I am writing to let you know that my mother, Agnes Frisque passed away on October 28th, 2018.  She was 91 years old.  She was a member of AFEES as a helper.  She was a resident in France and together with her mother helped a number of  American pilots to hide from the Germans in their farm house in Coignieres,  near Paris.  A daughter of one of the pilots, Richard Christenson wrote a book on his escape from France and just recently her children returned to France and followed the same route their grandfather took through the Pyrenes.

My mother had many vivid memories of the war.  The lack of food, fellow classmates not returning to class because they died the night before due to a bombing raid, finding pilots hiding in the woods behind their farmhouse, sometimes alive, sometimes not.  Quite heady stuff for a young girl.  One of her most joyful memories was of her mother rushing into her room one morning to say the war was over.  My mom rode her bike towards town and she came across a line of American soldiers celebrating and honking their Jeep horns as they drove into Coignieres.   They gave my mom a lift and she rode on one of the Jeeps to the cheers of the town folk whom were very appreciative of the Americans.  They really were their saviors.

My mom eventually went to work at the American Embassy in Paris a few years later and escorted visiting officers and dignitaries to various sites around the city as well as administrative duties.  She eventually married my father and emigrated to Canada. My mom remained friends with the Christensons and we, the next generation, have stayed in touch and consider each other extended family.  So my mom’s story is complete.  To me she was such a brave person.  There were so many dangers living in an occupied France and yet she and my grandmother did what they could to help save the lives of the brave soldiers and pilots that gave so willingly of their lives.

I see on  your website you have the story of my aunts twin sister, Charlotte Ambach.  My aunt was  Lonny Frisque nee Ambach.  She was married to my dad’s oldest brother Emile.  They all did time in German prisons for helping in the Resistance.  War stories were very much a part of our childhood.  And most of them involved actual relatives so it brought home the dangers and made them very real to us as kids.  I pray our children and grandchildren never have to know the horror of armed conflicts.

Thank you for the work the AFEES organization does..  And bless you for continuing to acknowledge our veterans for their selfless service.

With kind regards,

Leslie Burritt, nee Frisque