The Queen set an example

Virginia Jones
·1 min read

To the Editor:

Like many Americans, I admired Queen Elizabeth from the time I was a child and saw her in news reels at movie theatres in the 1940s. I remember vividly those films, which showed her parents walking amongst the rubble of buildings after bombings in London by the Germans. I admired their bravery and sense of duty, when neither they nor their children left London for a safer place.

Then there was Princess Elizabeth’s sense of duty when at age 16 she joined the British Army in the Auxiliary Transport Service, repairing and rebuilding engines and driving ambulances, trucks, and Jeeps.

Later as Queen, Elizabeth carried out her vision for her reign and the Commonwealth made up of countries which were no longer colonies, at age 21 when she made a radio speech, saying, “If we all go forward together with unwavering faith, a high courage, and a quiet heart we shall be able to make of this Commonwealth, which we all love so dearly, and even greater thing — more free, more prosperous, more happy and a more powerful force for good in the world. …” (The Christian Science Monitor Weekly, Week of Sept. 26, 2022).

Mourners gather to watch the procession for the Lying-in State of Queen Elizabeth II at the Hyde Park screening site on Sept. 14, 2022 in London. Queen Elizabeth II's coffin is taken in procession on a Gun Carriage of The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall where she will lay in state until the early morning of her funeral.

Like many others, I mourn her loss as a beacon of civility, graciousness, and hospitality and her character as defined in her first speech as an adult. She set an example as a world leader who believed in working together, being courageous, having a quiet heart, and being a force for good in the world..

Virginia M. Jones

Oak Ridge

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: The Queen set an example