Queen Elizabeth funeral and looking forward

[AppleDumpling]

The Grandchildren are now keeping vigil for their Gran. It is a lovely tribute and very heartwarming. Harry in his full military uniform as he should be.. his decision to step back from being a working Royal should not negate his decade of military service or the honors bestowed on him during that time.. I’m glad the King chose to made the decision to allow it to happen.

What an emotional event for all of them, the children and grandchildren. I agree it was nice for Harry to be allowed to wear his uniform. Still very noticeable that William and Harry each walked alone, while the other three sets of siblings walked side by side.

 

[SirDuff]

What an emotional event for all of them, the children and grandchildren. I agree it was nice for Harry to be allowed to wear his uniform. Still very noticeable that William and Harry each walked alone, while the other three sets of siblings walked side by side.

It’s the formation. The head and foot walk alone and those at the side walk with their pair.

Watch the video from yesterday. Anne and Edward did walk separately down the stairs but then paired up. I assume the grandchildren paired up earlier since there twice as many of them.

Not “telling” at all.

 

[Karin1984]

The uniform rule is simple: when you are no longer in service, you do not wear your uniform anymore.

Exception: Honorary positions.

Harry has no honorary positions anymore, therefore he shouldn't wear a uniform anymore.
Andrew got an exception, therefore Harry got an exception.

Big contrast with the 4 children who all have had some sort of military /training and experience. It was a well choreographed routine last night.
Today you see people who are still really children.

Glad that Louise and James' parents were there to watch and be supportive.
I thought it was cute that James wore his jubilee medals as well made him in line with his elder male cousins wearing theirs.

All the ladies with the same headwear.

It looked beautiful.

At one point the camera zoomed in on Peter Phillips and he just looked in agony. **edit** What I call 'agony', the Daily Mail calls 'reflective', that's one way of looking at it.

 

[AppleDumpling]

It’s the formation. The head and foot walk alone and those at the side walk with their pair.

Watch the video from yesterday. Anne and Edward did walk separately down the stairs but then paired up. I assume the grandchildren paired up earlier since there twice as many of them.

Not “telling” at all.

Ok, thanks. Although it was still slightly different. Walking in, William led, followed by Harry, single file, then the rest in pairs, up to the coffin, where they each went around to their places. On the way out, William again took the lead and Harry took up the rear. But it doesn’t really matter.

Edited to add: I personally would’ve liked to see the brothers together, even if just as a symbolic gesture for their Granny.

 

[NotUrsula]

The age range of the grand children is massive (30 years, I think?). The youngest one cannot be much older than the oldest great-grandchild.

I know Edward is much younger than his sister and oldest brother (and I guess also had his children at a bit of an older age than his siblings did) but I hadn’t really noticed the age difference before (probably because I’d never seen the eight grandchildren together without any other generation with them before).

Yes, the age range is 30 years. FWIW, the grandchildren of Victoria & Albert had an age range of 32 years. (This kind of age range actually used to be much more common in the days before legal pharmaceutical birth control &/or in majority-Catholic countries where people tended to marry young and stay married; the age range of my own parents' grandchildren is 45 years.)

With only a few natural exceptions (but a fair number of deaths by accident or infectious disease), the descendants of Victoria tend to be a long-lived bunch, and Elizabeth's family have the gene pool on both sides, now 5 generations out.

 

[SirDuff]

The article noted that units from Australia and New Zealand were expected to participate as well. It looks like they are making a dedicated effort to honor the Commonwealth Nations on this occasion.

As for US former Presidents, only if they get personal invitations, because the US only got 2 delegation tickets, for Biden and the First Lady. If former Presidents were to attend as personal guests, it would make the most sense to have them travel with Biden, so that the only extras needed would be their personal security details. Biden says that he will attend, which means that he will come in with two large aircraft, AF1 (which is a 747), plus the C-5 military cargo plane that carries his cars &/or helicopters. They won't have to deal with his arrival at Heathrow, though; Presidents fly into USAF facilities when they visit the UK.

Apparently, Liz Truss is planning to take advantage of the presence of all these heads of state to try to meet with as many of them as possible.

No, he flew into Stansted.

 

[SirDuff]

The uniform rule is simple: when you are no longer in service, you do not wear your uniform anymore.

Exception: Honorary positions.

Harry has no honorary positions anymore, therefore he shouldn't wear a uniform anymore.
Andrew got an exception, therefore Harry got an exception.

Big contrast with the 4 children who all have had some sort of military /training and experience. It was a well choreographed routine last night.
Today you see people who are still really children.

Glad that Louise and James' parents were there to watch and be supportive.
I thought it was cute that James wore his jubilee medals as well made him in line with his elder male cousins wearing theirs.

All the ladies with the same headwear.

It looked beautiful.

At one point the camera zoomed in on Peter Phillips and he just looked in agony. **edit** What I call 'agony', the Daily Mail calls 'reflective', that's one way of looking at it.

I was wondering what medals he was wearing.

