Today (May 22) marks the beginning of a new phase of treatment for our friend Emma Day, who blogs at Crazy With Twins and tweets as @crazywithtwins . A further strike against cancer (she has already had surgery – see her blog) involves the internal use of radioactive iodine. This in turn means that she will be emitting radiation from her body that is dangerous to others, especially small children. As a result, she will be, as it were, on ‘the wrong side of the line’ from her family – and unable to reach out and cuddle her beloved baby girl twins for over thirty days!
A series of blog posts from those of us who know Emma – and her husband and family – via the blogging community will accompany Emma on this journey, under the general heading ‘Shoulder to Shoulder to Day’. I have the honour to open this, along with Victoria at Verily, Victoria Vocalises.
Now, I know Emma has a fascination with history – when it comes alive in true stories from times past. So, for encouragement to her – and to us all – I’m going to recount an occasion when somebody else – well, two people, in fact – found themselves on ‘the wrong side of the line’ in another sense, and how it resulted in a wonderful outcome – just as we’re all hoping for a great success from this medically and psychologically gruelling treatment that Emma is undergoing!
The year was 1814. The Anglo-American War of 1812 had been going for – yes, you’ve got it right – two years. (And a bit.) And on the evening of September 13, several British ships lay at anchor in Chesapeake Bay, just off the Atlantic Ocean, under the command of Admiral Cochrane. Shortly before, a noted resident of Upper Marlborough, Maryland, a Dr William Beanes, had been taken prisoner by the British, and sent to the flagship.
Meantime, in Baltimore, a young lawyer, Francis Scott Key, the son of an American officer and a friend of the old doctor, heard about the imprisonment. Bravely, he went to the admiral to plead the cause of his friend. Evidently he was received honourably, but the British were about to attack Fort McHenry, and so the pair were not immediately allowed to go!
Now comes the exciting part! All through the night, the British kept up a bombardment of rockets and fire-bombs, such as there were in those days. The light of each explosion briefly lit up the scene, showing the flag flying over the fort. And then in the morning, as the Sun rose from across the Atlantic, the scene was incredible. For there, above the fort, unfurling gently in the morning breeze, just where it had been on the previous evening, so sublimely indifferent to the night’s conflict, still in place, was the flag now known the world over as the ‘Stars and Stripes’. The British must have been hard put not to be awe-stricken!
Now, I don’t always agree with everything said and done by ‘Uncle Sam’ – and of course, had I been there as an Englishman, all those years ago, I would have been among the enemy! But, had I been young Francis Key, I think, at that moment, I would have been proud to be an American! For that young lawyer, the sight inspired the words of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ – afterwards set to music and finally adopted as the national anthem of the USA in 1931. He gave the genre of national anthems something special – but he did something else; he inspired those around him – as Emma has done, too.
The Star-Spangled Banner
O say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Francis Scott Key (1779 – 1843)
Set to music already well-known (written by an Englishman!)
John Stafford Smith (1750 -1836)
Here is a link to a video of this song being sung.
To Emma, we salute you and wish you well. And to all of you, thank you for reading.
Victoria and I now happily pass the baton to Suzanne at 3 Children and It for Day Two.
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.vevivos.com/2013/05/16/shoulder-to-shoulder-to-day-the-rota-and-details/" title="Shoulder to Shoulder to Day"><img src=" http://i1322.photobucket.com/albums/u568/ToriWel/811fe3d0-1420-4987-9719-6c146ee76adb_zps87798b9c.jpg" alt="Shoulder to Shoulder to Day" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
It only remains to say that no-one is excluded from giving support; please leave comments on any of the host blogs as they appear, and feel free to write your own post, too. Grab the code (above) for the pretty badge, and link up by clicking on the link below, or at Victoria’s blog. Thanks again!
Powered by Linky Tools
Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…
I am also linking this post to Emma’s meme ‘Wednesday Words’ as I find the words of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ so powerful and moving.
