I watched Queen Elizabeth’s speech last Sunday and heard her reference the broadcast she had made in October 1940. I was 5 years old when I listened to that broadcast at my home in East London. The young Princess Elizabeth’s speech to the children of the Commonwealth was reassuring and comforting to evacuees and children, like me, who were still at home never knowing when or where the next bomb would hit. Listening to Sunday’s speech I was reminded of those early days of World War II. France had surrendered and it appeared that England would soon be invaded. Those were dark days indeed.
Comparing this current crisis with WWII is appropriate, for these too are dark days. Our lives have changed. We are nervous now, as many were then, and we take special precautions. We don’t put up black-out curtains and carry gas masks, but we wash our hands frequently, stay six feet apart and, yes, we wear face masks now. Families and friends are separated not because some go off to war but because travel is restricted and we are unable to gather together in fellowship and celebrate special occasions. New regulations are introduced almost daily and carefully laid plans have to be changed. Yes, there are similarities, not the least of which is that people are in danger and die.
There are differences too. In the war there was rationing and shortages but shops and pubs were open and dancehalls, cinemas and theaters were closed only briefly early on. People could gather in large groups, to eat, drink and be merry. Today’s technology tries to compensate, enabling us to communicate by FaceTiming and Zooming our get-togethers, but it hasn’t come up with a virtual hug that satisfies the way the old-fashioned ones did.
Princess Elizabeth closed her wartime broadcast with “Goodnight children, everywhere,” a song made famous by Vera Lynn. By association, these words comforted children who were evacuated from their homes to escape the bombings. Is it a coincidence that the Queen closed her speech on Sunday with a line from another WWII song, also made famous by Vera Lynn, “We’ll meet again?” I don’t think it’s a coincidence. There are many similarities between what was experienced during the war and today’s COVID crisis and we need the same reassurance, resolve and community spirit to get through it.
In her speech on Sunday, the Queen didn’t say “Keep calm and carry on” and she didn’t say, “Keep a stiff upper lip.” She didn’t have to. Those admonishments were softly but strongly imbedded in her words.
One of the TV news people reviewing the speech was surprised that the Queen had not mentioned that her son had contracted the disease. She didn’t have to, because everyone knew that Prince Charles had caught the novel coronavirus. The Queen understood that this broadcast was for the people around the globe listening to and watching it. It wasn’t about her. That’s the conduct of a leader.
Sylvia Lewis is a Greenbelt News Review board member and former president of GHI. To hear We’ll Meet Again, go to youtube.com/watch?v=HsM_VmN6ytk. For Goodnight Children Everywhere go to youtube.com/watch?v=iQWY31G3B58.