When 80 year old Mary Soames* wrote of life with her father Winston Churchill, she , as an i8 year old through the dark days of the beginning of the Second World War in Britain described the visit for several weeks of Harry Hopkins. Hopkins, an American, son of a harness maker, now a Federal Undersecretary was sent by Roosevelt to assess the situation there and determine what needs America could and should supply.
Mary remembers the intimate time Hopkins spent with her father and their family through the withering time of the Battle of Britain when the British felt alone and abandoned and her father was so pressed. She recalled the family dinner given for Hopkins on his departure. He stood and spoke to them all that evening and he said, in passing, "I suppose you wonder what I will say to President Roosevelt when I return. This is what I can and will advise them for our countries. ----- Where you will go, we will go, and where you lodge we will lodge and your people will be our people."
Hopkins, son of a harness maker found nothing more expressive of the connection with Britain, America, and the family of Mary Soames than he found from the Book of Ruth. But it says more-----" your people will be my people and your God, my God and where you die I will die also." Harry Hopkins was as good as her words.
* From A Daughter's Tale; The Memoirs of Winston Churchill. Mary Soames
Mary remembers the intimate time Hopkins spent with her father and their family through the withering time of the Battle of Britain when the British felt alone and abandoned and her father was so pressed. She recalled the family dinner given for Hopkins on his departure. He stood and spoke to them all that evening and he said, in passing, "I suppose you wonder what I will say to President Roosevelt when I return. This is what I can and will advise them for our countries. ----- Where you will go, we will go, and where you lodge we will lodge and your people will be our people."
Hopkins, son of a harness maker found nothing more expressive of the connection with Britain, America, and the family of Mary Soames than he found from the Book of Ruth. But it says more-----" your people will be my people and your God, my God and where you die I will die also." Harry Hopkins was as good as her words.
* From A Daughter's Tale; The Memoirs of Winston Churchill. Mary Soames
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