back to Gabriel. We ride bikes at night from Ambrus to get there.
Gabriel was a larger-than-life man. I will never forget how he protected me. He was the leader of the Maquis in Nerac, the mayor, and was friends with the Germans in town. The Germans knew that the Maquis could wipe them out easily and then hide in the forests and the Maquis knew the Germans could call in reinforcements and wipe out the Maquis and their families. So, there was a sort of uneasy truce in this area.
Based on this convenient friendship, Gabriel gets word that the Gestapo is coming to town within a week. Gabriel orders all the Maquis in his area to get out of town and take to the forests. He leaves Dr. Henri, his deputy, in charge. No one suspects the doctor.
Gabriel gets me to the Bianco farm in Mounican, 4 kilometers southwest of Nerac. It’s sooner than the Maquis had hoped – the 3-5’ snows had not melted yet on the Pyrenees. I stay at the Bianco farm for a few days, waiting for transport to the Pyrenees. It’s tense.
(Note from Victoria Yeager: General Yeager visited Nerac with Glennis and his kids in the 1950’s where he met up with Gabriel again. It was quite a reunion during which Gabriel gave General Yeager and his family a tour of the town of Nerac, where Gabriel was still the mayor and much beloved. He later died in the early 1960’s in Eastern France. In 2010, we met and visited with Gabriel’s adopted son and daughter-in-law. He encouraged his mother, Gabriel’s widow, to allow us to visit her in the hospital. She had put on make-up and done her hair and clearly had a crush of General Yeager since she met him in the 1950’s. I said how beautiful she was – true – and she blushed and chastised me for saying so in front of my husband. She died shortly after we left that year. Sweet lady.)
c. GCYI