"Farewell Ma am" drabbles by Neville Hunt

...Dateline Tuesday 13 September...

Farewell Ma am #4

Then onwards to London, not by any fancy airliner, but by a transport plane of the Royal Air Force, large enough for Her Majesty’s coffin. When planning the trip, The Queen had approved the mode of transport, saying “If it’s good enough for our boys, it’s good enough for me!”

Arriving in West London, we watched as the coffin, draped in the Queen’s Standard, accompanied by daughter Anne, The Princess Royal, headed for Buckingham Palace for a rest before the next day’s long walk to the Palace of Westminster to lie in state.

But no rest in the TV coverage.

Glued

Farewell Ma am #3

To say my wife is a royalist is a huge understatement. Before we heard the sad news concerning our Queen Elizabeth, there was no chance of getting Mrs H away from the TV coverage... she was glued to it... it was unending.

From the comings and goings at Balmoral before the seemingly inevitable bad news, to the long sad trip following the hearse via Ballater, Banchory and Aberdeen to Edinburgh, where thousands of loyal Scots would pass the royal coffin to pay their respects to our most wonderful Queen, before she headed for London.

But that was just the start...

Majeantry

Farewell Ma am #2

How would I react?... Well that was a fair question, given that Her Majesty had a remarkable resemblance to my own late mother. In fact, every time I saw the Queen, particularly in later years, I saw my mum. On that basis, maybe I should have found it all deeply upsetting because I loved my mum... but no.

If truth be told, we cried a little, we marvelled, we bit our nails, we sang along and felt a chill. And we felt an enormous sense of gratitude... and great pride.

But believe it or not, we had a laugh too!

The long goodbye

Farewell Ma am #1

Today it was the state funeral of our late dear Queen Elizabeth ll. No nation does pomp and pageantry like the British they say. And one could see why.

There were kings, queens, presidents, an emperor and others from around the globe representing billions of people. And it seems like millions were actually there with Her Majesty or lining the routes to pay their respects.

London was closed down for anything but the funeral. Everyone here had a public holiday... except maybe the thousand of soldiers, sailors and airmen and women on duty.

I wasn’t sure how I might react...