Today marks two years since Queen Elizabeth II passed, and I find myself reflecting on how much I admired and looked up to her. She dedicated her life to service with grace, dignity, and strength, shaping modern monarchy and leaving behind a legacy that will last for generations. Her remarkable life continues to inspire, and she is dearly missed by so many around the world. Rest in peace, Your Majesty.
Posted by Fickle_Forever_8275
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The Royal Historian IG account shared [a really lovely story](https://www.instagram.com/p/C_l8f_kvXvf/) about QE2’s final horse ride that I think encapsulates her so perfectly. Text below:
>On July 18, 2022, a few weeks before The Queen’s death, Her Majesty ventured out to the stables at Windsor Castle as usual to bring carrots to Emma and with what The Queen’s Stud Groom, Mr. Terry Pendry, described as a “sense of finality,” insisted on climbing onto the saddle one last time.
>Instead of riding side by side as usual, The Queen asked him to walk alongside so she wouldn’t fall. The groom recalled The Queen to be quite frail and smaller than The Queen Mother in the last four years that she was “quite poorly.”
>Pendry reflected on the occasion, “I was on my feet walking round with her, and she looked down to me and she said, ‘This hasn’t happened to me since I was a princess! I said, ‘What?’ She said, ‘Someone walking alongside me like this! And I said, ‘If you want me to step away I’ll step away! She said, ‘No, no, just walk with me!’”
>The groom asked The Queen for permission to take a photograph of the special moment. She quipped, “What do you want to do that for?” The groom explained, “Well, you’d like one for your scrapbook. Your pony’s 26, you’re 96, that has to be a record.” Her Majesty replied simply, “I suppose you’re right!” The groom delivered the photo to The Queen that evening. Her Majesty would keep the personal photos in a scrapbook and write a note underneath each one.
>Pendry described the following day, “She came down for a chat and a final goodbye to Emma. Whether she was kind of thinking about things I don’t know, but she looked at me and said, ‘You were very rude to me yesterday! I said, ‘Your Majesty, I’m awfully sorry, but what do you mean, rude? If I was, I apologize profusely — it wouldn’t have been intentional and I apologize. She said, ‘You said my age’ and then she burst into fits of laughter. That was just her. Last time I ever saw her.”
>It was Pendry who accompanied The Queen’s beloved pony to the Long Walk at Windsor Castle to observe the funeral procession only a few weeks later. Pendry made a promise to The Queen to bury Emma.
An icon 🕯️
I miss her.
Her baby picture! 🥹 memory eternal!
What is picture 20 from?
I enjoy reading about people’s interactions with her. On my local PBS station they sometimes show some of the old news reels from the 50s and 60s of her. I love them.
Bless her.