King Edward, The New Prince And Me

Today is July 23rd 2013.Can you believe that Christmas is only five months away. However, Chanukah is early this year and it falls on Wednesday November 27th in the evening and the first day is Thanksgiving Day November 28th. Wow, this must be a first. It is too early for me to comprehend. We will celebrate it by putting our electric Menorah in the window and light the lights and we will then wait and exchange gifts later on, probably around Christmas time. It is more a bit of fun to wait because by December, our holiday will be over and everyone else will be celebrating it more in the normal time

When I was a little girl, I was a bit envious of all the hoopla that was Christmas and we did not make a bit of decorating for Chanukah. We were given gifts and lit the Menorah with wax candles and Dad made a ceremony of the lighting of the candles and we would get a few gifts.

When my children were young, I decorated the window with a Menorah, put up little Chanukah signs and we would give them a gift each night for eight nights. When they were smaller, that was easy because the gifts were not real expensive like now with all the electronics kids adore. A book, a piece of clothing, a toy or a puzzle was sufficient. As they aged, we started doing it every other night with a gift because it got expensive. It was fun and I made a big deal out of it so my children would not envy Christmas time.

So this year, I will combine the two holiday ideas of gift giving so as it Is not over too soon with our early holiday this year. It is just a matter of extending some fun a little longer.

Chanukah is a fun holiday; the eating of potato pancakes called Latkes is a delicious delicacy if you like them which most people do enjoy. The Chanukah story is a sweet one with its ending and the way the Menorah had enough oil to last eight nights. School children love this story.

Many of our traditions last forever and rightly so. So I am just amending it a bit and extending it for our personal family.

Sometimes we have to change things as times change.

I see the Royal family is changing some events in their lives. The new Prince was just born and he will be third in line for the kingdom. I guess they all remember  that if it not for King Edward who gave up the throne to marry a commoner Wallis Warfield Simpson  and he could not marry her because she was not only a commoner, she was a divorcee. So instead of him, his brother George became king and his daughter, the eighty-five year old Elizabeth has been Queen for over fifty years. Had it not been for Uncle Edward, this whole family would not be prominent now. Queen Elizabeth did not allow her uncle’s wife, her aunt to visit them in their abode until a few years ago, when she relented and let Wallis visit there.

When we were in London in 1972 and we were on a tour with the travel group, the guide was constantly talking about the Queen etc. I had the chutzpah to say “if it were not for King Edward, this family would not be on the throne now and be such a prominent part of the country. He gave up being the king and my Mom heard it on the radio, the day he renounced becoming King.”  Wow, you would have thought I robbed someone in the crowd, his response to me was a scowl and if looks could have killed, I would have been down on the ground. The group we were with applauded me.

I kept waiting for my passport to be taken and for me to be sent home in disgrace. I said it very nicely and it was the truth.

When Edward renounced being king, he said it was for the woman he loved.  What more of showing love could a man ever make? However, he had no children with her, so the country would have missed out on all these children, grandchildren and now a great grandchild.

Maybe William (who was born on my birthday) should think of naming one of the names for the new Prince to be Edward. I believe they have about three names. After all, it was great uncle Edward who made all this possible. If that was us, we name our babies after a beloved deceased family or friend who we loved; one of your three or four names would surely be Edward.

The following was written about what happened. Here it is.

“Edward was the eldest son of King George V and Queen Mary. He was created Prince of Wales on his sixteenth birthday. As a young man, he served in the British Armed Forces during the First World War and undertook several foreign tours on behalf of his father.

Edward became king when his father died in early 1936. He showed impatience with court protocol, and politicians were concerned by his apparent disregard for established constitutional conventions. Only months into his reign, he caused a constitutional crisis by proposing marriage to the American socialite Wallis Simpson, who had divorced her first husband and was seeking a divorce from her second. The prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the Dominions opposed the marriage, arguing that the people would never accept a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands as queen. Additionally, such a marriage would have conflicted with Edward's status as the titular head of the Church of England, which opposed the remarriage of divorced people if their former spouses were still alive. Edward knew that the government led by British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin would resign if the marriage went ahead, which could have forced a general election and would ruin his status as a politically neutral constitutional monarch. Choosing not to end his relationship with Simpson, Edward abdicated. He was succeeded by his younger brother Albert, who chose the regional name George VI. With a reign of 326 days, Edward was one of the shortest-reigning monarchs in British and Commonwealth history. He was never crowned.

After his abdication, he was given the title Duke of Windsor. He married Simpson in France on 3rd of June 1937, after her second divorce became final. Later that year, the couple toured Germany. During the Second World War, he was at first stationed with the British Military Mission to France but, after private accusations that he held Nazi sympathies, he was assigned to the Bahamas as the islands' Governor. After the war, he was never given another official appointment and spent the remainder of his life in retirement in France.”

I believe that Wallis was invited to the royal abode after Edward passed on.

This is quite a better story than any of my favorite soap operas. But this is all true, so life is certainly more interesting than fiction.

Mazel Tov William, Kate and the as yet unnamed darling baby boy. When you grow up, I hope someone tells you the story of Uncle Ed and that is therefore the reason you will be third in succession to become King of England. If not, maybe if I am still around, I will send it to you.