Thank you QEII. Some thoughts
Remembering Elizabeth II through the eyes of a child and as a senior
As a 10 year old choir boy at Luton Church I remember passing through the queen’s chancel and Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh’s knowing wink and the kindly smile HM Queen Elizabeth II gave us choir boys as we processed through to the choristry. 59 years on, that memory lives on.
This week, the U.K. as a nation celebrates 70 years of the monarch’s reign and I for one will smile and applaud.
I’m not a religious monarchist but I am an admirer of a woman who, just a few months before I was born, dedicated her life to service for her nation. A woman who has kept her word in ways few others demonstrate.
There have been road bumps along the way, the most obvious being the royal family’s botched response to the death of Princess Diana. Most recently, the royal family has been tainted by the Duke of York’s ridiculous claims of not being involved in the Epstein sex scandals. Those aside, Her Maj has been a paragon of all that’s best about being British.
Yes, this country has a dark colonial past. But seeing her smilingly shaking hands with Provo leader Martin McGuinness as part of the Northern Ireland peace process has to go down as one of the most humble expressions of acceptance in this country’s history.
Similarly, the image of her, sitting alone and observing COVID rules during her husband’s funeral strikes me as an example that reflected tje country’s COVID mood, even while our government leaders saw ‘the rules’ another way.
So today, I wish Her Maj a wonderful day. I hope she enjoys the celebrations of a unique and much loved institution. It’s not perfect, but it’s consistent in her dedication to service she made so man many years ago. Something that’s rare in 2022.