But that was awhile back — a tad more than 65 years to be precise.

The picture of the brothers was taken near Nancy, France, in January 1945. Abe and Rothen were young, strong and handsome, both fighting for the U.S. Army as World War II was drawing to a close.

The story of how they wound up meeting in France and how their picture ended up in The Dispatch is an interesting one.

Abe, now 95, entered the Army relatively late. He was married in 1935 and came close to avoiding military service until he finally enlisted in 1944. He was 27 when he went through basic training, then was sent to France as a replacement in the Pennsylvania National Guard's 28th Division.

“The 28th had taken a beating at the Battle of the Bulge,” Abe recalled, referring to the last major German offensive of the Second World War. “They sent us right on over to the front.”

Abe hadn't been there long when he was wounded by an artillery shell near the town of Colmar, France, not far from the Rhine River. He said he and a handful of other American soldiers were holed up in a bombed-out railroad station and watching distant shelling when one of the shells exploded almost on top of them.

Of the four men hit, only Abe survived. His left thigh was ripped open, but he was relatively fortunate.

“It went almost to the bone,” Abe said of the shrapnel wound. “It could easily have killed me.”

Instead he was carried by train to a military hospital near Dijon. One day, toward the end of his 30-day recuperation, Abe saw a soldier with a 12th Army Air Corps patch on his shoulder. Rothen, his brother, served as a supply sergeant with the 12th Army Air Corps.

Abe had no idea the group was anywhere close by, but was told they were stationed not far up the road — at an air base near Nancy that served as home to some B-25s. Abe asked the soldier if he knew Rothen and the man said he did.

“The next day,” Abe recalled, “Rothen came walking in the hospital.”

Rothen had been allowed a jeep and drove to the hospital to see his brother. Abe was about to be released, so the brothers spent a day together. Rothen drove Abe up to Nancy where he was stationed. It was there that their photograph was taken. A copy of the picture was eventually mailed to Abe's wife, Mildred, back in Lexington.

Mildred was proud of her husband and brother-in-law and took the picture to the offices of The Dispatch. The photograph was published before the war ended and before the brothers were discharged.

Abe still chuckles when he recalls the caption that accompanied the picture: “The two Irish brothers meet in France,” it read.

Like Abe, Rothen, now 86, returned home to Lexington after the war and resumed his life. He said that after that meeting in January 1945, he and Abe didn't see one another again for months.

“We went our own ways until the war was over,” Rothen said.

Today, the brothers remain close, continuing to speak by phone several times a week and visiting on occasion. The two have enjoyed long, productive lives.

Abe worked in the furniture industry, finishing and selling chairs, tables and more. He was married for 73 years before his wife, Mildred, died in November 2008. The couple had three children, 10 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Rothen and his wife, Beatrice, who is still alive, have one child. Rothen spent most of his career in the textile industry.

Both brothers remained active in military-related functions over the years, each at various times serving as post commanders of the Lexington VFW. Abe was at one time commander of the 10th district of the North Carolina VFW. Rothen retired from the Army National Guard.

Abe notes he's blessed to have survived the war. After the Germans surrendered and the war in Europe ended, Abe was being retrained for deployment to the Pacific and involvement in a possible invasion of Japan.

“They needed cannon fodder,” Abe said.

Fortunately for him, the Japanese surrendered following the dropping of the atomic bombs on their homeland.

Abe said there's a certain irony that his suffering a serious injury led to him and his brother being reunited — as briefly as it was — in a small village in France. “If I hadn't been wounded, I never would have known Rothen was around,” he said.

Abe also noted that he's lucky to be the only survivor of an artillery bombardment that took the lives of three of his cohorts. “You don't have to be in a long time to be killed,” he said of the brief stint he served in France before being wounded.