Gwendolyn Hoare: 100-year-old woman receives royal birthday telegram a day after Queen's death
LONDON, ENGLAND: A 100-year-old woman is left with a bittersweet memory after she received the traditional birthday telegram from Queen Elizabeth II the day after the monarch's death.
Gwendolyn Hoare says she feels honored to be one of the last people in the UK to receive Queen Elizabeth II traditional birthday congratulations for becoming a centenarian. The UK-based woman said she was devasted after learning about the Queen's death on September 8, and thought her chances of receiving her 100th birthday card from Her Majesty disappeared.
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Hoare was in tears and felt honored at the same time when the birthday telegram arrived. The traditional birthday card arrived 24 hours after the Queen's death and a day before Gwendolyn's birthday. Sue Beckett from Essex, Gwendolyn's niece wrote on the BBC tributes dedicated to the Queen online page, "My Aunt, Gwendolyn Betty Hoare, is 100 today." Beckett wrote that for decades her aunt had been expecting the tribute from the Queen and on Friday, September 9, when the news broke out about the monarch's death, Gwendolyn was appalled. "For decades she talked about receiving a telegram from the Queen and was devastated to hear the news... but her telegram arrived (on Friday) and she was ecstatic," the niece wrote. Calling it a sweet gesture from the Queen, Hoare said, "I'm a royalist...old fashioned."
Hoare is one of the last people to receive the longest reigning monarch's traditional birthday card. Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully at her Balmoral castle in Scotland due to 'episodic mobility issues' that she had been facing for sometime. King Charles III immediately succeeded the throne after his mother's demise. The Queen's coffin is now lying in rest at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. The Queen's state funeral will be held at Westminster Abbey on Monday, September 19. World leaders, royal heads and politicians from across the globe will be attending the significant event to pay their tribute to the late monarch. The Queen will be laid to rest alongside the late Prince Philip in a prepared tomb at King George VI Memorial Chapel in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.