Queen Elizabeth II
With the passing of Queen Elizabeth, it is the time that people are sharing their personal experiences with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
It was March 1977 when I was a missionary in the Unification Church in Adelaide, when Queen Elizabeth came to visit.
Rundle Mall
The newly opened Rundle Mall was a perfect promenade for the people to greet their Monarch.
We prepared a banner of welcome, and made our way down to Rundle Mall. It was cordoned off for Her Majesty to walk down the middle, moving from side to side to greet the crowds on both sides.
We were on the left side walking down, and she crossed over from the other side to our small party of four. We had prepared an envelope with leaflets about the Unification Church.
And there it was. The opportunity came. We had prepared. We had believed and we wanted to greet the Queen. There was Rodney, Tanya, Jayne and myself. I shook hands with her, she asked a question, paused politely and moved on. She took the envelope from Rodney. She passed on the envelope to her assistant. The Queen wore gloves as she shook hands.
She also received so many flowers and you hardly noticed that her assistants were there to free her hands to receive again from the next eager and loyal subject.
I was struck how she managed to be so inclusive, wanting to include everyone. We were delighted!
Later I noticed how she waved from her vehicle to one side while looking to the other and then swapped over.
The perfect diplomat!
Later when Prince Philip went to Parliament House the police saw our large banner and thought we were protesters.
They wanted to stop us. Then when they managed to see the front of the banner they were baffled and permitted us to continue. I remember seeing Prince Philipp looking out into the crowd and it seemed he was looking at us.
Photos of HRH taken from: https://glamadelaide.com.au/photo-gallery-favourite-queen-elizabeth-moments-in-adelaide/