While everyone was watching the new Royal Couple several weeks ago, I was watching the Queen. I have known her as long as I can remember–and I remember the Second World War. Did you know she trained as a driver and mechanic and drove a military truck? I was in the Girl Scouts and knitted a scarf for the soldiers. It was khaki wool with lots of holes–I never could knit.
Americans have always had a love affair with British Royalty, not that we ever wanted them, but we are fascinated by them–my grandmother was one of the worst. We love their musty old castles and the pageantry, and it was all rolled out for the Wedding of the Year as only the Brits can do it. I wasn’t even going to watch but I got pulled right in.
While everyone looked for the Bride, I looked for the bride’s Grandmother-in-law. She was hard not to see in her bright yellow. No one else wore yellow, actually, no other woman even wore a bright color. How do they do that? And why did they pick that cheery color? Was it to make sure the Bride did not upstage the Queen. Well, they pulled it off, the Brits did. They put on quite a show with the Bride glowing and The Queen out-standing. Did you know that the Queen and her husband share a great, great grandmother, Queen Victoria.
I have grown up to write about Sleeping Beauties–women who are busy being what they are supposed to be–and I have never seen a more perfect example, but I certainly can’t call her a Sleeping Beauty waiting to be awakened. No, she defies the idea. She’s a Queen and gotten quite good at it. Toward the end of the ceremony, when they played “God Save the Queen”, she didn’t fidget, as I might have. No, she sat quietly, her head down, allowing them to pay tribute to her as was her due. When she came out on the balcony, she waved, in a somewhat bored fashion; after all, she’s done a lot of that. After, whatever she considered an adequate time for the family to be seen by their subjects, she went in which signaled the end of that.
I must admit that I was fascinated with her. What was she thinking? Is she happy? Does she worry about her family, their health and happiness or just that they don’t botch things up. They’ve done a lot of that. How does she feel when they aren’t being what they are supposed to be? Does she love her subjects and her country, or just need them because she’s a Queen? I guess we’ll never know.
Did you know that one of her ‘Ladies in Waiting’ carries a sheep skin cover for the toilet seat when they travel?
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