Saturday and Sunday, September 3 and 4. It is the weekend before the Queen‘s death. The Right Reverend Dr Iain Greenshields — who is staying with her at Balmoral — finds her ‘in fantastic form’.
He has dinner with her on Saturday evening, gives the sermon at Braemar and Crathie Parish Church on Sunday morning, then has lunch with her on Sunday afternoon. They talk about the Queen’s childhood, her horses, church affairs (she is ‘well up to speed’) and her sadness at what is happening in Ukraine.
This is quite typical. The Queen is good at living in the present but often draws on her memories of the past, grateful for the lessons they have taught her.
‘She was so alive and so engaging,’ recalled Dr Greenshields later.
Tuesday, September 6. Clive Cox, one of Her Majesty’s favourite racehorse trainers, gets a call from the Queen at 10am. She wants to chat to him about the prospects for her two-year-old, Love Affairs, who is running in the two o’clock at Goodwood.
‘We talked about the…
Connect with us on our socials: