"This picture shows what I admire most about this woman…. her joy and her love for colour. I don’t think you can fake a good smile. She had purpose and she lived until she died. That is someone I admire." Ruby Neumann
I send this collage and these three sentences in an email to my mother and my friend of forty years. I didn't know who else to call that could help me navigate some feelings towards this loss.
I'm not crying as I would if I had lost a treasured grandmother. Those tears belong to someone else. No tears, but I need to spend time honouring a woman who has been a part of my world for as long as I have breathed.
I wondered what I could do to honour her and highlight what I appreciate about her. I went to Google and found the most colourful and most joyous pictures of her. There were so many. I made a collage of colours and smiles from a woman that I think embodied beauty.
I am Canadian. I might question and wonder of the purpose of the monarchy, but it's not the monarchy I want to pay tribute to today. I want to honour her as a person, because as a person, she matters and matters to me.
She did a lot of what no other woman has done in history. That is huge for me. That makes her the most treasured role model for women around the globe. Even through she didn't work her way up to her job assignment, but was given it because of the family she was born into, she took her role and gave her life to it. She didn't seem burdened by obligation or responsibility, but found joy in all her duties and interactions with people along the way. Countless testimonies are evidence of that.
After I found out of her passing, I went on Youtube and soaked up some of the tributes. I found some that I want to share here that warmed my heart.
Queen Elizabeth's Tribute Video
Queen Elizabeth II in her own words
Queen Elizabeth's sense of humour
(Sept 9) ...and this next video is what brought the tears to my eyes the next day... she was truly special!
(stay tuned.. I might find more videos as I peruse the memorials this week. I will post them here if I find some worth passing along.)
James Cordon's tribute to Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth II: Above all Else
My Poem for Queen Elizabeth II entitled "Her"
"Grief is the price we pay for love." Queen Elizabeth II
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