Queen Elizabeth II wasn’t just a monarch to her people, but also their strength and a motherly figure. She led the country for incredible 70 years, so it didn’t come as a surprise that her passing brought immense grief and sadness.
She served her people, many of whom have known no other sovereign, until the very last day of her life.
During her reign, Queen Elizabeth saw 15 different prime ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss.
When the news of her ill-health was shared in the media on the day of her passing, a huge number of people gathered together and filled the streets of the major cities around United Kingdom as a sign of support. The number of those that arrived at Balmoral Castle, the Queen’s summer residence where she passed away, was even bigger.
Her passing was announced by the Palace on September 8, 2022, at 6.30pm, stating that the queen passed away at 3.10pm.
“The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and the Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow,” the statement read.
The new ruler of the country, King Charles III, spoke emotionally of his dear mother.
“The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family,” he said in a statement.
“We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world.”
King Charles added: “During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held.”
At the time of her passing, Queen Elizabeth was 96. After her passing, new details about her health surfaced, including one revealed by former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
In his memoir Unleashed, Johnson wrote about their last meeting, saying the late Queen had been battling a form of bone cancer.
“I had known for a year or more that she had a form of bone cancer, and her doctors were worried that at any time she could enter a sharp decline.” He went on to quote the queen’s private secretary, Sir Edward Young, who told him, “She’s gone down quite a bit over the summer,” before the ex-PM began his last audience as prime minister with her.
In his book Catherine, the Princess of Wales: A Biography of the Future Queen, author Robert Jobson wrote that the queen was “terribly frail” near the end of her life as she battled myeloma, a kind of bone marrow cancer.
“She struggled terribly with her eyesight and had low vision,” Jobson reported following the Platinum Jubily in June 2022 that celebrated the Queen Elizabeth’s 70th year on the throne. “She even had difficulty lifting a full teapot to pour into her cup.
“[Queen Elizabeth] would get terribly frustrated as she hated causing a mess, pouring it over the tray,” a source added. “She asked for a smaller pot and would get frustrated when the staff forgot and brought the big one.”
Recently, Paul Burrell, who worked as a butler to the royal family for decades, shared more about Queen Elizabeth’s condition and how she handled it. He recalled that doctors had delivered a bleak prognosis, telling her she likely wouldn’t make it beyond Christmas 2021. Still, the Queen defied those expectations.
He recalled that she met the news with four brave words, “Well that’s a shame.”
“Because next year is my Platinum Jubilee year and I’d quite like to have seen that,” she told her doctors, expressing her wish to be with the public for the milestone just months away, according to Burrell.
“Can you keep me alive for that?” the Queen was said to ask.
Further, Burrell told The Mirror, “She endured blood transfusions and scrupulously followed doctors’ orders, giving up her much-loved gin and tonics, gin and Dubonnets and martinis, and instead having apple juice (and tomato juice on a Sunday as a treat) to help extend her life… They kept her alive to witness this landmark (Platinum Jubilee) in her reign, but she knew through it all that she was dying.”
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