AUSSIE GIRL RECEIVES LAST LETTER FROM QUEEN
OLIVIA SHARES HER VERY SPECIAL DELIVERY FROM THE PALACE
On the morning Australia woke to discover Queen Elizabeth II had passed away, Natalie Akers had a solemn conversation with her 8-year-old daughter, Olivia.
“We had a chat saying how it was a very sad day and how the Queen died overnight and then I said, ‘I don’t think we’re going to get the letter’,” Natalie tells New Idea.
Every day for more than a month, Olivia had been asking her mum if today was the day she might receive a special delivery from Buckingham Palace.
At the end of June, Olivia wrote to Her Majesty to congratulate her on the Platinum Jubilee. Olivia explained how she’d recently dressed up as the Queen in her Trooping the Colour garb for a fancy dress competition, and she enclosed photos.
“She’d been asking on and off, ‘Is there anything in the mail, Mum?’ We’re a small country town so our little post office knew we’d posted it,” says dairy farmer Natalie, who lives in Tallygaroopna in Victoria.
“I ducked in after school drop off and was told I had ‘a very special letter’. I said, ‘you’re kidding me’. Of all days for the letter to have arrived!”
Inside an embossed envelope with the Queen’s seal was a “beautiful” personalised letter from Balmoral Castle dated the 25th August, 2022, signed off by Lady-in-waiting, Annabel Whitehead.
The Queen, she wrote, was “touched” by Olivia’s message and complimented her “splendid” pony, Lady.
Unsurprisingly, the young royal fan was delighted.
“I felt excited and surprised that I got the letter,” Olivia says. “It’s pretty special. I like royalty. I watch lots of Disney princess shows.”
Olivia is now considering writing to other members of the royal family but says she’s unlikely to choose King Charles.
“I was thinking of writing [to him] but I don’t mean to be rude, some royals are a bit old, so I might write to the younger ones.”