Photo caption: Teresa Hawkes, Ph.D., Old Picture Archives. The Only picture my mom ever liked. Here it is. We had a velvet painting done of this too. She ruled us too. We did as she suggested, usually. You know I rebelled.
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Dearest mother,
Did you know how you were loved? That your looks did not matter to us one whit. We loved you as you were all through the moments of your life,
of 74 years. The Queen just died at 96.
You kept us all going. She did serve. You said you wanted a rest from public service with the man you loved. You always said things like that. Time was so fluid for you.
You had a real partnership with Dad. She had that with her Prince. I watched you and Dad all your lives and I know that like them, you made reality together. Things were hard but I saw you two kiss in the kitchen as a child. We had just moved to Germany. I know you didn’t give us keys to your front door in the old days when you guys were in your early 60s. We all were gone. You didn’t want us to find you doing something in the living room that was private to them. We were awkwardly impressed.
Okay. If we were lucky, our mother was this kind of queen in our lives. She kept us all going even at a cost to herself,
helping whenever it was needed.
Thank you,
Moms.
Teresa D Hawkes, Ph.D., iPhone Picture Archives. 9–9–22, Red Sky After Groceries. Mom died sometime in late November 2007. The Queen died 9 8 22 in Scotland time. They are missed.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: Teresa Hawkes, Ph.D., Old Picture Archives. The Only picture my mom ever liked. Here it is. We had a velvet painting done of this too. She ruled us too. We did as she suggested, usually. You know I rebelled.