Was that fuzzy visage the queen?
To this day, I’m not quite sure. My own memory fades, but the view that morning was something less than clear anyway. I remember watching the motorcade, while a colleague at the time, an absolutely aces photog, Susan, was watching even more attentively, snapping away. Queen Elizabeth II appeared to be in the window, waving, as a queen does. Can’t be too sure though.
It was my only interaction with . . . any royalty, really. We Americans preemptively turn up our noses at those who might turn up their noses at us. It’s better that way. Ask the French. But QEII did engender a different sort of reaction here, a welcoming one, even. I was squinting to see the queen that day — that day being a Tuesday in May 2007, when she visited the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., part of my coverage area for a now-defunct weekly newspaper — because the entire visit had been in such high demand that I was unable to get a better seat. I had negotiated with local/national pooh-bah Steny Hoyer’s office for days to get access to the visit, and had come very close, but I was left off the list at the very end. Clearly, I never got over this, and I went to work in conservative media shortly thereafter. Is this my origin story? A question for another day . . .
So I was out on the street, literally, watching with my fellow plebes for the queen to share, briefly, our air. A crowd of locals had gathered, elated and enthusiastic, even though, if memory serves, it was unreasonably cold for May. This morning, I dug up the article I wrote, today buried in a stash of newspapers I kept for the singular purpose of this Corner post (worth it), and found quote after quote from onlookers claiming maybe to have seen her. And that was enough. The photos Susan took captured a certain serenity and satisfaction on the faces of those who made it out that day.
“We’re part of history,” one onlooker declared.
I can’t confirm that statement is a true statement, but I can confirm it felt that way at the time, such was the aura of this particular queen, someone whose face I may or may not have seen.
R.I.P.