Those pearls of the Queen yesterday told all the nostalgia of «Lilibet» – as she signed in the message entrusted to the flowers that she placed on the coffin of her husband Filippo. Three strings of pearls that she wore very often, almost always in this last year that had brought her closer as in a last honeymoon to the prince with whom she had fallen in love as a teenager never to leave him. Pearls like the ones she wore at her wedding with Philip on November 20, 1947, and which in the excitement of that morning got lost … except to reappear at the last with great relief of the young Princess Elizabeth. And Filippo, to say goodbye to his lifelong love, yesterday wanted those pearls as a reminder of the many happy moments and so much “life” they went through together.
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Sophie’s Tudor headdress, the Queen’s pearls and brooch at Philip’s funeral
Kate and Diana’s pearls
Pearls like those worn by Kate, loaned by the queen and that had belonged to Diana. A bond of generations, of affections and private feelings to light up the day of pain of the Windsors with a little light. Even the earrings worn by the Duchess had been sported by Diana with the same necklace with several strings of pearls (and they also come from the queen) who received them as a wedding gift.
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The brooch
The brooch, even his drawing of a flower interwoven with gems, reminded the sovereign closed in her pain, all the joy of life shared with Philip. And together with all the already burning nostalgia of those days. It was the jewel made by Hunt and Roskell and received as a gift by Lilibet from her grandmother, Queen Mary. The city of Richmond had given it to the sovereign. And Mary (alongside King George V) was so imbued with her role as sovereign, that she showed up for dinner in the evening – even when she was alone tete à tete with her husband – with the diadem on her head. But for Elizabeth, who also wore this jewel at Harry and Meghan’s wedding at Windsor 2018, yesterday the brooch represented only the love of a lifetime, her Philip.
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Lilibet and white flowers
The flowers and that card? A simple message In loving memory, Lilibet. And flowers that spoke with the language of flowers but also of memories. The lilies that at funerals often represent the spirituality of passing away but also freesias, white roses and jasmine. The same message with which the queen had said goodbye to her mother, who passed away at the age of 101 in 2002.
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Anna’s brimmed hat
The black dress of the queen with the brimmed hat was a choice shared at the funeral by other Windsors, to cover the face, almost protect it from the intrusion into the private pain of a family. A family on the throne as Walter Bagehot wrote, but a family that yesterday was simply the family of Philip gathered to say goodbye to a father, grandfather and great-grandfather. So, like the queen, Anna’s favorite daughter, Princess Royal, tried in every way to hide her emotion under the wide brim of her hat.
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And of Camilla and Lady Ogilvy
And a wide-brimmed hat also chose Camilla and Lady Ogilvy, one of the thirty invited to the restricted funeral. While Lady Penelope, the only exponent not from the family but a friend who over the years became very close to the royal couple, also because she was now in charge of Broadlands, the honeymoon estate, chose a black pillow box. A hat like those much loved by Jackie Kennedy.
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I pony
And yesterday there were also the two ponies and the gig driven by Philip in the Quadrangle of Windsor. Often paired with Lady Penelope to whom he had transferred his passion. Silent homage to the prince’s private daily life.
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Sophie’s tears
Instead Sophie of Wessex didn’t try to hide her tears. The daughter-in-law wife of Prince Edward who also took the photo chosen by the queen to entrust to the world her memory of Philip – that radiant photo in which under a bright sun during the last holiday together with Balmoral of Elizabeth and Philip – chose a Tudor band fascinator that left the face uncovered. And while he was praying in the choir of St George’s chapel, his tears, his pain did not escape the camera.
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And of Carlo
Carlo, torn between his father’s lesson – “get on with work, without hesitation” – in the end let that romantic soul of his shine through “as his father used to say. And it seems that when he reunited with Camilla in the church choir to follow the funeral after the procession on foot with shining eyes, as he tried to put on the mask he let a tear of pain fall. The pain of the loss of a father, a center of gravity, a Rock, for the queen and for all the Windsors.
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April 18, 2021 (change April 18, 2021 | 15:05)
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