I don't think it so much that you say "people who are still really children" today (most of them aren't) but more, as you also mentioned, people without military training (i.e. not used to formal marching) and people who have done far few public appearances. And for the women, people trying to "march" in high heel

At one point, you could see James clearly looking to William for his cue to step up to the coffin. I was actually had a passing thought about them having built a mock-up for them to practice on (since clearly they couldn't practice at the Abbey).

 

[Karin1984]

Oh they have practised, that is for sure. At that same moment you see Eugenie or Beatrice already taking a step before the others.

 

[SirDuff]

Oh they have practised, that is for sure. At that same moment you see Eugenie or Beatrice already taking a step before the others.

Yup, noticed that too.

 

[mousefan73]

That is one of the fun things of the brain, when you get emotional you switch back to your native language.

I once read an article about parents raising children bilingual. One of the things research showed that when the parent had to reprimand the child, they almost all did that in their native language. Praising a child they did in their partner's language.

And there is a story from a female Russian spy. Don't remember which nationality she had under cover, but she got pregnant in her double life. No one knew she was Russian, till she had to give birth. Without being able to control it, she started cursing in Russian when she went into labour.

Bilingual household here ! So I try to speak English to my kids most of the time but I will definitely use English when I’m mad and yelling at them lol

 

[mousefan73]

Yes, the age range is 30 years. FWIW, the grandchildren of Victoria & Albert had an age range of 32 years. (This kind of age range actually used to be much more common in the days before legal pharmaceutical birth control &/or in majority-Catholic countries where people tended to marry young and stay married; the age range of my own parents' grandchildren is 45 years.)

With only a few natural exceptions (but a fair number of deaths by accident or infectious disease), the descendants of Victoria tend to be a long-lived bunch, and Elizabeth's family have the gene pool on both sides, now 5 generations out.

My daughter, age 16, has a cousin that is 52. I have two older than me nieces and nephews through marriage. My sister-in-law is the same age as my mother

 

[dvcgirl67]

I heard on Sky News this morning that they've been practicing for the State Funeral in the middle of the night...at 2-3am, when the streets were empty. That makes sense....it would be tough get the precision down without practicing on the actual route. Oh well..I'm planning on getting up at 5am EST to watch it live.

 

[Karin1984]

I heard on Sky News this morning that they've been practicing for the State Funeral in the middle of the night...at 2-3am, when the streets were empty. That makes sense....it would be tough get the precision down without practicing on the actual route. Oh well..I'm planning on getting up at 5am EST to watch it live.

That's how Disney does it for their park shows and parades, so must be right.

 

[NAB]

I heard on Sky News this morning that they've been practicing for the State Funeral in the middle of the night...at 2-3am, when the streets were empty. That makes sense....it would be tough get the precision down without practicing on the actual route. Oh well..I'm planning on getting up at 5am EST to watch it live.

Yeah our news here has shown them practicing right down to carry the same kind and weight of the coffin.

 

[Karin1984]

The French president Macron will meet Charles tomorrow, and it is said that he is bringing a book with pictures of all the visits the Queen made to France.

Can I say that this is a very sweet gift to bring a scrapbook.

 

[Aladora]

My daughter, age 16, has a cousin that is 52. I have two older than me nieces and nephews through marriage. My sister-in-law is the same age as my mother

My husband’s aunt is 3 months younger than me!

 

[mom2rtk]

The French president Macron will meet Charles tomorrow, and it is said that he is bringing a book with pictures of all the visits the Queen made to France.

Can I say that this is a very sweet gift to bring a scrapbook.

As a scrapbooker, I have to say I love that.

 

[SirDuff]

The French president Macron will meet Charles tomorrow, and it is said that he is bringing a book with pictures of all the visits the Queen made to France.

Can I say that this is a very sweet gift to bring a scrapbook.

That is super sweet.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

My daughter, age 16, has a cousin that is 52. I have two older than me nieces and nephews through marriage. My sister-in-law is the same age as my mother

My DH has a niece that married a man that DH went to school with. Niece was 18; DH was 38 or 39. The guy was her teacher. No one batted an eye (except Dh and I; couldn't do anything about it though).
One of my son-in-laws has a brother and sister that are in their late 40s/early 50s (both DH and I are early 50s); he just turned 30. SoIL and his younger sister (by a year) were surprise, late in life babies; their 3 older siblings were born either in jails in Cambodia (Khmer Rouge), or in a camp in Thailand, before their families could get asylum in the US.

My other son-in-law is mid-40s; that daughter is 33.

I have 2 nephews that are 19 years apart; same parents.

I am older than another nephew by 5 years.

My siblings are all older--15, 13, 11, and 10 years older, respectively. My girls are 13 and 10 years older than DS.

I had cousins over 25 years older than me.

My DS has a nephew that is 2 years younger than him (oldest DD had him at 15).

 

[AppleDumpling]

Its not that unusual to have overlapping generations, especially in larger families. King Charles is 15 year older than his brother Edward.