U.K. keeping Queen’s memory alive, one flower at a time

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/09/2022 (838 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LONDON — It’s only 8 a.m. on Sunday morning but deep within the misty folds of The Green Park, in a small hollow known as the Floral Tribute garden, dozens of women are working frantically to remove cellophane and paper wrappers from some of the thousands of bouquets that have been left for Queen Elizabeth.

The Royal Parks service had cautioned the public not to leave bouquets at nearby Buckingham Palace but rather to leave them in the Green Park hollow or at Hyde Park. Thousands of mourners took the advice to heart, filing through the tiny tribute area beginning Friday and continuing nearly non-stop throughout the weekend.

In their rush, or perhaps in grief, the mourners ignored one of the most important parts of the Royal Parks Service advice: to remove the wrappings. “Removing the wrapping will aid the longevity of the flowers and will assist in the subsequent composting which will start between one week and a fortnight after the date of the funeral.”

Nobody knew exactly when it started, but someone in the throng began to remove the wrappings. Others joined in, taking the unwrapped bouquets and re-arranging them in elaborate swirls on the damp morning grass.

What started with just a pair of hands became a glowing group tribute to the Queen. They worked quickly and quietly, some removing the wrapping and others arranging the flowers.

“I just wanted the flowers to look as good as possible,” said a woman named Kirsty, who offered only her first name. “She deserves nothing less, don’t you think?”

Unlike the spontaneous campaign to preserve floral tributes, the transition to a new monarch and the beginning of a period of national mourning, which will culminate with a state funeral on Sept. 19, has unfolded with breathtaking, clock-like precision.

As outlined in a plan designed by Elizabeth herself and governed by centuries of protocol, it took less than 48 hours for her son Charles to formally ascend to the throne. Throughout the weekend, official proclamations took place in England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland while the Queen’s body was driven slowly from her residence at Balmoral in Scotland, through Edinburgh and — finally — on to London via train for a state funeral.

Although protocol and tradition governed every small detail of what has happened since the Queen died, this a regal transition the likes of which Great Britain has never seen, largely because the last time it happened, just over 70 years ago, very few saw anything.

Queen Elizabeth took over from her father George VI following his death in February 1952. Back then, the only way to participate directly in the period of mourning and funeral was to line the roads between Norfolk, where he died at Sandringham House, and Westminster Hall in London. Or, to be among the 300,000 people who were able to view his coffin while he lay in state. Remarkably but appropriately for the time, the funeral was not broadcast live.

Elizabeth’s funeral promises to be a much different affair.

For example, the BBC dedicated more than six hours of its broadcast schedule on Sunday to live aerial shots of the motorcade that transported the Queen’s body to the Palace at Holyroodhouse, the Queen’s official residence, in Edinburgh. And her funeral is expected to be beamed around the globe.

Even with ascension and protocol officials working overtime to manage the transition, there were moments of uncertainty that demonstrated just how unfamiliar the United Kingdom is with this kind of historic event.

No one was quite sure what they should and shouldn’t do after Elizabeth’s death was announced. Should the shops be closed, should work be suspended and if so, for how long? National guidance from the U.K. cabinet office made it clear the only day that it was strongly recommended there should be no commerce was on the day of the state funeral.

Even with that advice, however, confusion reigned.

Within a few hours of the release of the national guidance, the English Premier League quickly announced all games would be suspended from Saturday through to Monday as a sign of respect. In attempting to honour Elizabeth, however, the league thrust the nation into a crisis within a crisis.

Even though football is the national sport, there was concern that football fans — known for saying and doing the wrong things at the wrong time — might use the weekend games for unsavoury demonstrations of contempt for the monarch. However, the cancellations were denounced by the Football Supporters’ Association, which issued a statement saying that fans would have preferred to make a direct show of sympathy for the Queen at the weekend matches.

The U.K. is surely feeling its way through its grief, waiting to see whether the ascension of a new king brings any change to their day to day lives, waiting as well to see how much of an emotional hangover ensues.

But as a tribute to the deep relationship that exists between the monarchy and its subjects, there were moments. Like the spontaneous efforts of a group of women in a damp and misty royal park, who took it upon themselves to ensure the flowers left in tribute to Queen Elizabeth would last as long as humanly possible.

That wasn’t part of the official program. It was closer to love.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca