Well, that was quite a week wasn’t it?
The State Funeral was something of course that had been planned for years, if not decades, and allowing as many people as possible to feel they were a part of it and indeed the days preceding it, must have been something the Queen herself wanted.
Indeed, the attention to detail shown in the planning of the whole event from the minute she passed away was spectacular.
They couldn’t of course plan for the exact numbers of the public who would want to pay their respects, but the organisers and the family must have been blown away by the sheer number of people who came out.
However, they didn’t seem phased by the enormity of it all.
Everything from the organisation of the queue to the welcoming of heads of state from all over the world seemed to run like clockwork.
But as a swan on the water there must have been an immense amount of frantic paddling going on out of sight!
Ollie had coincidentally planned to be at home for a couple of weeks and he surprised me by saying he wanted to go and join the queue.
At this point there had been one day of queuing, and it was rumoured that on day two the queues could be as long as six hours of waiting.
I wasn’t sure about standing for that long, but Ollie was adamant.
“It’s history Mum, we have to go.”
So how could I turn him down?
It was also a lovely chance to spend the day with him, so we set our alarms for 5am on Friday and off we went.
Getting off the Tube at Bermondsey where the beginning of the queue had apparently reached by now we were a bit concerned to see that it stretched almost to Southwark Park.
The queue for the queue
In fact, we were the lucky ones. We were the last people that day not to have to queue all the way through the park or indeed queue to get into the queue.
However, when we arrived at our starting point and looked online we saw that the queue which we thought might take six hours was taking an estimated 11 hours.
People had been telling stories of making friends in the queue, but I wasn’t so sure.
There are some people you just wouldn’t necessarily want to make small talk with for 11 hours.
However, I was proved so wrong.
Lovely people
We wouldn’t have got through the long wait in the same way if we hadn’t met the lovely people who we just happened to be next to.
We formed a little group with the people around us and we thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company along the way.
I was surprised by how wonderful it was to spend the day walking through London passing many famous landmarks and discovering little parts of London we didn’t know existed.
The queue was a happy place with lots of laughter but then as we all approached the final ‘snake’ as that part of the queue has been named, the solemnity of the occasion was apparent.
King Charles came to stand vigil just as we were in the last hour of the queue and cheers resounded around the crowds as the Royal Standard was raised while he was in the building.
Quiet
Eventually our time came.
It was 13 hours and 10 minutes since we had joined the queue but no one minded.
We had chatted for hours but now we were all extremely quiet.
As we entered Westminster Hall, we were met by officials at the top of the stairs who said to take your time to pay your respects but keep moving.
There was too much to take in really.
I’m sure everyone who was there would have liked to go back in and see everything again.
The sight of the Crown Jewels was surprisingly moving.
I feel so fortunate to have been there in person.
History
I wasn’t sure what to do when I passed the coffin, but I decided to curtsy because that is what I would have done if I was meeting the Queen.
I was so grateful to Ollie for persuading me to spend the day doing something I will never forget.
On the day of the State Funeral we witnessed a huge event in history and as sad as it is to say goodbye to such a wonderful woman, what an incredibly long, happy and glorious reign Queen Elizabeth had.
Have a good week,
Yvie x
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