Word: queen
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...solemn procession and visibly saddened royals; of effusive speeches from black-suited parliamentarians and flowery messsages from the public on cellophane-wrapped bouquets; of long lines filing past the coffin lying in state in the magnificent medieval Westminster Hall. Britain dedicated last week to paying its respects to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother before the final farewell of her funeral in Westminster Abbey on Tuesday...
...overwhelming tone in all the tributes was genuine affection and respect, sentiments the Queen Mum, who died peace-fully in her sleep the previous Saturday at age 101, had invariably evoked during her lifetime. Even though she gave only one interview in the span of a century and never publicly revealed a political opinion or, indeed, very much about herself, Britons felt close to her. With her own brand of happy charm, the Queen Mother, like Princess Diana, had the common touch...
Prime Minister Tony Blair told a packed House of Commons especially recalled from its Easter break that the Queen Mother had been a "unifying figure" for the nation. "There is nothing false or complicated about the public response to her death," said Blair. "It's the simplest of equations. She loved her country and her country loved her." His words were borne out by Lara Denyer, a smart-suited office worker in her mid-30s who, during her lunch hour last week, quietly placed an anonymous bunch of white lilies among the other bouquets outside Clarence House, the Queen Mother...
...death of a lady who embodied a long-gone Gosford Park era, young Britons felt far less emotional attachment to royalty and progressive folk did not miss those deference-filled times at all. An editorial in the newspaper meanwhile claimed the nation had created an "idealized image" of the Queen Mother, who after all had lived "a life of anachronistic extravagance" - and enjoyed her tipple...
...even overshadowed the quiet journey last Tuesday of the Queen Mother's coffin from Windsor to St. James's Palace near Clarence House, where it remained for three days for the royal family's private mourning. By Friday, however, the BBC furor was almost forgotten, eclipsed by the ceremonial spectacle of the 29-minute procession that escorted the coffin to its lying-in-state at Westminster Hall, a part of the Houses of Parliament. As black-tied, black-suited TV presenters on every channel pointed out, it was a splendid event, the biggest display of pageantry since Winston Churchill...