My eighteen year old daughter burst into my room at 6:05am yesterday to let us know that Prince Phillip had peacefully passed away in his sleep. This was not unexpected as he was ninety-nine and had been recently hospitalized. George was getting ready for work, so my eldest laid in bed with me and we watched CNN coverage. Watching and reading about the British Royals has not been a new endeavor in our house, but it increased exponentially throughout the Pandemic and especially after we learned new information about a connection.
Riley was only eight when Prince William and Kate were married. I know I watched, but I was not as enthralled as I had been as a teenager when Diana and Charles were married. In 2018, for Harry and Meghan's wedding, Riley was very engaged and on her own, planned to get up early and watch. So Mallory and I joined her and we prepared tea and partook of scones for the early morning viewing.
As the pandemic began, Riley, was stranded and isolated at home as we all were. There was a definite blow to her psyche with a mangled trip to Italy as Covid first broke out, forcing the group home early and into quarantine by her school due to parental demand. She had one day back at school before it was shut down the rest of the year. She was separated from a burgeoning new friend group, and around this time an obsession began with British Royals. For her, there was a deep loss of all certainty with her organized, methodical mind which thrives on routines. Those routines were blown to bits. The British Royal family with their steady twelve hundred year monarchy and so much documented family history stepped in and filled a void.
Toss in The Crown series, documentaries, Instagram pages, and we have been satiated with the history and current activities of past, present and future Royals. We both love it. Younger sister Mallory and husband George can tolerate it for a bit. As we watch a documentary or The Crown, we both are googling facts to understand more of what is going on.
During this current phase, I developed a newfound admiration for the staying power of Queen Elizabeth, the longest currently living reigning European monarch. If she lives four more years, she will be the longest serving monarch as she is now fourth. The sheer numbers are remarkable. She has been Queen for 69 years, and married for 73 years. Whether you agree with a symbolic monarchy or not, colonialism or how it's run, she has devoted herself to the Crown and weathered so many world events, scandals, joys and heartbreak. She has been loyal to her country to uphold her duty, as best as she possibly could. We don't actually know what goes on behind closed doors, even though The Crown tried to imagine it. Only those who lived it know, and each of them will have their own version of their truth which we many never hear. (unless they have an Oprah interview!)
We were driving home from a college tour in October 2020 and stopped at a cemetery in Mississippi to see the graves of some ancestors. We begin talking about genealogy once again. Riley knew that many European Royals were related as a number of Queen Victoria's children married into other royal families. With thanks to my great Aunt Maydelle, we knew we were related to Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland. Riley wondered out loud if Queen Elizabeth was related to him. We looked up a Scottish government website and texted back and forth with my sister in law, a fantastic genealogist and within minutes she confirmed our distant but known link to my twentieth cousin Queen Elizabeth!! Within minutes, she emailed us Riley's Royal Register which broke down the connection.
The amount of enthusiasm and energy we gained from this little factoid at this time was so much fun and held our spirits up for many weeks.
After Philip's death yesterday, it finally resonated with me how much the Royal family really helped my daughter cope with her world shutting down. Her young life was put on hold, her social world crumbled and her Senior year obliterated. For me, this is just a regular year, but for her, she will never have another senior year. I am thrilled that activities have opened back up and a bit of normalcy has returned.
I hope some things will persist. We have broached the topic of how we can have a watch party for when the fifth season of The Crown drops. I am told that is not until 2022, and that Diana the Musical will drop on Netflix first. Riley has already mailed her condolence cards to selected members of the family.
God Save The Queen! 👸🏻 🇬🇧
She helped save us.
Namaste
