Apr 01 2002
Love & loss
OK, I was too obsessed with the distant past to remember to thank the inimitable Candi for installing the newest version of MT for us, rescuing us from the vagaries and caprices of Greymatter, and moving everything over to a new and better world, fixing problems on the way. So a belated but nonetheless heartfelt thanks to Candi, who is a true and generous friend, and totally fooled me with her April Fool’s prank, despite the fact that I definitely should have known better.
Candi also told me of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s passing on Saturday. I’m thankful that this grand old lady — in every sense of the word — died painlessly in her sleep without fear and without suffering the indignities that so often accompany old age. But with her goes a connection to the glorious past, since she was born when Queen Victoria, the Old Queen, was still on the throne and England still had her Empire.
Things have changed greatly in the century she witnessed, but she never lost her qualities of courage, dignity and duty, and we are the poorer for losing her. My heart aches for the Queen, who not only buried her baby sister 50 years to the day after her father in the same chapel this past February, but two months later is burying her mother. The Queen is alone now, the only one left of “Us Four”, as her father called their little family. I hope she finds the courage and peace she needs now, and in the months to come.