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Finding Gilbert: A Promise Fulfilled
*Gold Award Winner, 2019, Society of American Travel Writers, Western Chapter How do the unfulfilled dreams and promises of our parents shape our lives and our destinies? During the Normandy Invasion in 1944, an American lieutenant took a French orphan boy Gilbert under his wing, making sure the boy had enough to eat and giving him attention and love. As the months passed and their bond deepened, he tried unsuccessfully to adopt the boy and bring him home to America. Years later, the soldier’s daughter grew up hearing her father’s stories about his time in France and about the orphan Gilbert. During her childhood, the boy felt like an invisible brother, hovering in her consciousness, slightly out of focus. Fifty years after the war and two years after her father’s death, she found herself compelled to write about how his stories of his time in France had influenced her life. As she journeyed to France to retrace her father’s footsteps, would she be able to complete what he had left unfinished? Could she find his orphan and tell him that her father had never forgotten him? In this true story about the power of love and kindness, Covington-Carter weaves a tale that spans seven decades, beginning and ending on the shores of Normandy. In it, she discovers the role that forgotten dreams play in guiding us towards our destinies. This book is a testament to the importance of a father's love and how a caring father can change lives in ways that ripple down through the generations. The faculty at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, who chose this book for a Gold Award, made these “This is a gripping travel memoir of how childhood stories of World War II turn into a quest. A lot of travel is driven by the quest for answers–and this book fulfills that desire to find the truth in faraway places. This piece about a father’s love and fulfilling a promise to a French war orphan is well done, and a recommended read.” Thirty-two 5-star ratings by readers. One reader's I love, love, love Finding Gilbert! I laughed, I cried. I literally could not put it down, but had to read it beginning to end. I passed it along to others who also thoroughly enjoyed it. This memoir reads like a novel with subplots and stories intertwined seamlessly. I am grateful Diane shared part of her story within the pages of this book. Finding Gilbert is one of my favorite books of all the books I’ve read… And I have read a LOT of books! I highly recommend you read Diane’s book. She is a very gifted writer.
212 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 27, 2014
17 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 17, 2018
This book is simply beautiful, within its pages are stories within stories, and they all began with an encounter between an American soldier and a little French boy in the months following the D-day landings on Omaha Beach, France, in June 1944.
Finding Gilbert, a true story
The soldier was the author’s father, Donald Kenneth Johnson, a lieutenant junior grade in the 111th Battalion of the Seabees, the builders of amongst other things, the Rhino Ferries which brought the troops from ship to shore. Never could he have realised that the day he spotted a small seven year old orphan boy called Gilbert DesClos hiding in the tall grass on the cliff overlooking the beach that the child would become so important to him. Because of this, part of his own family’s lives were deeply affected through his recounting of his memories of those times.
Diane was one of four children, two boys born before the war and her sister Sharon and herself born afterwards to Donald and his Australian wife Daisy. Growing up in America, close to her father, Diane loved his tales of France and the French people, including the story of the little French ‘brother’ she had never met.
These tales imbibed her with an intense love of France. All she wanted to do was to go there, experience the wonder of this fantastic country and visit the places her father had been to. As often happens ‘life’ got in the way, and she was destined to become a wife and mother, and felt she might never fulfill her childhood dream.
However, her deep love of France and everything French inspired this intrepid woman. She studied French and absorbed everything she could about the language and culture from a distance. This diligence paid off enabling her to become a freelance writer and also an interpreter.
It was not until after her father’s death that she managed to travel to his wartime Normandy haunts and find Gilbert DesClos. An adult now, with a family of his own, she, through her hard work studying of French was able to discover the incredible impact her father had on Gilbert and how subtly those brief few months with her father had shaped him. The years they spent together and the great joy the French and American families gained from this reunion played a very special part in all their lives.
This story is absolutely captivating, it is not only an incredibly in-depth memoir of the author but also of her father. In it she captures beautifully the love which can exist between a father and daughter.
From the beginning there is something for everyone. Perhaps you are in love with France yourself and want to holiday or live there? Through the author’s wonderfully descriptive writing you discover some of its regions with its beauties and treasures. Perhaps you are interested in history? Well if this is the case the author’s recounting of her father’s memories, vividly recounting of the blood bath Omaha Beach was on D-day, and the terrible loss of lives and hardships suffered there will be of interest, as will the celebrations and reunions of the veterans in the 50th, 60th and 70th D-day Memorials which have been held since.
Highly recommended.
