Memories of monarch will live on
AS THE period of national mourning continues throughout the next week, people have started sharing their memories and anecdotes of the late Queen.
What many of these stories reveal is the rarely seen personal side of the long-reigning monarch.
Despite the royal family being associated with tradition and formality, and despite the Queen having taken her royal duties extremely seriously, many of those who met her got to get a glimpse of her friendly and fun-loving personality.
In their memories of the Queen published on page 5 today, clematis grower Raymond Evison described her as ‘a very warm lady who was just remarkable’, while former Lt-Governor’s Secretary Richard Graham said ‘the Queen was such fun and you could almost say she was one of the boys’.
According to royal biographer Sally Bedell, the Queen was well known for her sense of humour and loved to laugh and joke with friends, family and members of the public.
Even the most recent picture of her, taken just days before her death, shows her smiling and resolute, right to the end.
She will be missed by many, both as a person and as a head of state, but these memories will live on and become part of history.