Grace, 12 years old, was on the bus. It was nearly one o’clock in the afternoon when he passed Hyde Park, in central London, from which ninety-six choking volleys of gunfire began to fire, one for each year of the life of the woman who built the most enduring for decades. reign in British history and one of the longest in the world.
Grace traveled with her mother on the 148 south of the capital and witnessed the disturbing community between passengers of different latitudes – some photographed, others filmed, some tore – united by the same collective emotion of those watching what history will be tomorrow. Grace held a bunch of purple flowers in her hands. They said they were an offering to the queen. He did not hide his emotion when he explained that he had chosen the favorite color of the “eternal queen”.
The girl with the cute name to match the blue eyes was on her way to Buckingham Palace, in Westminster, where for the past few hours there had been a general sense of expected but irreparable loss. A kind of loss that only brothers, cousins, children and friends share fatally in catharsis. As if Isabel II had been a mother or grandmother to all the thousands of people who yesterday in procession approached the queen’s palace – now that of the king – leaving the paths almost impassable and the walls and balustrades camouflaged. devotions, which – both the petals and the words – are love letters to the guardian of the nation.
“We are going to miss her”
“She has done a lot for all of us. It’s amazing that so many people celebrate her and everyone respects her and has so much gratitude. We will miss her so much. The world owes her so much. She was an incredible gift to the World and to the United Kingdom,” said the girl, a tender example of British patriotism, before dropping her branch with those who already lived there.
Not everyone will respect her, as she defended, and not everyone will thank her or miss her – no one rules without flaws, flaws, or blemishes – but, for better or for worse, she was and will be an inevitable figure in the life of a country and a world in constant change. A queen who lived arm in arm with history as she wrote it. A woman who herself was still writing when she was thrown on the throne, only 25 years old. And who, when he left, managed to unite different generations, origins and social strata. “It is the rock on which modern Britain is built,” said newly-appointed Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Admiration of generations
Michael, 28, one of the many young people who have shown that admiration for the monarch is passed down from generation to generation, has no hesitation in saying that Elizabeth II has been the country’s mainstay since 1952. He doesn’t live in London, but he felt he should come here to pay the respect he deserves.
Gloria, 76, and Roland, 80, even describe her as “the most remarkable, caring and devoted human being ever,” whose departure on Thursday cut a gash on the happiness showered with moments earlier that day. , when they learned of the birth of a great-granddaughter, now called Isabel, in tribute to the “irreplaceable” queen. The couple’s generous dedication was written on a postcard they left next to the main entrance leading to the palace, on branches of camellias and roses.
Nearby, a lady lay on the ground, very startled, living intensely with the pain that made me believe she felt, crying with brilliance, without stopping, as if all the flowers in the world had been plucked from the gardens. They weren’t, they never could have been. But in that moment, looking at the bars and walls of the palace and at every tree in the park around it, it really seemed that way. It even seemed that the land had fallen at the feet of this Queen Elizabeth, who is not a saint, and said to her, “They are roses, madam.”
Source: DN
