Peggy Harris of Vernon, Texas was married to her husband 1st Lt. Billie Harris. for just 6 weeks before he went off to war. The fighter pilot flew his last mission was July 17, 1944 over Nazi-occupied northern France. But he never returned.

The devoted wife spent 60 long years wondering what happened to her husband.

According to CBS, which covered the story in 2013:

“At first Billie he was reported as missing. Then he was reported as alive and coming home. Then Peggy got a letter saying actually he’d been killed and buried at one cemetery — then another letter saying he was buried at a different cemetery. Then she was told maybe those aren’t his remains at all.”

Peggy waited for decades. Was her husband coming home? Was she a widow? She never remarried.

Years after the war, she began writing to congressmen asking to give her some definitive answer. Her final letter in 2005 was answered by Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, who was also vice-chairman of the House Armed Services Committee at the time. He told her Billie was “still listed as ‘missing in action’ in the National Archives.”

But it turns out he never even checked. And neither did anyone else she wrote to. If they had, they could have easily given her the answer.

But it took an investigation by Billie’s cousin, Alton Harvey, to answer the question for good.

“Didn’t feel it was right that he just went off to war and didn’t come back – end of story,” Harvey told CBS. “You need to know what happened to him.”

Indeed you do. If your loved one makes the ultimate sacrifice for his country, the least that country can do is tell you. It would have taken just one phone call.

When Harvey requested Billie’s military records, it said right on them that he was killed in action.

After Peggy’s story aired, Rep. Thornberry apologized for not doing enough to look into her case.

“I have sent her a personal apology for the mishandling of this sensitive matter and for any distress she has suffered as a result,” he later wrote on his Facebook page.

The widow isn’t holding a grudge.

“You have to learn to be forgiving,” she said.

That’s right, 60 years of mystery, a life left in limbo wondering if the love of her life would knock on the door one day, and Peggy Harris forgives. That’s pretty incredible if you ask us.

The most galling thing for readers of the story was that Billie Harris’ marble tombstone at one of the world’s most famous cemeteries had been visible for decades to anyone visiting and walking along the main path.

But that’s not all. Billie wasn’t just an anonymous soldier among the others, he was a genuine hero in a small French town. While his widow wondered whatever became of him, the French were naming streets after the man.

And if you can watch the video below after minute 6 and not tear up, we applaud your emotional fortitude because as the mayor reads his name at a special ceremony, we lost it.

After learning the location of her husband’s grave, Peggy began sending flowers there 10 times a year to keep it decorated – and she visits in person as well. According to CBS, cemetery officials said that as far as they knew in 2013, Peggy was the last widow who still visited a grave there.

After 60 years, she was just happy to have closure.

“When people speak of closure, they are people have never experienced anything like this,” she said.

We have no doubt about that.

Be sure to scroll down to see CBS’s piece on how the mystery was solved and how a French town has embraced Peggy Harris for her husband’s sacrifice.

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Source: CBS News, CBS News via YouTube