My Knight in Shining Armor

Well, it's now official. My husband really and truly is my knight in shining armor. Okay, there's no armor, but he really is a knight. As of March 7, 2007, he is a knight in Belgium. This is probably going to require a little bit of explanation. As most of you know Mat directed a documentary called Last Best Hope about the heroic actions of members of the Belgian Resistance during World War II. We went to Brussels in 2005 to screen the movie there for an audience of big-shots like Prince Phillippe and other dignitaries. Well, they all loved the movie of course because these resistance fighters were portrayed as heroes. The Belgian Resistance has never really gotten much attention in books or movies. Usually you hear about the American and the British soldiers and the Dutch and French Resistance movements. So anyway, several people in the government wanted to honor the filmmakers for telling the story, and it was mentioned that they might be knighted. We had a screening in DC last year that was hosted by the Belgian Embassy and it wasn't mentioned, so we kind of forgot about it. Walter Verstraeten (one of our producers who is Belgian) was knighted, and we were all so happy for him. Being Belgian and extremely patriotic, this was a REALLY big deal for him.

So today he gets this email from Walter. I'm just going to include the whole thing because I love the way Walter writes. (All of his emails are like this whether he's talking about what he ate for lunch or announcing that you've just been made a knight.) Today Mat asked me if I intentionally set out to marry nobility. We were joking that we're probably the poorest European nobility on the planet. It's all hilarious really. Obviously the Belgian military doesn't have much going on during peace-time. I should add, though, that while we are getting a chuckle out of this, it really is a big honor. We are so grateful to Walter and all the Belgians who have kindly helped all along the way as Ramona, David, Mat, and Wilson tried to get this film made. I guess there's going to be a ceremony at some point where he and the others get presented with their medals. I'm sure that will make the blog...

Here's Walter's email:

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Dearest friends,

By Royal Decree of March 7, 2007 and upon instigation of André Flahaut,
Belgian Minister of Defense, the following lady and gentlemen have been
attributed the Order of Knight of the Crown (Chevalier de l’Ordre de la
Couronne, Ridder in de Kroonorde) and shall forthwith be allowed to add
the superlative “knight”, “chevalier” or “ridder” to their name:

Ramona chevalier Kelly
Robert David chevalier Grosvenor
Chevalier Hames
Wilson chevalier Waggoner

They shall forthwith be addressed as chevalier.

By the by, Ramona, there is no female version of chevalier. Ladies
therefore are also being addressed as “chevalier”.

If all this be true then why haven’t you guys heard about it? Don’t ask
me! I started my investigation by addressing myself to one
capitaine-commandant by the name of Prum, who at the time asked for your resumes to be sent to him. I inquired whom I should address at the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs to find out about the radio silence
surrounding the attribution of a Belgian medal to my four very special
friends. I thereupon wrote a nice letter with a lot of addenda to one Mr.
José Cleereman at the MFA, who called me this afternoon sounding utterly
surprised since the dossiers had been favorably concluded by him on April
16, 2007 and forwarded, medals and charters included, to Michel Jaupart at the Ministry of Defense. So I called Jaupart, who turned out to have
vanished from his former trusted position with Flahaut and who in the
meantime had been promoted to a new posting with the Institute of Veterans and moved to a new location. Jaupart told me to contact one
Capitaine-Commandant Marcia, which I promptly did and who told me that still in April he had forwarded the medals etc. to the Belgian Military
Attaché in Washington, one Rear-Admiral Willy Temmerman, who, if my
recollections are correct, was one of our guests at our Washington viewing
last November. So, my dear chevaliers, the medals are at your side of
the pond awaiting the proper moment to be attached to your dress and/or
jackets.

I shall send an e-mail to Admiral Temmerman still today asking him about
the exact status and shall keep you informed of any new findings.

I humbly bow my head to the four new chevaliers de la Couronne and bid you welcome to the family of Belgian nobility.

Walter chevalier Verstraeten

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