"A
Ray of Sunshine"
Cooper's optimism, good humor infectious
Around
Campus
News from university departments
Milestones
Anniversaries and new employees
Inside Furman is published monthly during the school year by the Furman University Department of Marketing and Public Relations. For story ideas, e-mail John Roberts, editor.
Farewell
to the Queen Mum
by Beth Evans L. Jones
On Saturday afternoon, March 30, while I was watching BBC-America, a news flash announced the death of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother - at age 101-plus! The familiar strains of God Save the Queen followed instantly, along with a photograph of the Queen Mum and her personal Standard. I burst into tears.
But I knew there was no time for meticulous planning. We had to act quickly. By Thursday we were in London.
First stop was London's Mall to scope out a place to watch the processional on Friday, when her coffin would be taken from St. James Palace to lie in state in 1,000-year-old Westminster Hall. A television interviewer thought it exceptional that we had come for the event and asked the inevitable: Why?
That was easy. All my life I've followed the lives of the British "royals" like they were family. My shelves are packed with books about them, and my collection of royal memorabilia keeps growing.
Our trips to London date back to 1960, and during our visits I was able to talk to the Queen Mother twice. She came to London's Birkbeck College in 1969, when Ed directed Furman's first program there. We were presented to her at the reception. Again in 1996, I was able to chat with her at Westminster Abbey. As others who have met her have often said, "I really felt like she was my friend."
Friday we took our place along the mall. The crowd was 20 rows deep behind us. The slow march began at 11:30 a.m., with 1,700 of Her Majesty's finest providing an escort a half-mile long. The Queen Mum's personal Standard covered the casket. Her crown, glittering with 2,800 diamonds, including the fabled Koh-i-Noor, adorned the top, along with a bouquet from the Queen, signed "In Loving Memory, Lilibet." Behind marched Prince Philip, her grandchildren (Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward), and her great-grandchildren and close relatives. The crowd was silent.
The casket lay in state for three days and nights as thousands passed her bier in Westminster Hall, orderly and respectfully, in the best British tradition. We filed through Monday morning.
Westminster Abbey was filled for the long-planned funeral on Tuesday. Thousands camped out around Parliament Square the night before to see the transfer to the abbey and to be near for the funeral. Sound was piped outside, and the throngs joined in the singing. Inside, resplendent clergy presided, and British and European royalty added to the magnitude of the moment. Millions watched on television, as we did.
The mood seemed one of solemnity and loving remembrance. Apart from the television audience, police estimated that more than 2.3 million in London alone - a third of them young people - turned out in quiet commemoration. In London and across the country, businesses closed, crowds observed moments of silence, services were held and flowers were strewn in an outpouring of affection commensurate with her long life. It was a pageant recalling the ages, and people sensed that none might ever see its like again.
To me the opportunity
to experience the people, the sincerity of their grief and the sense of the
enormity of the occasion was one of the most meaningful of my life. Around
London, everyone seemed to have a story about the Queen Mum.
This is mine.
Beth Evans Jones is
a 1948 Furman graduate and the wife of retired history professor Edward Jones.
A collection of her Royal Family memorabilia is currently on display at the
Charles Ezra Daniel Memorial Chapel.