Churchill wants his mommy

In his Dec. 26, 1942 speech to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill spoke in his usual bold strokes, claiming, “Now we are masters of our our fate.”

But he began the speech with a remark about what the moment meant to him personally, and with a heartfelt reference to his American mother, Jennie Jerome.

The fact that my American forbears have for so many generations played their part in the life of the United States, and that here I am, an Englishman, welcomed in your midst, makes this experience one of the most moving and thrilling in my life, which is already long, and has not been entirely uneventful.

I wish indeed that my mother, whose memory I cherish across the veil of years, could be here this evening.