Rest Easy Ma’am…

I do not care who you are or even if you’re a royalist or not, September 8th 2022 will forever be a date that the world remembers as the day we lost our Queen.

I truly believe that when she lost her, a part of her died with him. I believe she longed for him and felt so alone without him because for her entire reign as Queen he had always been 3 paces behind her and for the first time in her life she has to be the one to walk 3 paces behind him. I believe she didn’t know how to do life without him beside her and that everytime she looked behind her it was a stark reminder that she was now fatefully having to do this without him.

Whatever your opinions are of the royal family we have to remember that not only was she our Queen but she was their mother, their sister, their grandmother and the back bone of their family. So, not only will our country never be the same again, neither will their family. They have lost the glue that kept them together and the one consistent member that never gave up on them. Take a moment and think about the pillar of your family and imagine that person leaving you…it is enough to break even the toughest of hearts.

She will forever be remembered as our Queen who reigned for 70 years and 214 days; the second longest reigning monarch we have seen and there isn’t a single person who hasn’t lived under the Queen for the majority of their lives. Stepping onto the throne in 1952 she vowed to devote her life to serve the country and her people. She has seen us through wars and through the pandemic and gave comfort at times when so many lives were lost. She appointed 15 prime ministers and was a pillar of strength throughout the commonwealth. Many may not agree with having a royal family nor what they bring to the country but there is no denying that she has remained the one consistent that we know.

Tuning in for the royal speech this Christmas will be completely different as instead of seeing the face of our Queen reflecting on the previous year, reminding us of everything we have overcome as a united country we will see the face of our new king. We our now stepping into our new reality and personally, I am not sure I am ready for that. From a child I remember my nana putting it on and demanding silence while she spoke and in later years, it becoming a habit to put the speech on even if we weren’t really listening to her fully and part of me wishes I had paid more attention when she spoke…more out of respect than anything else. It is a stark reminder to me that life is not predictable nor is tomorrow promised. I guess as a nation, with her being our Queen for as long as I have lived, she had an air of immortality about her. Today is a reminder that immortality doesn’t exist and death is the only certainty of life as we know it.

At 18:30BST the world stood still as it was officially announced that she has passed peacefully in her sleep and we can speculate her death and what happened behind those gates, we can play a guessing game of the family as a whole but a part of us will die with her. We are Great Britain but what made Britain great, died today and I will remember where I was and what I was doing when the news aired. I will remember the sinking feeling in my stomach as though she was a family member, and I will remember the world of social media and the world coming together as one once more to pay respect to the woman who was Our Queen.

I believe that Phillip was waiting for her to take her home, taking his Lillibet’s hand and guiding her to her forever home where her throne is replaced by clouds, her jewels replaced by the stars and her crown replaced with a halo. I hope that in her final moments she felt nothing but peace and love as her family came together to be with her as one united front, that they put aside their differences and become closer in the moments that follow because they matter and that she may rest in eternal peace. Regardless of your opinions of her let us come together as a nation and pay our respects, show that we can come together as a country and remember her as the amazing woman she was.

For your service, I thank you Ma’am,

For the years you dedicated to us, I thank you Ma’am,

For being Our beloved Queen, I thank you Ma’am.

My respect and love is given to her family, to our country, to the commonwealth and the world.

Today we lost a part of us that will never be replaced.

Our Queen,

Elizabelth Alexandra Mary Windsor

21.04.1926 – 08.09.2022