Queen Elizabeth's passing

I was not surprised to hear of the Queen’s passing, but I was very sad to hear of it.

My entire life I have heard and read about the British Aristocracy. My uncle was from Blackpool, England and spoke occasionally about the royals. He was not a fan, but I became one. So, when I heard of the Queen’s illness and declining health, I reminisced, remembering how impressed I was by her elegance and bearing.

All families have scandals and skeletons in the closet that we want to keep hidden but in the case of the Royal family, this was nearly impossible.

In the early 70’s I was a romantic adolescent girl and Queen Elizabeth had been on the throne two decades. I watched the television every night, listening to Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather reporting on the Vietnam War and often on British news. As is the case with most adolescents, my thoughts were not about the war but about the princesses and the castles and the Princes. Fascinated by the old-world pomp and ceremony, I gobbled it up. Reading Time and Life magazines at school in the library, caused me some pain when my friends found out.

I watched the marriages, especially between Charles and Diana in 1981. I was quite pregnant with my first child and living in Lexington Park, Maryland near the Patuxent River Naval base where my husband was stationed. I wasn’t the only one watching that wedding. According to Wikipedia, over 17 million people watched that wedding. Many Navy wives, most of us pregnant, gathered at each other’s houses to watch and comment on the gowns, the carriage and all of it. This was Queen Elizabeth’s son getting married and there was no way we were going to miss it.

Then came the grandchildren, William and Harry.

I watched as they grew up. They are the same ages as my kids. Even now I am intrigued by the Royal family, although not with the rose colored glasses I used to wear.

It has been reported the Queen visited Wyoming in 1984 at the Wallop ranch near Big Horn. She was the guest of Lady Porchester, the sister of Wyoming U.S. Senator, Malcolm Wallop.

While in Wyoming the Queen traveled to the Bradford Brinton Museum to view paintings of western artists. She expressed her gratitude for the privacy and restraint shown to her during her visit.

She also visited Ritz Sporting Goods in Sheridan, where the owner, Sam Mavrakis gave her fishing rods and flies to give to Prince Philip. Mavrakis had met Prince Philip in 1969 when Philip visted the area for a five day fishing and hunting trip. Mavrakis commented later, “Prince Philip was just a regular guy. This isn’t Washington, D.C., nobody goes crazy just because there’s a queen in town”.

Today I watched the funeral of the Queen with tears in my eyes and a heavy heart. She was preceded in death by her “strength and stay”, Prince Philip, who passed at the age of 99 last year.

Queen Elizabeth had fifteen prime ministers serve during her reign, beginning with Winston Churchill and ending with Liz Truss whom the Queen had just appointed.

She lived history. She made history.

The Queen leaves behind a magnificent, provocative legacy. She called herself the “representative” of her people. Skilled at diplomacy, she strengthened ties between the UK and other nations over many decades.

She was involved with countless charities and programs to improve peoples’ lives. She founded the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee trust which champions medical initiatives to treat eye conditions and prevent blindness in Africa, Australia and India. She planted more than 1,500 trees across the world throughout her lifetime and started the initiative called the Queen’s Green Canopy to encourage the public to plant trees. Thousands of trees have been planted thanks to her foresight.

It is truly the end of an era. The end of the second Elizabethan era.

She guided her country from the world of elitism and complacency through social liberation during the 60’s, the caustic divisions of the 80’s, into the new millennium and through the mire of a Scottish-independence referendum that would have destroyed 300 years of the union between Britain and Scotland.

Even as the world changed around her, with technology growing exponentially, she remained in place. Like the North Star, she was a fixed point; older than nylon, Scotch tape and the Hobbit.

She trained as an army driver and mechanic in WWII.

She embraced challenges and faced them head on.

During the pandemic, she fulfilled her royal engagements over Zoom.

Because of Queen Elizabeth’s modern thinking, many things will be different for King Charles III.

Elizabeth II started paying income tax in 1992. She trimmed the Civil list to stop supporting princelings and dukes who were not core members of “The Firm.”

She also announced during the Platinum Jubilee in June that she hoped Camilla, Charles’s second wife would be known as “Queen” .Where the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, was once prevented marrying the man she loved because he had been married before. Britain will now have a previously divorced king married to a previously divorced wife.

Queen Elizabeth may have passed from this world, but perhaps her legacy will live on, giving promise and hope for tolerance and patience to the next generation in many countries.