God save Queen from more pain
ALONG with every one of her loyal subjects I wish Her Majesty a speedy recovery from the acute discomfort of a sprained back.We realise the sovereign is far from comfortable because if she could possibly have masked the pain, disguised the strain and made her way to the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday she would most definitely have done so.
Duty is her lodestar. She is famously selfless. The mere idea of the Queen, aged 95, desperately disappointed not to be able to pay her respects to those who sacrificed their lives so future generations might enjoy the luxury of growing up in peace is troubling.
We like to imagine our monarch convivially watching TV with her chum and dresser Angela Kelly, hurtling through the formidable mound of documents in her legendary red boxes and enjoying her cherished rustic pursuits. The picture of newly widowed Elizabeth II felled – even temporarily – by what Shakespeare called the afflictions “that flesh is heir to” is so poignant it is hard to bear.
The Queen is so much more than the grandmother of the nation. She is our constant, our comfort, our inspiration. Buoyed by the longevity of the Queen Mother who performed public engagements until a few months before her death at 101, we have come to expect her daughter to be almost immortal.
SO VENERABLE is our monarch that almost no one alive is old enough to remember a time when we didn’t bless her whenever our national anthem strikes up, or when hers was not the face on our currency and the silhouette on our stamps. She pierces the very root of our subconscious.
Who among us has not dreamt of tucking into a regal tea, having a heart-to-heart or even doing a jive with the Queen? She is as much a part of our lives in this green and pleasant land as the air that we breathe. Without her we are discombobulated.
The Queen doesn’t “do” frailty. She doesn’t take to her bed. She is unlike any other 95 year old. She rides helmet-less, with nothing but a headscarf for protection. She drives. She delivers speeches with verve. She’s planning the platinum jubilee with gusto.We need her to be herself for us to be ourselves.
“Long to reign over us” means a heck of a lot longer than this,Your Majesty.