Queen of our hearts
The sad news of our Queen’s death came as I was writing my normal letter to you for this page. The magazine was about to go to the printers and there was no time to change any other features; it left me only able to scrap the words I had planned and dedicate this page to this most solemn and heartbreaking of occasions. At that moment, it even began to rain, as if the weather was in sympathy with us all.
We will be running fitting tributes to Her Majesty in our upcoming issues but, for now, I wanted to simply reflect on how special she was to so many of us. ‘It feels like we’ve lost one of our own family,’ my neighbour said to me when I popped outside to gather my thoughts. And it struck me, that’s exactly what it feels like. The Queen was our sovereign but, in so many ways, she also felt like one of us.
She was known for her ‘make do and mend’ attitude, wearing outfits again and again. ‘Her Majesty is always thrifty and likes her clothes to be adapted and recycled as much as possible,’ The Queen’s dresser Angela Kelly wrote in 2019. She could knit and wasn’t one for extravagance. She even did her own makeup, the only exception being when she recorded her Christmas Broadcast.
She was, of course, a great family person, devoted to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And yet she also proved time and again that she was there for us, too. As a Princess in the Second World War, she famously volunteered as a truck driver and mechanic with the Auxiliary Territorial Service, making her the first female member of the Royal Family to serve in the military. As a young bride, she used her clothing ration coupons to pay for her wedding dress. Thanks to her tireless work, almost a third of us are said to have seen, or even met, The Queen. And she’d make sure she was always seen, radiant in bright and beautiful outfits, always with the biggest of smiles.
And it’s the memory of her smile that will stay with us now and that will keep us going through these difficult times. A woman of the people and a woman so loved by the people. Thank you, Your Majesty.