After receiving Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin at Buckingham Palace and Westminster Hall, Prince William and Kate Middleton made their way to Sandringham in Norfolk on 15th September to view the flowers and other tributes left there to honour the Queen.
In Sandringham, as in Windsor last weekend, the Prince and Princess of Wales met with a large crowd of well-wishers who had come to bring them comfort and pay their respects.
One interaction has been widely reported due to how moving it was: the moment Prince William met with a woman in the crowd and shared with her how “very difficult” losing his grandmother has been, and how reminiscent it is of his mother, Princess Diana's, tragic passing twenty five years ago.
“Prince William told a woman sympathising with him at Sandringham that the procession yesterday had been ‘very difficult’ and had reminded him of walking behind his mother’s coffin,” royal reporter Richard Palmer wrote on Twitter. “He told another woman: ‘Don’t cry now, you’ll start me.’”
Royal editor Rebecca English echoed Richard’s sentiment: “THE Prince of Wales admitted to crowds at Sandringham today that he was haunted by memories of his mother’s funeral as he walked behind The Queen’s coffin,” she tweeted. “He also said: ‘I’m learning that she was everyone’s grandmother - the way people have reacted.'”
Princes William and Harry lost their mother as teenagers, when she was just 36 years old, and their grandmother the Queen stayed with them at Balmoral to take care of them instead of returning to London to speak to the public. Diana was buried on 6th September, 1997.
Almost 25 years to the day after their mother’s funeral, William and Harry had to say goodbye to their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
Though she was 96 years old, this of course didn’t make the shock and sadness any easier for the whole family, as William told the well-wishers in Sandringham.
Our thoughts are with the royal family at this difficult time.
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