How she did it, what were the mechanics, if that’s even the right word, I can’t begin to say. For what seemed like a long time, she simply stood in place silently and I watched her hold her audience without saying a word, by the sheer force of her presence. She drew every eye in the house to her, mine included, and the room fell utterly silent. I know it’s a cliché, but truly, you could have heard a pin drop. Even when she must have known that she had complete control of the room, she was in no hurry. She waited until she was ready, and when she was ready, she smiled and began to speak. They listened, spellbound. As did I.
‘Good morning, everyone. My name is Samantha van Eyck, but I hope you will all call me Sam; everyone does. Most of you knew my dad, Gerry. Joe read out his name just now, because, sadly, he passed a few months ago. If you knew my dad, you know that he was a regular at these reunions. As far as I recall, he never missed one. He looked forward to them. He looked forward to them because it meant a lot to him to be a member of this family, and because he valued his friendship with you. He wanted to be here with us today. If he could have been here, he would; and he would have told you, more eloquently than I ever could, how much it means to him that we have begun the fight to have Jacob recognised as the hero he was.’
She paused.
‘Like most of you, I was brought up on the story of Jacob van Eyck and the loans he made to keep George Washington’s army supplied long enough to defeat the British. I learned about Jacob from my dad before I could read or write, and I have never forgotten the story. My dad laid it on pretty thick. To hear the story from him, you would think Jacob saved the War of Independence from failure pretty much single-handedly, kind of like Superman swooping down to save the day. Well, OK, when I grew up, of course I figured out that it wasn’t quite like that, that Jacob didn’t rescue America all on his own. Apparently, there were a few other people involved, not to mention our French allies, so OK, maybe my dad gilded the lily just a little bit.’
She waited for a ripple of affectionate laughter to die away.
‘But if he talked the story up, he talked it up out of love and pride. And he was right about one thing. Maybe Jacob’s loans didn’t win the war by themselves, but they played a big part in winning the war. They set Washington free to win.’
Applause.
‘And in my dad’s eyes, that made Jacob an American hero.’
More applause, louder and longer. She stopped and once again held the audience in silence for a while.
‘The great heroes of that early time in our history – George Washington, Paul Revere and our founding fathers, they all have their memorials, don’t they? If you go to Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, there they are for all to see. But you can travel the length and breadth of this country and, search wherever you will, you will find no monument to Jacob van Eyck; not a statue, not a portrait, not a plaque on a wall; nothing.
‘My dad believed that wasn’t right, and he wanted to put it right. Now, I know the family has made efforts in the past. Some of you here today have been involved in those efforts,’ she looked down at Aunt Meg and held her gaze for a while, ‘and I know you must be discouraged that those efforts didn’t meet with more success. But what’s important is that you tried. The fact that you tried must mean that you agree with my dad. You believe, as he did, that the government must do something to recognise Jacob’s place in American history.’
Applause again.
‘That’s why I am here speaking to you today. I’m here because my dad asked me to continue the fight, and I’m asking you to join me in making one more effort. I’m not asking you to go back over the same ground. In the past, we relied on politicians. We tried that, and it didn’t work. They ignored us. It’s not the kind of thing politicians will go out on a limb for. So my dad believed that we needed to do something they can’t ignore. I believe that too. If we can bring the government before a court, they can’t ignore us any more. I’m not saying we’re bound to win; I can’t promise you that. But at least they can’t ignore us. And at least, this way, when we look back and tell our children and grandchildren about Jacob, we can say we tried everything there was to try.’
She was silent again. Suddenly, I envied Sam for having no fear of silence; for her embrace of silence as a source of strength, not a sign of weakness. I saw myself in the courtroom: dreading silence; doing my best to talk non-stop; constantly filling the void with sound; experiencing the way the fear of silence stretches time, so that every second feels like a minute; desperate never to allow silence to descend as long as I had power to stop it. And I saw myself in conversations with Jordan when I had felt the same fear. Why? I had never asked myself that. What was I afraid of?
A man in the third row back, to my left, raised a hand. Sam smiled and pointed to him.
‘I’m Ben Stevens from Atlanta, Georgia. Sam, when you talk about making the government do something for Jacob, it seems to me you’re preaching to the choir. We all want to see that. But the problem is, we’ve been let down so often in the past, it’s hard to believe it could be any different now. It seems the government doesn’t give a damn. We need to know why you think it might be different this time. We’re going to need to know a lot more about this lawsuit. How much chance do we have of winning? How does it all work? And how much is it going to cost?’
There were many heads nodding in agreement, and murmurs of assent all through the room.
‘I know, Ben. And for that, I’m going to hand over to the expert, someone who knows far more about it than I do, our attorney, Kiah Harmon.’