Waiting for the Queen

My almost-four-year-old daughter Alice waits in the rain for her chance to give flowers to Queen Elizabeth yesterday morning, May 18.

Alice and I and a family friend made the trek around the end of the lake Wednesday morning to see Queen Elizabeth be officially welcomed to Canada. We took flowers, more in the faint hope, rather than the expectation, of being able to hand them to the Queen, but we got there early enough to snag a promising location right at the corner of the carpet she would be walking on as she left the site of the unveiling of the new equesterian statue of her in front of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building.

Alice was excited, then bored, and then miserable (although she was luckier than the rest of us, since, with a makeshift shelter made out of a poncho and the crowd barrier, she was at least dry), and then, about two minutes before the Queen reached our part of the crowd, she was asleep on my shoulder; but she perked up when I told her it was at last time to try to hand her flowers to the Queen–that’s when I snapped this picture, holding her with one arm, holding out the camera at the end of the other, and hoping I had it pointed in the right direction.

And then, along came the queen. This being a blog, the second post is above this one, so you already know that, indeed, Queen Elizabeth took Alice’s flowers. We thought she was going past but she stopped to get flowers from a little boy, glanced back and saw Alice, and came back for Alice’s flowers. And Alice got a very nice smile for her efforts, and chattered excitedly all the way home.

A lovely day, despite the rain. I may be an American, but I’ve got a warm spot in my heart for the British monarchy, and especially Queen Elizabeth. It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for Alice, and the Queen came through for her.

Long live the Queen!