A Tribute to the Queen
For ten days this September, the world has come together in rare unity to mourn the passing of the extraordinary woman recognized universally as “the Queen.” She was her Majesty to members of the UK—the United Kingdom of Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) and Northern Ireland. At times, an unhappy collection of disparate parts, accents, traditions, and passions, the Queen’s royal subjects have at times sought independence from English rule, but not this week. This week, people from around the globe watched as bouquets of flowers grew into mountains of grief over the passing of Queen Elizabeth II who somehow managed to rise above politics, stay calm, and carry on through difficult times and seven decades of cultural change.
When King George VI died in 1952, the reign immediately passed to his oldest daughter Elizabeth and lasted 70 years—the longest of any British monarch in history. Following Queen Elizabeth’s death on September 8 at her Scottish residence, Balmoral Castle, her flag-draped coffin—decorated with flowers picked at Balmoral—was slowly transported through the countryside to Edinburgh where it spent the night at the Palace at Holyroodhouse, the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. It then continued to London by road to Buckingham Palace in London. Finally, it was taken to Westminster Hall where it lay in state for four days before her state funeral.
During that time, the Queen’s four children—Charles (now King Charles III), Ann, Andrew, and Edward— as well as her grandchildren took turns standing vigil around her coffin as lines of people filed past to pay their final respects to this extraordinary woman who had been a part of history their entire lives. On September 19, Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral took place at Westminster Abbey—the first of its kind since that of her beloved father that then 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth attended with her grandmother Queen Mary and the Queen Mother.
As the week progressed, Kit and I followed Britain’s national period of mourning from our window on the world in the Sierra Foothills of northern California. Closer to home, a period of severe drought coupled with a heat dome over in the region reigned. In Placer County adjacent to Nevada County where we live, the Mosquito Fire prompted evacuations, destroyed countless structures and homes, consumed over 64,000 acres of land as of 9/14 and remains the state’s largest active fire, sending plumbs of smoke towering over the region.
Every morning of the past week, our air purifiers ran throughout the day as we awoke to the smell of smoke. As late afternoon winds shifted the direction of the Mosquito Fire’s smoke, a gray haze settled down like a shroud in between the tall pines and Douglas firs in the forest bordering our property. By noon, the smoke lifts, blue skies reemerge, and talk of significant changes in the weather that bring rain and aid efforts to contain the fire’s spread.
Then temperatures dropped almost fifty degrees a week before the official arrival of Autumn and our gas fireplace is turned on to knock the chill off these cool September mornings. I dig out an old faithful cashmere sweater and find it a perfect answer to the sudden shift in temperatures. Weather forecasters report serious rain chances beginning the day before Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral on September 19, continuing into the following day.
For four days, people of all ages and nationalities moved patiently in lines over five miles long to view the Queen’s coffin. Overnight it has grown cold in London, just as it has in our neck of northern California woods. Undaunted by the long wait, they are determined to pay their final respects to the Queen, an almost universally admired woman who Britain’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss describes as the rock upon which modern Britain was founded.
Among the tributes left along the route to Westminster, one visiting Ukrainian woman left a bouquet of giant sunflowers. Others have left flowers, cards, and Paddington Bear toys, along with marmalade sandwiches—a favorite of both Paddington and the Queen. On a table along our front window, I began assembling an homage/collage of my own to honor the Queen. The September 19, 2022, New Yorker cover of the young Elizabeth against the British flag. A berry wreath atop a candle lit 24/7 by an internal battery. Paddington waving a British flag. Two hedgehogs made of reeds. A package of English tea decorated by images of iconic architecture in and around London. An historic porcelain teacup I purchased at the British War Museum in London. A jar of Wilkin & Sons Damson Plum preserves, made in Tiptree, England since 1885. And a book of illustrations of English country gardens and flowers.
As each of us revisits personal memories of the Queen, it is worth noting how her loss brings tears as though she were our own mother or granny. As her historic reign ends, may her memory continue to teach us the power of small acts of kindness that collectively can change the world.