She was born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, in a house at 17 Bruton Street in the London neighborhood Mayfair, on 21 April 1926. She was not reared to become Queen as her uncle, rather than her father, was heir to the throne of the United Kingdom. Yet Queen Elizabeth II served her country as monarch for more than 70 years. 

This woman, tiny in stature, finished her earthly race on Thursday 8 September 2022. She died at her beloved Balmoral Castle in Scotland, the first British monarch to die in Scotland since James V in 1542. Her coffin was transported from Scotland to London where she lay in state for her people to make their final farewells, and today her coffin was laid to rest in St. James’ Chapel in Windsor. 

The Queen’s Early Legacy 

As a non-British person, the pageantry of the past week has been, at moments, mysterious. I have never been much engrossed with watching the lives of any royal family, but for the past week the sadness of the Queen’s death has lingered in my heart. I have watched several news segments of the events during this time of mourning. When her coffin was transported through the streets of Scotland, I cried. This reaction for a stranger—someone I had never met, a monarch from another country, whose life was vastly different from my own—has sparked a good deal of reflection as to why her death elicited that response. 

Part of the reason may lie in the association between the late Queen and the World War II era. She passed from youth to adulthood during that war and is forever linked to the struggle, the victory, and the years of rebuilding. She was not one to sit idly by as war raged all around her. In 1940, at age 14, she made a radio address on the BBC’s Children’s Hour to encourage children who had been evacuated from London and separated from their parents. She herself had been evacuated after Buckingham Palace was hit by five high explosive bombs in the Blitz. 

During the time she was evacuated, she worked in her victory garden allotments. At age 16, she was appointed Colonel of the Grenadier Guards. At 18, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women’s branch of the British Army, and trained as a taxi driver and mechanic. On VE Day, dressed in her uniform, she joined thousands of people on the streets to celebrate—with her uniform cap pulled low over her eyes so she wouldn’t be recognized! 

While the country was still recovering from war, in 1952, her father suddenly died and she began her lifelong service as Queen—the longest of any British monarch. At the beginning of her reign, before anyone had pledged allegiance to her, she vowed to give her life in service to her people. 

The Queen’s Continuing Legacy 

Only this week, watching the news coverage of the hearse bearing her coffin through the streets of London, has the pageantry begun to make sense. It is not from selfish vanity but from generosity that each step is taken, to give time for everyone who loved or respected her to take in the immense change. For most of us, she is the only British monarch we have known. She was the United Kingdom in bodily form. During long decades of incredible social and political change, she was the constant for her people. And now, they need the moments of participating in these days of mourning. Even in her death, she is still serving her people. 

She was a Queen but also a woman who loved a husband, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In the past week we have heard not only “Her Majesty” but also “Granny.” It has been a loss for a family as well as a nation. 

Why should all of this have brought me to tears, when not my family or my nation? Because she, in a sense, was my “Granny,” too. Over the vast miles of Atlantic Ocean, she represented a connection with my own dearly-loved elders and the values of free nations they all shared. She was a strong link to the time when evil tried to swallow the entire world but decent people fought until they overcame it. 

I understand there are difficulties even in this, as Britain has had its share of conflict among other peoples. But during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II many of these conflicts were resolved or improved. Over the long years, she has walked faithfully with the people of many nations through this broken world. She is an icon of endurance through change that will long outlive my generation. And for me, she was a link to a time, though fraught with evil, full of everyday people who stood up for good and were counted. 

God rest the Queen. 

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.”  I Timothy 2:1-2