Mum wanted to meet the Queen
PETER Colwell was a bloke on a Royal mission and he was keen to pass on his memories to readers of Dubbo Photo News in the wake of the sorrow that’s swept the world following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
“In 1954 the Queen came to Dubbo, and as we know, almost every western NSW town was empty on that day, as everyone set off for Dubbo. But my mother, Janet, who was a tragic fan of the Queen, was not among them. She was too ill to travel on the day,” Mr Colwell said.
“However, she did not give up, and in 1982 the Queen was coming to Bathurst, so I decided to take my mother to Bathurst for the Royal visit.
“She would have been ecstatic just to see the Queen at a distance. Alas, torrential rain overnight closed roads, and the Bathurst trip had to be abandoned. So my mother never got to see the Queen, and just a few years later, she passed away.”
Mr Colwell said these two missed opportunities made him determined to see the Queen in his mother’s memory and he began to make plans when it was announced she was returning to Dubbo in 1992.
“We arrived at the airport very early and staked a position right on the fence. By the time the Royal plane arrived, people were 10 deep behind me, but I stuck to my guns right on the fence,” he said.
By his account the Queen started walking along the fence, stopping occasionally to take flowers from a child. But for reasons unknown, when she got to him, stopped right in front less than a metre away, and looked straight at him.
“I welcomed her back to Dubbo, commenting that it had been a long time. She responded by saying that; ‘Yes, it has taken me rather a long time for me to get back here, hasn’t it?’ And then she was gone.
“If ever there was divine intervention, this was it. To this day, I will never know why she stopped right in front of me. But I do know that some force was at work!
“And so the events of recent days have had a special significance for me, she was the epitome of respect and dignity, – which is in short supply these days.”