Tuesday 20 September 2022

God Save The King

Hello.  If you've been waiting patiently, thank you for sticking with me.  If you have just found me, you are welcome here, too.

The last time I was here I told you how my mother told her parents about the death of King George VI and now here we are, seven months later, having just laid his daughter to rest.  I was hovering around the television on 8th September, watching the news unfold, and when Queen Elizabeth  II's death was finally announced I immediately rang my mother.  "I know that you will already know," I said, "but I wanted to tell you that the Queen has died because you told your parents that the King had died."  It simply felt the right thing to do.  As I was speaking to her the television played the National Anthem and, hearing it, my mother told me to stand up.  "My father would have done and your Auntie Peggie would have done, and your father-in-law as well," she said.  So the Best Beloved and I stood up, just the two of us, unobserved, in our living room, while the National Anthem played, and I didn't feel silly. 

I heard a journalist say on television that he's not a monarchist but he is a Queenist and I have discovered over these last twelve days that I am a Queenist too.  I have been far more upset than I expected to be and I don't really understand why.  I never met The Queen and only saw her once, when I was a child and stood on a pavement waving a flag as her open carriage drove past.  Even my republican husband's views have changed during these days and he can newly see advantages in having a constitutional monarchy.  Yesterday we put the television on early, lit a candle and watched Her Late Majesty's last journey all day, standing up every time the National Anthem was played.  By the evening I felt wiped out.  All rather odd.

Today is a new day.

See you soon.

Love, Mrs Tiggywinkle x



13 comments:

  1. Hi there stranger! It is a bit different isn't it. Glad the royals are now having a week to grieve in private...they must be drained. x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello - and congratulations on betrothals to your family! I agree, the Royals have done so well in public, they need to close out the world for a week and collapse. x

      Delete
  2. That is good you continued the tradition of telling your mom, tho she already knew. I am in California and loved your queen and love the traditions of the monarchy, such a strong and unifying link between past and present.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think that strong link has given us some sense of stability over the last few, chaotic years. x

      Delete
  3. Welcome back. Strange times indeed. Momentous too. B x

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Mrs T. Your post follows on nicely from your previous one, it certainly has been a momentous and emotional time. I just had to go to Windsor to take some flowers to pay my respects for the Queen's 70 years of service. Hope you are all well. x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, yes, we're fine. My sister and some of her youngsters went to The Long Walk in the early hours of Monday morning to get front row places for the funeral procession and slept in camping chairs. The flowers had been placed so beautifully there by the gardeners. Well done you. x

      Delete
  5. Nice to see a post here, Mrs. T. Yes, things feel oddly different now, and I feel a bit lost. I saw the Queen just once when she visited our northern Canada town in 1970. Queenist is a good descriptor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Lorrie, it feels good to be to be back here. I think I feel a bit lost, too. x

      Delete
  6. Great to see you back here. So much has changed over the last few months hasn't it? Now we are Caroleans rather than Elizabethans although I am old enough to have started life as a Georgian. It has all been quite an emotional time. I hope you and your family are well:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We are Rosie, thank you. Yes, a great deal of change, I am having to keep my political mouth firmly zipped. x

      Delete
  7. It would be lovely to see you posting again.

    ReplyDelete