Posted at 12:00 p.m.
We kinda expected that. Ninety-six years old. At this age, there is more time behind than in front. “The queen is dead. OK, thought to myself. A bit like when you say “it’s going to rain”. Oh good. Of course, if there’s laundry on the line, that’s another matter.
There is no question here of being for or against the monarchy. I respect, even if sometimes I question, the codes that survive time. This symbol has held a great place for centuries. Whether we worship their heads or cut them off, queens and kings have served history with justice and probity. Also necessary. We need to be guided, even by symbol.
Friends and acquaintances met her or dined with her. Apparently she had a great sense of humor. Here we go again for the year; these friends are going to tell me again for the umpteenth time their stories with her, misery…
As a child I built sand castles and pennies were the coat of arms of both sides. On one side the world of maple leaves and on the other the kingdom of a lady.
In my childhood wars, one day it was one side that won, the next day it was the other. It was okay.
“The queen is dead, the children said.
– I say.
– Are we going to have the day off tomorrow? »
It seems that elsewhere, in the country where the queen is really their queen, the children will have no school, the time of mourning.
” Why not us ? asked the younger one.
“Because she wasn’t really our queen. Like half. It was kind of imposed on us. There are people who are happy about it and others who are against…”
What will there be left to say about Elizabeth II in a few days? All angles will have been covered. Long and wide. Until more thirsty.
My boss at The Press texted: “We chat: the queen, does that inspire you? »
I played heads or tails with a 25 cent coin. Heads, I go back to my stuff, and tails, I think about it a bit. You swear it fell on your face.
It is not the Queen of England who inspired this text, but a woman. Dignified and strong. A model since childhood. Beyond codes and crowns. A symbolic and real woman. The opposite of nunuches princesses. A beacon through seven decades, in good standing, I was told. The opposite of the Queen of TQS or the Snow Queen or the queen of pop. Every day before my eyes. A little less since transfers and electronic transfers, but still a little there.
You will understand that I will not shed tears. There will be no outpouring or flag at half mast at home. But for a split second, I thanked Providence that a woman had been at the forefront of a sometimes ill-adjusted and crooked world for 70 years. Reassuring, not because of her gender or because you will find feminine qualities in her, but because of her rigour, sensitive intelligence and irreproachable sense of duty.