I watched the entire parade to Westminster Abbey, the funeral service at Westminster Abbey, the parade at Windsor and the committal service at the St George Chapel Windsor. Just waiting for the parade and then the service at Christ Church Cathedral in Ottawa online. Watching from afar as I am at my daughter's house.
Although I remember when King George VI died and the pictures of his funeral, I believe I saw that at the theatre. It is a bit vague in my mind. I do not think young children under about 8 or 9 really understand about death. From 9 to 10 they do appear to have a better understanding. I was just 6 and 1/2 when the King died but I do remember that quite well possibly because our principal was an ex British Officer and we all lined up in our classes in front of the flagpole and he lowered it to half-mast. Then we continued with our formed lines and went back into the school and filed into the auditorium (was the usual kindergarten classroom after that started up just before I went to kindergarten actually) where we had a service of remembrance for the King and finished up singing God Save the Queen).
An extremely fitting tribute to a Queen of seven decades as her great grandson (Prince George) walked with his younger sister behind the Queen's Coffin - the continuous line there for all to see - King Charles III, the Prince of Wales (Prince William), and Prince George. The two children, so very young, did very well as it was their beloved grandmother that they had lost. I am not sure that it hurts any less when your loved one is old; they are still lost to you and if you are young it looks like a long life without them. I am sure Prince George will always be proud that he was there (as well as his sister).
The Service of Commemoration has begun at Christ Church Cathedral. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney certainly did his usual expert job and the entire service was a good commemoration. One might expect that I might not like Prime Minister Mulroney as I was one of the people that was cut during his first cuts in the public service (I was a proofreader) but I almost immediately had another job (the same, proofreading on contract at home) and I am a great believer in the government keeping good control of finances.
As one of seven children there wasn't a lot of time to spend individually with either of my parents. I did work for my father for a couple of summers but he was busy and I was busy so not a lot of communication. With my mother, I have almost thirty years of letters she wrote to me after we moved to Ottawa from my home town of London, Ontario. But mostly I have thoughts she expressed to me over that period of 59 years from my birth to her death. We moved away when I was just 30 and I married at 20 so not a lot of time with my mother. But I have to admit the thoughts that she expressed to me were very meaningful. Particularly as I started to recover from my nervous, mental, physical breakdown. She didn't say too much whilst I was under care but once I was back looking after my five month old daughter, she would just make these comments and I would tuck them away to think about because that is the way that my brain works. I seldom react to anything at the time; I need to think about it. Sometimes people would ask me questions after I gave a talk and perhaps I did a good job or perhaps I did not; it depended on the question. If it was answerable from the talk that I had just given then I would do well; if it was off topic then I mostly avoided it. But back to my mother; her words of wisdom sometimes were years in fruition in terms of my understanding their significance but gradually they have all proved useful in my life. I would describe her as an excellent mother actually; she didn't show favoritism; she demanded that you work as well as you were able and she insisted that you learn to do everything that you needed to do in order to manage your life. My father was actually pretty much the same kind of person but I didn't really know him that well I would say even though I did work for him for several summers. But I think he too was a very good father interested in his children although his attitude was quite British in retrospect and perhaps my mother's attitude was as well.
As I watched the two young children of the Prince of Wales today it brought me back in time as they had I am sure already schooled their children in what was expected of them and they then simply moved them along through what needed to be done. with a minimum of fuss. I do not envy them that fishbowl existence but they are raised to serve their country and I expect they will do the same wonderful job that their great grandmother did and that their grandfather, father and mother are doing and will do.
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