It is a weekend and bank holidays
full of celebrations here in the UK.
Queen Elizabeth has been on the throne for 60 years and her kingdom is
about to celebrate this wonderful diamond jubilee.
I have thought long and hard
about how to produce a personal tribute to the Queen mulling ideas for several
months. I thought about ways about
creating an image that the queen would be pleased with, that celebrates her
resilience, magnamity and wisdom. However,
for many reasons, I crossed off each and every idea I had. None of the models I thought of would look
like her, the clothing would not be regal enough and I had no stunning location
at hand to photograph in. Nothing would
be good enough to pass on to Her Majesty as a thank you and a sign of respect
from me. I am just able to say Thank You
in a virtual way and imagine I am paying respect to a Queen I admire and
respect.
Why should all this come from a
foreigner, I hear you say, and why specifically me?
Queen Elizabeth has always had a
very special tie with Malta.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh married on November 20, 1947,
and Malta is the only country outside the UK where they have lived.
Prince Philip served there with the Royal Navy between 1949 and
1951, during which period the Queen (then Princess Elizabeth) visited several
times, the longest visit being from November 1950 to February 1951.
They returned to the island in 1954, 1967, 1992 and 2005.
Her Majesty has been known to reminisce about lengthy stays as a
young Monarch in Malta and is said to cherish memories of being able to drive
around the Island quite freely. She is
also said to miss visiting Villa Portelli in Pieta’, her residence in the
Island.
Although there has always been a strong anti-colonial feeling
within the Maltese which ultimately led to the island becoming a republic, even
today there is a strong connection with the Queen, especially from the older
generation. It is within this environment
that I grew up as a child.
How does all this link up with me, you will ask!
In 2005 I was in the middle of a very difficult court case. I had separated from my husband after a breakdown of our marriage,
and had been granted legal separation and custody of our son. My financial situation was fraught and I was
looking at our future. My hope was to be
able to move to the UK with my son Matt, but under Maltese law it was very difficult
or nearly impossible to do so with a child.
In total I had gone through 6 lawyers, who were all happy to take my
money, but not to give me a positive outcome (this is before I engaged the 7th
and successful one!)
One day after school, the then 10 year old Matt bounded up to me and
suggested he wanted to speak to the Queen, I sort of ignored him, as you do
when one if faced with such statements.
He said he had a plan. The Queen
was due to visit, and his school, like others, was invited to an event
where, as is customary in foreign visits by Royals, she met with schoolchildren. He said he might be able to stand in a place
where he could ask her a favour. The
last thing I’d do to Matt was to dash his hopes so I gave him my blessing to do
what he wanted.
Matt came back from that event very upset, he said none of his
school mates were anywhere near to the Queen and he had really wanted to speak
to her.
I suggested he might want to write to her. She might not be the Queen of Malta anymore, but
maybe, as the head of the Commonwealth, it would be sort of OK to write to her.
Now anybody who knows Matt will appreciate that he does not like
to write to anybody, so seeing him scribble his pleas just made me feel so sad
that he had to go through this. No child
should ever have to plead!
A few weeks later, this letter drops through my postbox... it
bears the insignia ERII and I tremble....
I call Matt, who asks me for help with opening the letter....
How can it be that so many people I met with over the years to
move my case forward, notable people, members of the Parliament, government
employees who influenced local policy, often snubbed my requests and a Queen,
not even of my own country, takes the bother to read my son’s scribbles and
reply??!
She replied not once, but twice, after Matt updated her on
how we failed to make any progress...
The Queen’s reply per se obviously did nothing in itself to change
our legal position – Jack Straw was in no position to comment on individual cases,
and we were not under his remit really. However it gave us so much energy to drive the
whole thing through. Matt felt
empowered, and our lawyer felt that if Matt had the initiative to write like
that then he certainly had what it took to make himself heard clearly within a
Maltese court of Law, which he did, in a small but powerful voice.
I’m not sure if it is OK to refer to the Queen as Dear, but I will
do so now, reverentially.
Dear Queen, thank you for listening to the children. You are an example to individuals
both here and within the Commonwealth.
Thank you for being a kind mother.
I am your faithful servant.
Sincerely,
Antonella
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