The Passing of Queen Elizabeth II

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Frelga]

End of an era in many ways.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Sunsilver]

That's incredible, Voronwë!
Apparently, earlier in the day, there was an announcement that she was seriously ill? One of my cousins posted saying we needed to pray for her. Maybe that's why people were already gathered at the Palace when she actually died.

I am in mourning today. I was a huge fan of hers. :'( I still remember her visit to Canada in 1959, to open the St. Lawrence Seaway. I was in kindergarten, and they taught us all to bow and curtesy, in case we happened to meet her. It's something of a tradition to have a young child or children present her with a bouquet of flowers during her visit, and I believe that child is picked at random, which is why we were taught how to do this.

Anyway, I insisted my dad buy me this scrapbook as a memento of her visit. It had a rip in the back cover, so he came home with another scrapbook that didn't have a royal photo on it, and I was MOST upset! He had to go back to the store and buy me the one you see below. I used it for news articles about the royals for a number of years. I will never part with it.

My mom repaired the rip with a piece of brown sticky paper. It's still there on the back cover.

[RoseMorninStar]

End of an era indeed. May she rest in peace.

Our daughter is in the UK right now. There are huge strikes going on (trash collection, mail, trains, etc..) and everything is just chaos. I can only imagine this will add to the chaos.

[Sunsilver]

Yeah, no doubt. The country is likely going to come to a standstill!

Remember the huge piles of flowers that were laid in front of the Palace when Princess Diana died? I'm willing to bet this will make that look pale in comparison! She was so loved by the people!¸

Okay - most of the people!

[Lalaith]

I feel like this can't be a good omen.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

[Frelga]

This trending for some reason...

20220908_131657.jpg (58.98 KiB) Viewed 3681 times

[Sunsilver]

Apparently the rainbow was also briefly visible at Windsor Castle at the moment they lowered the flag to half-staff.

[Sunsilver]

I just found this delightful story about the Queen, and can't stop laughing!! She really had the most wonderful sense of humour!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Should this be a separate thread?

[Sunsilver]

Umm...maybe. There's going to be a pretty prolonged period of mourning for her.

Your call, Voronwë...sure you'll do the right thing.

I think I'm one of the few on the board who really loved and admired her though. If we had more people from the U.K. and the Commonwealth it would likely be different.

[River]

I'm kinda shocked. Don't know why, she was 96, but she became Queen when my parents were less than a year old. My aunt was born, became a grandmother, and died in the span of her reign. She's the only English monarch most of us still living can remember.

One of my sisters has an adjunct position at U Toronto. She started last week. She's also a self-described Marxist. I wonder what she's making of this.

[RoseMorninStar]

I feel it's possible to reject the politics, imperialism, etc.. of the English monarchy and still admire Queen Elizabeth.

[Aravar]

End of an era indeed. May she rest in peace.

Our daughter is in the UK right now. There are huge strikes going on (trash collection, mail, trains, etc..) and everything is just chaos. I can only imagine this will add to the chaos.

Everything is not Chaos in the Uk. The train strikes are at best an inconvenience for those of us who use the trains. They've been a few days a month. The bin strike, as I understand it, is just in Edinburgh. My bins were collected yesterday. The mail stirke is also a minor inconvenience in these days of email.

[RoseMorninStar]

I'm glad to hear that Aravar. Perhaps she's just having a string of bad luck/poor timing. She's just finishing 3 weeks working on a project in the UK and plans to holiday a in Edinburgh, then London. The keys to her flat rental never arrived (they are blaming it on the mail strike, which didn't make sense to her, they've had 3 weeks!) and she has tickets to travel from Edinburgh to London on a strike day, which are affected unfortunately. Then there are plans to see Buckingham, etc.. and she's wondering if that will be cancelled. She was hoping for a fun, relaxing time after the completion of a stressful project. Of course the Queens passing puts a damper on things as well.

[Sunsilver]

This was posted on Twitter below the funny story about the ex-cop and the Queen. Laughing SO hard!


blackjackdavey
@VedaJacky
Replying to
@davidmackau
Honest question which I can't find the answer to:
Do all the "sirs" (Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Michael Caine, etc..) remain knighted? Or do they lose their titles now that the queen is gone?

Mattias Appelgren
@appelgreno
·
19h
Replying to
@VedaJacky
and
@davidmackau
They will all be buried with her.
SPEED
@TheIShowSpeed
·
18h
Is this true? Do all those who are knighted by her majesty really get buried within the same grounds as the Queen? That’s quite interesting actually, as I don’t really know anyone knighted by George VI
Ahnon Moose
@AhnonEMoose
·
18h
Yes, they all get rounded up and on the eve of the new coronation, are ceremonially entombed alive in the Queen's mausoleum

[N.E. Brigand]

This is the march that was commissioned for the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953:



The same composer, William Walton (1902-1983) wrote an even better march in 1937 for the coronation of her father, George VI:



A different composer, Michael Tippett (1905-1998) wrote a suite in 1948 to commemorate the birth of the man who has just become Charles III:



I learned about the last one from David Bratman, who discussed it several years ago in a series of blog posts about musical suites by British composers.

[Heliona]

All the strikes have been called off as a mark of respect, so Rose, your daughter shouldn't have much trouble travelling on the trains, at least.

I think everything is basically carrying on as normal. Sports matches were cancelled for a day, but are now going ahead. As Aravar said, it's basically business as usual, I definitely wouldn't say the UK was in chaos! Sounds like she's just had a terrible run of bad luck, unfortunately.

(Also, hi!)

As a Brit, I'm not mourning the loss of the Queen in that she was an old lady who passed away at 96, peacefully in her sleep. I never really much feeling for or against her. Her presence was an institution, so it is going to be weird having a King, and hearing "God Save the King" and everything that will gradually get re-branded, so to speak. I have a great deal of sympathy for her family, and particularly those with young children who have just started school excitedly to then have it tarnished forever by the death of their great-grandmother.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[ot]Wonderful to see you here, Heliona. It's been a while![/ot]