Zee Schulze’s uncle is buried more than 5,000 miles away at the Epinal American Cemetery and Memorial.

Though she’s never been to his grave, she knows it’s being taken care of by the Clement family of France, who adopted her uncle’s grave as a way to honor his sacrifice and those of his comrades.

“My father was a prisoner of war in a German P.O.W. camp (during World War II),” Jocelyne Clement said. “If the American forces had not liberated him, I wouldn’t be here.”