Tomorrow Morning
Queen Elizabeth’s funeral is quickly approaching. We are waking up at 5 am to watch tomorrow. I’m counting myself as watching, too, though prior to this point, I would have phrased it as “the ChickieNob is watching, and I am abiding with the ChickieNob.” But… no. I am watching, too. This means something to me.
I will tell you the headline that turned me into a sobbing mess. Actually, I was already a sobbing mess because I had shown Josh the trailer for the movie The Duke, which gives me goosebumps. And then I was crying because we were working on college applications, and that shoves the whole leaving-for-college thing in my face. But then I started crying because of this headline: “Princess Anne curtsies to her late mother one final time.”
Get past any knee-jerk reaction to the idea of one human being curtsying to another. There was something about that headline that drove home the point that this was a woman who lost her mother. Sons who lost their mother. Grandchildren who lost their grandmother. Just a family mourning their loss on a public stage. How impossibly difficult. If it were me, I would be in pyjamas, sobbing hysterically. I would be staring at the wall, motionless. I would not be standing upright, outside, in front of everyone, my face in neutral.
My heart went out to Princess Anne.
So we will wake up tomorrow super early and say goodbye.
3 comments
Yes. It was seeing the grandchildren and great grandchildren that made me cry. I think of how emotional I was when my grandparents passed away and I was in no shape to be standing guard or walking with their procession. It’s heart breaking for them as a family, everything else aside.
My alarm clock is set for 5 a.m. (eek). I’m going to be live-texting with my penpal of 45 years (!) from New Zealand. We’ve done the same for Prince Philip’s funeral as well as Harry & Meghan’s wedding and the Oscars, and we’ve agreed to raise a cuppa to the Queen at the same time. Couldn’t have imagined doing this 45 years ago…! I will be thinking of you & ChickieNob as well.
I’m reading this after the event. I do think it must be extraordinarily hard to have to be stoic at a funeral of your parent, but when they are old, have had a long life, and the time is right, there’s a real comfort to that that makes it easier. That said, there are still moments of tears, and we didn’t see that last night.
And because you mentioned it, the movie The Duke is really good. I recommend. EXCEPT that Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren (in their 70s and 80s) play people in their 50s/60s. I found that very annoying! lol