But I Smile Anyway…

“It takes a tremendous amount of history to make even a little history.”

Henry James

Thank you, Spidey, for an apt quote.

So, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that the Queen passed away, peacefully on Thursday.

A huge amount of sadness.

A country in mourning.

A family in mourning.

Yet there are still things that have to be done.

From the moment a monarch is crowned, the plan for their death is written. (Feels a bit morbid, to me, but I suppose, in order to allow everything to run smoothly, it’s a necessity.)

“London Bridge is down.” is quoted, and the wheels are put in motion.

The Royal family, government, broadcasters of the news, are all informed, in order to share the sad news.

And, while we are all mourning, there is the small job of ensuring the country is not without a monarch, so the rightful heir is proclaimed.

For most of the country, we have never experienced this, before. The Queen had been the longest reigning monarch in the UK, ever.

Seventy years, she has been in our lives, and suddenly, she was gone, leaving her eldest son, Charles, as the man to bear the weight and responsibility of being the new King of the UK, and head of The Commonwealth.

As tradition states, all the customs needed to be fulfilled to confirm his new role, so on Saturday, amid the sadness, we as a nation, and the world, watched, either by standing in crowds in London, or on TV and the internet, the accession to the throne of the new King Charles III.

A momentous event that has never before been witnessed by the public, took place at St. James Palace, where the Privy Council held a meeting and declared our new monarch the King.

Then, the public declarations began, and the firing of guns, to signal the same, began.

It was fascinating to watch an official tradition take place. Something that was done, for centuries, behind closed doors.

But, can I tell you what hit me, personally?

Seeing the blanket of sadness over the new King, and his son, Prince William, the new Prince of Wales.

It’s often easy to forget that even though they have these tremendous duties to uphold, they are still human, too.

We’ve lost a Queen.

They’ve lost a beloved mother, frandmother, great grandmother. Yet they have to fight that emotion, in order to take part in all the pomp and circumstance involved in the new monarch’s accession to the throne.

For a day, flags are flown at full mast, to celebrate the new King, before being lowered again, in respect.

I only hope that everytime they close their doors to the public eye, they are able to mourn as we would. As a family, united in grief.

It was heartwarming to listen to, or read, some of the tributes to our late Queen, by members of her family.

And though heartbreaking to witness, seeing certain members overcome by their emotions in public, whilst reading tributes left by the public made me think that hopefully certain traditions and expectations would bend slightly, now, to allow the Royal family to be viewed as human first, and Royal second.

So, how do you view traditions?

Wishing you a wonderfully peaceful Sunday, Peeps!