Piano practise

I wonder ...

What will today's seven year olds remember of this historic day?  This morning my eleven year old grandson, a very bright boy, looked a little lost when he heard his father and I talking about the death of the queen.  We elaborated the Queen of England had died.  He didn't look any the wiser.  A reminder of how much times have changed.  I'm looking forward to hearing from him what impact that news had on today's lessons. 

This aged person (I nearly called myself an aged queen but resisted) recalls so clearly walking to school and hearing the girl next door playing God Save the King, slowly and solemnly on the piano.  Usually Angela would be practising the piano when I walked past their house, so I was accustomed to hearing music.  But this was so unusual, such a change from the usual tunes, and we had been drilled to stand to attention when we heard what was then our national anthem, that I stopped and stood tall, listening, staring towards the open window of the Carroll home.  The piano stood beside a window on the front of the house.  Someone came out the front door and told me the King had died.  

I can't remember who it was that gave me the news.  Probably Mary who was my age, heading off to school as I was.  But I can remember being confused, not knowing what I should do, what was the appropriate behaviour.

No doubt in the future I will remember just as clearly listening to the midnight news in bed last night, hearing that the royal family was gathering at Balmoral and then hearing the sad news in bed this morning.  That makes it easy, doesn't it?  If anyone asks, in the future, where were you when ... my explanation will be simple...

It's just dawned on me that when the deaths of the great/famous have interrupted my mundane life I've heard the news in different places.  Never twice in the same place.  John F Kennedy - on holiday in Maroochydore, a boyfriend who had walked the shops to pick up some milk came back with the news (The boyfriend is long forgotten - Ivan someone), in Mt Isa, North West Queensland on the radio while preparing dinner (Martin Luther King), I was breastfeeding the daughter I am now visiting when I saw on the TV News that Elvis Presley had died, doing the ironing on a Sunday afternoon in Proserpine, North Queensland (Princess Diana) and now in bed in Taranaki.

RIP Queen Elizabeth