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Saturday, April 6, 2002 Queen Mother kept her dignity through a tough centuryLIFE'S TOO SHORT | By Lydia Hinshaw One memory from the 1990s that will always stick in my mind is a television shot: Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, at 98, struggling to walk up the church steps on her way to Princess Diana's funeral. Her grandson, Prince Edward, walked beside her but did not help. I was appalled, furious at him for striding royally along, hands clasped behind his back, never even glancing in his grandmother's direction. After reading several stories on the the Queen Mother following her death last week at 101, I think I know why Edward never offered his arm. She might have clobbered him with her cane if he had. She knew the cameras were rolling. It was her royal duty to get up those few steps on her own, and the world was not going to see the former Queen of England, who'd survived a world war, widowhood and the scandalous behavior of assorted grandchildren, lean on anybody. Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was a woman of unusual independence from an early age. When the king began proposing to her in the early 1920s, she turned him down, several times. Each rejection left the king's family bereft. Elizabeth was a catch, beautiful, strong, smart, charismatic. If she did not want to marry the frail, stammering and painfully shy Prince Albert, Duke of York, there were plenty of handsome young men ready to woo her. It took three years, but Albert finally won his bride. She promptly sent him off to work with the best speech therapist in the land. When his older brother abdicated to marry the divorced American Wallace Warfield Simpson, Albert became King George VI, who, with his wife always at his side, would lead Britain through some of its darkest hours. The King and Queen refused to leave London during the blitz, and also refused to send their daughters to safety in Canada, as some wealthy Londoners had done. Their family would deal with the risks, just as commoners had to. The Queen acquired a handgun and practiced firing it in a courtyard at Buckingham Palace. If the Germans got that far, she would be ready. Always dressed to the nines, the monarchs spent much of their time visiting bleary-eyed and disheveled Londoners in their damaged homes and bomb shelters. Elizabeth always said she was sure all those people would dress up if they were coming to visit her, which, of course, was quite true. Widowed at 51, she led an active personal and professional life for nearly 50 more years. She loved traveling, fishing and her steeplechasers. For as long as she was able, she was a regular at the racecourses where they ran. Just a few years ago, according to Westminster Abbey's Web site, she was scheduled to make an outdoor public appearance at a garden near the famous church. It was November and bitterly cold, and the Queen Mum was well into her ninth decade. One of the event's organizers suggested that she take shelter indoors. But a crowd was waiting and she could not let them down."I must speak to all these people because they are my friends," she insisted. HICI Special Report — England's Celebrity: Getting the Royal Treatment! |
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