Charlotte Latvala: Queen Elizabeth will be hard act to follow
Queen Elizabeth’s funeral is tomorrow, and along with millions of others, I’ll be tuning in.
Why get up early to watch a funeral for someone I’ve never met? Someone who was (literally and figuratively) worlds away from my life?
Well, like many Americans, I have more than a passing interest in Britain’s royal family. That’s the shallow end of things. We like the pomp, we like the circumstance, we like the Downton Abbey-esque splendor of it all. And if we dig a little deeper, we like to see that even people with royal titles and big bank accounts can have real, human problems, just like in every other family.
But the sadness that so many people are feeling right now runs deeper than tabloid headlines.
How did Queen Elizabeth touch so many people so deeply? Why the collective, worldwide grief? Why did the news of her death — which surely wasn’t a shock — knock me off balance for a few days?
Do I feel like I knew her? Not exactly. She was always a somewhat remote, quiet figure in the British monarchy. Not glamorous, like her sister Margaret. Not prone to giving hugs and warming hearts, like Diana. Not scandalous like, well, fill in the blank with your favorite scandalous royal.
Was she a big personality? By all accounts, she preferred quiet time with her horses and dogs to any center stage.
A fashion icon? Only if you consider sensible shoes, a headscarf, and an ever-present purse on her arm haute couture.
A leader to be reckoned with? Well, the monarchy doesn’t exactly hold that kind of sway anymore. The days of sending people to the Tower are over.
But she had a presence. Maybe that’s it: She was always there. She was a constant in an ever-changing world.
Like most people in the world, Brits and otherwise, I’ve never known a time when Queen Elizabeth II wasn’t on the throne.
Her regal face was on the Canadian money we switched to every summer when we visited my parents’ hometown in Ontario. (As a child, I thought she looked so elegant on those bills; her tiara and gown so much better than our boring old men.)
I grew up watching her meet with presidents and prime ministers. We’ve seen her opening sessions of Parliament, greeting lines of schoolchildren, and knighting pop stars. Lately, we’ve followed her and the rest of the royal family on Instagram. (Well, I have, anyway.)
And yes, we’ve seen her fictional versions in “The Crown” and various movies.
One of the most striking images turned up just two days before the Queen’s death, when she met formally with Liz Truss, the U.K.’s new prime minister. The Queen looked frail and tiny, and every bit her 96 years. But she was dressed immaculately, smiling, and standing under her own power.
There’s something to be said for the stiff upper lip. God bless you, Charles. Your mum is going to be a hard act to follow.
Charlotte is a columnist for The Times. You can reach her at charlottelatvala@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Latvala: Queen Elizabeth will be hard act to follow
