The Queen is Dead; Long Live the…Queen?
The world arguably suffered a great loss in September 2022 with the death of Her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, following an unprecedented reign of 70 years. Though Her Majesty was 96 years old, it was a shock for me to learn of her passing just days after a photo of her was published with the new (and very short-lived) prime minister. Despite her age, I found myself wondering what could possibly have caused her death when she was seen well-dressed, coiffed, and smiling for the PM (and the camera) just two days prior. But after 96 years, one must come to the conclusion that her cause of death was the length of her life itself.
Just one month later, my family lost our matriarch. But my mother, unlike the Queen, wasn’t looking quite so well a few days earlier, or even a few months earlier. Rather, my historically rotund mother had, over the course of about three years living with my eldest sister, gradually withered away through a combination of her own depression, caused by missing my father, the home she had shared with him, and all meaningful relationships after leaving her few friends and the family members behind in Virginia.
I bear some guilt for her misfortune, as after five years caring for her in her own home following my father’s passing, it became too much, and I’d had a bit of a breakdown. For my own health and wellbeing, a change was…
