Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II

It's a rainy morning in Marianna with thunder and lightning. As I am having my morning tea and toast, I am witnessing the celebration of Queen Elizabeth II broadcast live on television. Tens of thousands of people line the street as her coffin is being taken to St. George's Chapel in Windsor. She ruled Great Britain for nearly 70 years. The pageantry is nothing like I've seen, even having watched Princess Diane's funeral procession broadcast live in September 1997. Back then my terminally-ill sister and I watched it on her small bedroom television; she was in bed and I was next to her in a chair. Both of us were crying for the young princess and her sons, partly because we knew the sadness to come in our own family, which was just 2 months later. Both my sister and Princess Diana were born the same year and died the same year. The memory of that day also makes it hard to hear any song of Elton John's today. He was a favorite singer of my sister's growing up and she always had his posters on her walls and his albums displayed. Elton John sang "Goodbye English Rose/Candle in the Wind" in honor of Princess Diana at London's Westminster Abbey church. 

The Queen is about to enter the gates of St. George Chapel, so I will end here. I don't want to miss it. And the most more I can write about this historic day will only be that I will be pulling weeds in our garden later to ready it for wheat and winter seed plantings. 

"I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice. But I can do something else. I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations."

-Queen Elizabeth-First televised Christmas broadcast in 1957.