I was preparing breakfast when I heard that Queen Elizabeth II had died. A strange feeling came over me at that moment. It was a kind of realisation that the world – my world – had altered again and a new dawn had commenced, in more ways than one.
When I was 7, I pledged allegiance to the Queen so it’s been quite a long time that she was was technically ‘my Queen’. I’d never given much thought to that pledge made so many years ago, but hearing that news it came back to me. And here we are decades later and she is no more so what of my pledge? Does that die too? It was sad news to me but I knew there would be both supportive and unsupportive commentary from all corners of the world. I was not disappointed. It’s interesting how there are people who rush to call for everything to be dismantled and some new institution installed at these times without regard to the consequences of their demands.
During my lifetime there have been many icons that have died – Winston Churchill; JFK; Malcolm X; Bobby Kennedy; Martin Luther King; Jimi Hendrix; John Lennon; Princess Diana; David Bowie to name but a few. Some were held in high regard, some not so but all played a part in the script of my life to some degree. The Queen was a constant however.
The Queen was there from the time I was born and had her name associated with many aspects of my early life – education, hobbies and activities, social networks, charities, sport, culture, the essence of Britishness and more. Her death brought back a lot of memories and a veil was cast over those early years as in fact an age, an iconic part of my history, has now gone – never to be lived again.
I didn’t meet her and I am not a royalist but she did seem to be a part of life as I’ve known it. I think she genuinely care about her role, the people she dealt with and she accepted her position with strength and determination. She was born into the role – it was not something she chose, and she carried it out as best she could.
The world has lost a unique person in her passing without doubt.
There were a number of other people who passed during the same week, most of whom were not known outside of their own families and friends and certainly not on the world stage, but I am sure they have also left something of themselves behind, something to make their part of the world a better place.
Life is nothing if not change, but life goes on …………………… doesn’t it?
