If I’d ever been asked to guess what surprise ChatGPT might deliver to me, I’d never have dreamed of anything as unexpected as what’s actually happened over the last few months. AI has brought me together with my long-deceased parents and grandparents and the family of a late British war escapee, more than 85 years after German forces occupied northern Europe. Let me explain what has happened.
Two years ago, the book I wrote about my parents’ lives during World War II was published. See You in Le Touquet: A Memoir of War and Destiny, tells of the challenges my mother faced living in Nazi occupied northern France, in her coastal hometown called Le Touquet.
Across the English Channel, my father was stationed in Britain with the Canadian Army from springtime 1940. The book interweaves their two remarkable stories, including a chapter about my mother’s imprisonment by the German Gestapo. She told her female cellmates that if she survived the war, she would kiss the first Allied soldier who came to liberate her. My dad was that soldier. Yes there were fireworks for both of them. Seven months later, just before victory in Europe, they married. My mother followed my father back to his home in Saskatchewan where together they raised a family, and where my father had a successful career as a lawyer and Queen’s Bench judge. Now they are buried together where it all began, in Le Touquet.
Thanks to my book, I received an invitation to participate in an unexpected event in France last fall. The town of Le Touquet chose to focus their 80th WWII Liberation celebrations on my parents’ story, complete with a reenactment of their dramatic first meeting.
Since my book was published, many people have reached out to me. Often they’ve written about family members who served in the war. One woman recognized my dad’s name from an old 1930’s Regina newspaper clipping, when as a teen he’d attempted to save a boy from drowning. The boy was her mother’s young brother who sadly did not survive. I’d never heard that story.
Another astonishing message came more recently.
I was contacted by a young British man, George Fellows, who’d discovered a connection between our two families. While serving with the British Army in May 1940, his great-grandfather, Anthony Taylor, was captured in Belgium by the German Forces, weeks before the British and French armies collapsed at Dunkirk. AnthonyT, as George calls him, escaped while being marched to Germany as a POW. Anthony’s lofty goal was to reach the English Channel, find a small boat, and row back to Great Britain. His harrowing 400-kilometre journey on foot to the coast led him to Le Touquet.
My mother and her parents lived in a home they’d called “Rosemary Cottage”. When AnthonyT saw its English name, he took a chance and knocked on the back door. My grandfather answered as Anthony asked – in French – if the Germans were nearby. My grandfather pointed him to the large villa across the street where the enemy had set up headquarters. AnthonyT quickly explained he was an escaped British soldier, at which point he was whisked inside, introduced to my mother and grandmother, and despite real danger, was well fed and cared for over the next couple of days. He also was provided with much assistance in his quest for a boat.
Anthony shared that his wife was about to birth to their baby. And before setting off in a rowboat my grandfather helped him find, Anthony made a promise. If he made it home, if the baby was a girl, they would name her Rosemary.
Against all odds, he arrived mere days before baby Rosemary was born. She is young George’s grandmother, and in mid-June, 2025, celebrated her 85th birthday. Rosemary has never known where her namesake, Rosemary Cottage, was located. For a time, she and her husband lived in a home in England they named Rosemary Cottage. But the original one was a mystery – until now.
George had taken on researching his great-grandfather’s escape, thanks in part to British war archives which taped an interview with AnthonyT in the 1980s. But where, he wondered, was Rosemary Cottage? George typed the name “Rosemary Cottage” into ChatGPT. AI to the rescue! The name of my book appeared, “See You in Le Touquet: A Memoir of War and Destiny”. Destiny indeed! George purchased the e-book, shared it with grandmother Rosemary and other family members, and they realized this was indeed the Rosemary Cottage. The missing link. They also discovered there’s another Rosemary connected to the story. I, too, am Rosemary, though I go by my nickname, Romie.
Early this summer, George retraced his great-grandfather’s escape, walking, camping, scrounging for food, winding his way to Le Touquet and Rosemary Cottage.
Soon after, George, Rosemary and British family members hosted a zoom call with my family. There we were, on screen altogether, thrilled to meet one another, especially the two Rosemarys. George told us about his journey, his blisters, his amazement at what his great-grandfather had accomplished. Periodically, someone on the call shared their screen, showing photographs. In Le Touquet, across the street from Rosemary Cottage, George witnessed large signs around the town museum, the former Nazi headquarters. These posters were part of the 80th Liberation celebration, featuring photos of my parents from my book. He also saw that Le Touquet had renamed this corner “Rond-Point de La Rencontre”, the meeting place, with a plaque and explanation about my parents’ story for generations to come.
Right from the beginning, it’s been the happy love story that brought hope to a war-weary French population. My parents were last honoured at such a celebration on the 40th anniversary in 1984. At the 80th, I watched my sister and her husband reenact their meeting to hundreds of cheering local Touquettois.
Now, thanks to George, Anthony Taylor, Rosemary, my book – and ChatGPT! – we’ve uncovered another unknown Le Touquet war story, which, I believe, is its first documented successful war escape. I catch myself hearing their voices from 85 years ago. And I wonder what other surprises my book might bring.
Romie Christie 