The Churchill Series - Jan. 8, 2006

(One of a series of daily posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

I want to share a story that reflects Churchill's care for the precise use of language, even under the most trying circumstances. I can't cite a source for it but I recall reading it in a reliable one; and I don't doubt that on the important points the story is true. So with the usual caution about memory, here's the story.

Churchill was in his last years and visiting with friends in the South of France. After dinner, they went outside and sat quite awhile talking. Darkness fell and a wind came up. Churchill's physician, Lord Charles Moran, urged the party to go inside. Churchill wanted to stay outside. So the party did.

Churchill awoke the next morning with fever, chills and severe bronchial congestion. Lord Moran feared he had pneumonia but told Churchill he thought it was a cold. Moran added, "I fear you caught it sitting out so late on the porch."

Churchill, struggled to say something in response but Moran didn't catch it. So he bent close to him and asked what he'd said.

"It's a portico, Charles, a portico."