Finding Gilbert, a true story
The soldier was the author’s father, Donald Kenneth Johnson, a lieutenant junior grade in the 111th Battalion of the Seabees, the builders of amongst other things, the Rhino Ferries which brought the troops from ship to shore. Never could he have realised that the day he spotted a small seven year old orphan boy called Gilbert DesClos hiding in the tall grass on the cliff overlooking the beach that the child would become so important to him. Because of this, part of his own family’s lives were deeply affected through his recounting of his memories of those times.
Diane was one of four children, two boys born before the war and her sister Sharon and herself born afterwards to Donald and his Australian wife Daisy. Growing up in America, close to her father, Diane loved his tales of France and the French people, including the story of the little French ‘brother’ she had never met.
These tales imbibed her with an intense love of France. All she wanted to do was to go there, experience the wonder of this fantastic country and visit the places her father had been to. As often happens ‘life’ got in the way, and she was destined to become a wife and mother, and felt she might never fulfill her childhood dream.
However, her deep love of France and everything French inspired this intrepid woman. She studied French and absorbed everything she could about the language and culture from a distance. This diligence paid off enabling her to become a freelance writer and also an interpreter.
It was not until after her father’s death that she managed to travel to his wartime Normandy haunts and find Gilbert DesClos. An adult now, with a family of his own, she, through her hard work studying of French was able to discover the incredible impact her father had on Gilbert and how subtly those brief few months with her father had shaped him. The years they spent together and the great joy the French and American families gained from this reunion played a very special part in all their lives.
This story is absolutely captivating, it is not only an incredibly in-depth memoir of the author but also of her father. In it she captures beautifully the love which can exist between a father and daughter.
From the beginning there is something for everyone. Perhaps you are in love with France yourself and want to holiday or live there? Through the author’s wonderfully descriptive writing you discover some of its regions with its beauties and treasures. Perhaps you are interested in history? Well if this is the case the author’s recounting of her father’s memories, vividly recounting of the blood bath Omaha Beach was on D-day, and the terrible loss of lives and hardships suffered there will be of interest, as will the celebrations and reunions of the veterans in the 50th, 60th and 70th D-day Memorials which have been held since.
Highly recommended.
May 27, 2025
The main story centers on the author’s father and his experience during the invasion of Normandy during World War II. He sounds like quite a hero and the love between he and his daughter shines through.
During the war, the father befriends a young orphan boy in France. For five months he fed him, clothed him and loved him. He had tried to adopt him to no avail. Orders came through and the father had tomoeave him behind.
Now, decades later the daughter goes in search of this boy. It is a wonderful story, simply told.
During the war, the father befriends a young orphan boy in France. For five months he fed him, clothed him and loved him. He had tried to adopt him to no avail. Orders came through and the father had tomoeave him behind.
Now, decades later the daughter goes in search of this boy. It is a wonderful story, simply told.
August 23, 2024
Not sure what I was expecting, but more than this.
January 30, 2017
I had read My Junior Year by the same author before this. So Reunion is sort of a prequel.
What is different about Diane's books are the raw honesty with which she writes. Her books are more a personal journey in words, than a planned one for the readers. So we go with her wherever she takes us, allowing ourselves to feel her pain, her small joys, her anxieties, her insecurities, and her vulnerabilities. I am not sure how many of us will feel as confident to share their bare souls this way.
Diane's life of attachment to her father, her abusive mother, relationships with sister, husband, children, all of which are to morph over the years are revealing in their intensity. Some of her childhood experiences are particularly touching.
This story has a touch of magic is the discovery of a long forgotten orphan boy, Gilbert, whom Diane discovers for her father. The magic is the past and future merging. IT is the discovery of a new family, a new way of life, and a connection that love forges.
What is different about Diane's books are the raw honesty with which she writes. Her books are more a personal journey in words, than a planned one for the readers. So we go with her wherever she takes us, allowing ourselves to feel her pain, her small joys, her anxieties, her insecurities, and her vulnerabilities. I am not sure how many of us will feel as confident to share their bare souls this way.
Diane's life of attachment to her father, her abusive mother, relationships with sister, husband, children, all of which are to morph over the years are revealing in their intensity. Some of her childhood experiences are particularly touching.
This story has a touch of magic is the discovery of a long forgotten orphan boy, Gilbert, whom Diane discovers for her father. The magic is the past and future merging. IT is the discovery of a new family, a new way of life, and a connection that love forges.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews