Unexpected sorrow

Dear Reader,

I didn't know that, immediately I heard the news of the Queen's death, I would shed a tear.  What is it about the Queen that each of us feel to her we were important and perhaps loved?  I went to the Coronation taken by my godmother, the Countess of Northesk, a childless woman who decided to take me as her guest.  Being very shortsighted I don't remember much detail but do remember being very cold in the Abbey.  Since then she has been our humble, modest and humorous queen setting us an exemplary example of right living.  Living a life of goodness.  She was for me a mother figure, someone reliable, kind, and wise.  So thank you Queen Elizabeth from all my heart.

I wish the King, Charles III, a very happy reign, and very best wishes to him and his Queen Consort.

                                                                                  *

God Knows.   A poem by Minnie Louise Haskins.

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
"Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown"
and he replied:
"Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way".
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And he led me towards the hills and the breaking of the day in the lone East.

                                                                                    *

An Unexpected Sorrow

I felt the prickles in the
back of my throat,
watched tears run down my cheek
when I heard the news.
This  unique woman, loved by so many
was dead. Had just died.

Why this extreme emotion in myself?
She was for me a role model
of goodness, of discipline, of humility,
which so many of us aspire to.
She never stepped out of line
performed her duties with humour
and constancy.

She was the mother I didn't have,
my safety, my security, my example
of how life should be led
with kindness, humour and wisdom,
She was "Elizabeth the Great" and
I shall miss her until my time is over,
as will so many of us, her devoted subjects.

                                                                                    *

Very best wishes, Patricia