Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II died Thursday afternoon, and it hit home hard for Villagers with English roots.
“She has been a stalwart for England for 70 years, and this is a very sad day,” said Villager Vanessa Hathaway, who grew up in England and lived near London. “No matter how bad things got for her, she never stopped serving her country and doing her duty.”
Vanessa and her husband, George Hathaway, belong to the British American Club, which will meet tonight (Thursday) at 7 p.m. in the Paradise Recreation Center. There may be a remembrance for Queen Elizabeth, who was 96, Vanessa Hathaway said.
“She was a great monarch,” said George Hathaway, who met his wife in England when he served in the Air Force. Vanessa is now an American citizen and the couple moved to The Villages six years ago.
Both admire Queen Elizabeth.
“Everything that has happened in the past few years took a toll on her,” Vanessa Hathaway said. There have been family squabbles with Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan. Also, Prince Philip, the Queen’s husband of more than seven decades, died last year.
“I don’t think she was ever the same after he died,” Vanessa Hathaway said. “She just seemed weaker and frail.”
Petrina Amsden is a Villages singer who spent most of her early life in England.
“I’m so sad, but extremely proud of my Queen,” Petrina said. “She is all I have known my whole life.
“She was a strong woman who had to make difficult decisions and saw them through with dignity. She was a peacemaker for the world.”
For Petrina, the Queen was a personal and national inspiration. That’s why she carried a picture of the Queen on the side window of her car. “People loved it,” she said. “When they saw, they would wave to me, the same way the Queen waved.”
1“The Queen devoted her whole life to the Monarchy,” Petrina said. “She encouraged achievements for people in all walks of life. She has helped over 600 charities.”
There’s something else the Queen gave her people.
“She made us proud to be British,” Petrina said, of the Queen who reigned 70 years. “That’s the longest reigning Monarch ever, and I wish she had more time.”
So does Petrina’s sister –Julia Larsen.
“There are cross generational-connections all through in our lives that align us with the Queen and her family. We have cheered and cried with them over the decades,” she said.
Larsen mentioned her great-grandfather who drove a cab near the palace in London when Elizabeth was born in 1926. She added her mother was 12, when the Queen was crowned in 1953.”
Julia attended the Queen’s platinum jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne, earlier this year in England.
“I was there in person at Buckingham Palace with my family. We all shared in the joy, when she was able to come out on the balcony and wave to the crowd.”
The Queen was “a role model for feminine leadership and family,” Julia said. “She is the glue of the Commonwealth; our constant (force) never wavering. We feel loyal and protective of her because she has earned it.”
Now, England and the world must move on without the Queen.
“We’ve lost part of ourselves and that makes this loss so personal,” Julia said.
“The monarchy will go on,” Vanessa Hathaway said. “But I don’t know if it will ever be the same.”
Tony Violanti covers arts and music for Villages-News.com. He was inducted into the Buffalo NY Music Hall of Fame as a music journalist.