Visit With Her Majesty The Queen

Yesterday, it was my honour to meet Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. And I’m not talking about simply seeing her go by in a car or seeing her from a distance, I’m talking about an actual meeting. In person. And we spoke a few words. Yes, in essence, we had a conversation.

The day began like any Wednesday; I woke up, had a shower and shaved. Only instead of getting into programmer clothes, I put on my Army dress uniform and headed down to the Museum of the Regiments. After passing through two security checks, I joined the rest of the senior members of the King’s Own Calgary Regiment in preparation for the Queen’s arrival. Upon her arrival, the Queen sat down for a picture with the officers and senior NCOs of the regiment; I was standing in the second row behind Her Majesty. Then after two other pictures she toured the museum and mingled per se with us as we drank champagne in her honour.

When she came around to the group of Sergeants that I was with, she asked how we were doing and commented on how organized things were with this part of her tour and basically engaged in conversation with us, as a group. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and probably the greatest part of my military career, ahead of all the tanks and rifles and rocket launchers and grenades. Yes, those were cool and exciting (except for grenades which were actually anti-climatic) but this is, after all, Her Majesty The Queen. And the Queen is as well spoken and nothing but first class, but a bit shorter in person than she seems on television or in photographs.

Then, it was on to the Saddledome to participate in the parade there. If you saw the parade, I was the soldier in the front row, three soldiers to the right of the flag bearers. Yes, standing on parade with a C-7 automatic rifle and a bayonet fixed while the Governor General, Prime Minister Paul Martin, Calgary Mayor Dave (who is typically too busy to do anything with the Regiments) along with the other 15,000 people, sang Oh Canada and God Save the Queen was an amazing end to an already great day. And to top it all off, I had a great dinner out at Chianti’s with my very own queen… my wife.

God Save The Queen. Both of them.

1 comment »

1. By lopezm 3 days later:

   
   
   I don't want to rain on the parade but I have a hard time understanding how a person can be that important that you have never met and by and large has done nothing other than come from the loins of another person that by and large did nothing material to get to that level of importance. I'm not saying that I am against the concept and legend of the Monarchy but the queen herself is a person that has been crafted to be someone importance based on brutal and nation building things her ansestors did to get the position of power they have. Now your wife - that I can see being important and hopefully eventful exchange each time. Its almost more silly to me to have such respect for the Queen, than the respect people have for a baseball player or a movie star (they seem to respect the person not the talent), at least they did something to achieve that... although I don't get that respect either. I do get the respect for the office of the King/Queen but the genuine respect for the person should be of their actions not their role. Heck I bet I could be a great King.. who knows that is not a choice you or I make. This brings into light the pope, who I do have a lot of respect for - but it is for the office of the pope and then if the person achieves great things the person, but that respect should be there regardless of popeness or not. (and even this i can sometime have a hard time reconciling) I think its great you were able to meet the queen and she lived up to expectations, but level of admiration is a bit strange to me. That doesn't mean I'm right, nor wrong but my frame of reference has a hardtime being awe-struck because of a birth right. Give me great scientist, business men/women, thinkers, philosiphers, dads and mom's; I can get more excited about that. On a more positive note - the respect that you and your regiment members have for the Queen and our country and the willingness to go and fight for it gets my respect - more than the Queen. Kudos for being a great citizen of Canada.