Sunday dawned, I rehearsed my short speech in front of my bedroom mirror, butterflies dancing in my stomach. After a rehearsal which ran late - mad dashing between venue and Hotel to get changed - the first ever memorial service to honour the heroism of SS Henry Bacon crew began on time and went without a hitch. Knut Vollebaek, the Norwegian Ambassador in Washington opened the occasion with fine words. My turn was coming! The Master of Ceremonies, Major General Jan Blom, introduced me and before I could blink I was standing at the lectern speaking to an audience of over 150 people. Somehow I managed to say what I wanted to and then the clip was shown - this was my first audience outside of the cutting room, always a terrifying moment. However I was reassured and uplifted when across the crowded room Chuck Reed caught my eye and gave me the thumbs up - brilliant I thought. This was the moment when all the hard work was worthwhile.

The lecture continued when Monrad Pedersen, in his charming broken English, read a greeting from the other Norwegian survivors most of whom still live on the Island of Sørøya. He did it so well. Then the hankies came out in force at the climax of the ceremony - a ship's bell was tolled for each lost soul as their names were called out, there were 28 of them. This was followed by a minute of silence, apart from the odd sniffle you could hear a pin drop. It was extremely moving. The silence was broken when our heroes, Spud and Chuck rose and spoke to all of us. No one can know what they were feeling when they heard the names of their lost shipmates being called out. Then it was all over. I was still drying my eyes when people seemed to come from everywhere congratulating me. The clip from my film had made a great impact and I was told by the Ambassador that it 'gave us all a better understanding of the drama that we commemorated.' (Cont. on next page)