41 Comments

Great article. This modern world seems to expect people to be weeping, sad, and bereft about most everything (often with certain people it’s a great money earner - mental health being the biggest ‘earner’ right now). So it becomes hard to shake off that influence and just ‘get on with it’. Once, when I was ‘down’ from various accumulated grievings, a counsellor said to me that it was in my power to decide what to dwell on, and it was for me to decide that some things weren’t worth dwelling on forever. Best advice I’ve had.

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Thank you all! I've just realised I can LIKE and POST on here. I AM an old lady, so please bear with me!

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Fantastic piece Julie, true in every respect. One of the drivers behind the current Covid crisis is the almost cultish desire for immortality... we die, that is a fact. We hope to do it with dignity and no pain, and when those we love die, of course it hurts, but the passing of that hurt should not be a cause for guilt and self-flagellation, just an acceptance of what the ghastly S'relton might call the "Saarcle of liiife".

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You are the best, Julie, another excellent article. Thank you.

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Love our Queen, she's showing her best self. Mum just died at 96 and had been doing so for some time. If you can still be betting at 95, laughing, enjoying life it's joyous 👑 Purple Reign 💜

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You always give me a smile or a laugh. Like you, I admire her Majesty, and although I’ve never been a staunch Monarchist, I can see that her self-sacrifice and uncomplaining fulfilment of her duty have been a wonderful example to the nation.

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An excellent article about dying and mourning. We all experience it at some point and grieving is necessary but not everlasting. I would argue The Queen is as tough as old boots rather than hard as nails but the compliment is well deserved.

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Great writing as usual 😁👍

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Super article, as ever, from Julie :)

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I saw the queen presenting the prizes at the royal Windsor horse show two years ago (those were the days!) and I saw a lady in her 90s just getting on with it. We all hope to be that mobile and upright at that age don’t we?

Later when my daughter and I were doing the shopping in a field that accompanies these events it struck me just what the queen had given up to do her job. She has presented herself as a figure head without complaint, at that point I admired the woman if not the outdated privileged accident of birth malarkey.

The woman is unique in her diligence to her role but I fear that when she has gone we will be left with a lot of entitled trouble makers. The only saving grace appears to be Kate but is that a media construct?

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Thank you for reassuring me that it is ok to get over things

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Great article and so true! It actually made my day to see the photos of the Queen at the races and the sparkle in her eyes, just days after her stunt with the saber she insisted on using to cut a cake. What a wonderful role model she is, strong, no-nonsense and humorous at all times.

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Don't you just love it when some D list celebrity dies everyone on social media is 'heartbroken'? I always ask them if said celebrity was a friend or relation.

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The queen is a strong maternal figure of constancy. She is an example of who we could be if we had the inner fortitude to be unselfish, duty bound and respectful of what tethers us together. She taps into the part of our DNA that looks up to wise elders and knows how lost we become

(America anyone?) without them.

We are socialized to now believe we need nothing but ourselves, and yet to shun self reliance, resiliency and humility.

For me personally she has become a psychic luxury in a world without patriarchs,matriarchs or tribal chiefs.

No matter my politics- Long Live The Queen.

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You never get over it - you learn to live with it. Great article Julie.

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Excellent piece. Compare it to the younger generation. All walking around in muzzles worrying about their mental health.

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