Monique Guideno was married last week in a Paris mairie, but there was no happy wedding party afterward, no honeymoon, not even a bridegroom. “In the name of the law,” said the deputy mayor who performed the ceremony. “I unite you with a shadow.”
Monique’s posthumous husband. Sergeant Felix Guy Lenestour, was killed in Algeria in July 1956. In his pocket was found a pass to go to Paris for his marriage. “I was desperate.” said Monique. “I knew I was going to have a baby who would never have a father.” The deputy mayor told the sobbing bride that Lenes-tour’s “letters bore witness to an indestructible attachment for you. I am sure, madame, that you will carry the name of Felix Guy Lenestour with honor.”
And Monique’s infant son. Guy Claude, will bear his father’s name as well, under a French law passed last year that permits posthumous marriages for servicemen killed in the Algerian war.
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