I heard this said yesterday and I very much agree. She has been a great Queen truly passionate about her country and mine as part of the Commonwealth and very much someone the world has looked up to and listened to through this past seventy years. Being almost seventy seven I am able to remember her entire reign.
I can remember when King George VI was still the reigning monarch and living in an "English" home growing up the King/Queen was often mentioned every day of my life living at home. My grandfather often talked about the Kings and Queens of England and he lived in England until he was 39 years of age. Queen Victoria reigned when he was born and was his Queen until she passed away when he was 26 years of age, then her son King Edward VII, his son George V, his son Edward VIII and the younger brother of Edward VIII was George VI and he did live to see Queen Elizabeth II crowned (six monarchs during his lifetime). My grandfather could recite all the Kings and Queens of England back to Alfred the Great and from him I learned all of them but not quite as well although I could go from William I (also the Duke of Normandy who led the invasion of England in 1066) to the present day but I wonder if I still can! You could tell my grandfather's priorities as he knew all those Kings and Queens in proper order with their dates and he could quote great sections of the Bible and knew the Book of Common Prayer by rote. To him that was the important elements of life when he was in his 70s when I knew him.
He was 78 when he passed away but up until his last year he was pretty bright and active. A stroke though rendered him less capable and he did not live long after his stroke. But it was his devotion to the Monarchy that I can still see in the peoples of the British Isles today. It is my own familial history that directs me in that way as well; three of my four grandparents were born in England and lived there to adulthood and beyond; my father was born in England coming to Canada when he was nine years of age and my only Canadian line was my mother, her father and his mother with all of their ancestors having been born and raised in England although my 2x great grandmother (mother of my maternal grandmother) was only 14 when she came to Canada with her parents in 1818. I always lived in an area where the Queen was revered and so I just never noticed that perhaps the monarchy played less of a role in Canada than I saw it. But the role is so deeply enshrined in our lives I can not actually see that changing for quite a long time. It quite simply works very well; the treaties with the First Peoples which are very important were signed by the King/Queen of the time and our Governor General is appointed by the government here but represents the Monarch here in Canada. It is a pleasant system that isn't marred by political intrigue. Our present Governor General, a member of the Inuit Peoples, is a perfect choice blending the original peoples with the more recent peoples. I have to say; why change, it is a system that works well although there have been Governor Generals of whom I have been less approving perhaps because they tried to make the job about them when they really did not represent that many of us. The person needs to be someone who represents the King (we now have King Charles III) and preferably Canadian born and travels extensively in Canada during their term of office.
I am pretty much glued to the television reporting of this past week. Amazing to have the rainbows and the sunbeam in various pictures since the death of the Queen. She was a great person. In my early 20s (I think I think I was 22 although I could look it up the Queen only came to London a few times) I was in the crowd when the Queen did a walkabout and she stopped and smiled at me; I was incapable of saying even one word or even of moving really but I shall always remember her smile and I think she said Hello. It will remain in my mind forever. I was on my own that day and coming from a large family I would have always been with them before marriage and they would surely have told me what to do but I was stunned in her presence. It was a long time ago but I can remember it like yesterday. What an honour to be in her presence that was.
Living in Ottawa now, the Queen came a number of times and we always were there by the side of the road waving - Royalist at heart and sad to see her go but those last days she was so weak and frail that God called her home to rest after her momentous seventy year reign. Now we have King Charles III and I am sure he will be a very excellent King. The strain I can remember seeing in the Queen's face that day so long ago is also with me. It is a life long commitment to be the Monarch of a nation but the training that they have had will lead him forward just as it did his mother.
Just finished watching the ceremonial walk from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster for the Lying in State of the Queen. Again so wonderful to see on the television; again it makes me think of my grandfather when he watched the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on television; I do not believe his eyes ever left the television set.
Living in Ottawa these past 47 and a half years, I was not there as my parents aged and passed away. Just visits to them; I generally spent the days with them when I was there. But it is not the same as actually being with your loved ones as they age into eternity. For me, those memories are of my grandparents although I was at my grandparent's funerals and both of my parent's funerals but that is not the same. There were many people there although mostly family but it is hard to mourn in public like that.
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