.jpg;w=120;h=120;mode=crop){kind=avatar}
Roddy MacKenzie was just a young boy the first time he met the Queen.
The year was 1959 and he was visiting his relatives in Saskatchewan at the time the young queen was doing a cross-Canada tour.
“We all went down to Moosomin,” he said. “This beautiful train pulled in and came to a halt.”
MacKenzie said his mother, who had been struck with polio, was in a wheelchair at the front of the crowd and the Queen came over to speak with the family. “She was incredibly kind and gracious,” he said. “Everyone was completely captivated.”
Stopping to greet crowds at relatively small communities and make ordinary people feel special – if only for a moment – was part of the Queen’s charm throughout her long reign which ended Thursday with her death at 96, said MacKenzie.
“The Queen has been to Moose Jaw more than she’s been to Manhattan,” said MacKenzie. “She didn’t hang out in the French Riveria. She went where duty called.”
A lifelong fascination with the Queen
For MacKenzie, the early encounter with the young Queen Elizabeth II was the start of a lifelong fascination.
“My family had great admiration for the monarchy,” said MacKenize, a West Vancouver resident and life member of the Monarchist League of Canada.
“She was so deeply embedded into the fabric of Canada.”
When the Queen visited Vancouver during 1983, MacKenzie – then working as a downtown lawyer – said his office offered a perfect view of the royal yacht Britannia.
He was there again later when the Queen walked to centre ice with hockey great Wayne Gretzky in Vancouver in 2002 to drop the puck at an NHL game.
“The whole place was packed,” he said. When the Queen appeared, “There was deafening applause. There’s very few people who can [inspire] that.”
“There’s nobody quite like the Queen,” said MacKenzie.
Reassuring voice in turbulent times
MacKenzie said many people have taken comfort in the stability of the Queen, who was a steady figure through decades of world political leaders. She could offer reassurance in times of crisis, he said.
Though part of a very old institution, the Queen could be remarkably forward thinking, he said – paying respect to Indigenous people and their culture far before the wider society had come around to accepting that, and smashing racial barriers before that was widely accepted.
“She was a continuing example of our better selves,” he said.
When he learned the news of the monarch’s death on Thursday, “It was a total shock,” he said. “I guess I’d evolved into thinking she was absolutely indestructible.”
With the Queen’s death this week at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, a number of North Shore residents were fondly recalling their own close encounters with the popular monarch over the many decades of her reign.
'She's always been there'
“The Queen was very much a part of my life,” said Marny Peirson of West Vancouver, who helped the late Carolanne Reynolds put on the annual summer Royal Tea-by-the-Sea celebration in West Vancouver each summer.
“She’s always been there,” said Peirson. “I feel quite a sense of loss.”
Peirson said she admired the Queen for doing her duty, despite personal challenges, especially those presented by the monarch’s own family members.
As a singer, Peirson was chosen during one the Queen's official visits to sing "God Save the Queen" on TV.
She also got close to the Queen in person during the monarch’s walkabout at UBC during that tour. “I got within a foot or two of her,” said Peirson, who dressed for the occasion by covering herself with Union Jacks – earning herself a photo in the Vancouver Sun. “I was happy to be eye to eye,” she said.
The Royal-Tea-By-The-Sea, an annual celebration of all things royal that featured the wearing of entertaining hats and posing with cardboard figures of the Queen and other royals, was always “amazingly well attended,” said Peirson.
Peirson said she was part of a singing group entertaining at Kiwanis Manor on Thursday when the news broke of the Queen’s death. They decided to sing “God Save the Queen” at the beginning of the session and end it with “God Save the King”, she said – which felt very strange. “I haven’t sung those words for 70 years.”
“I don’t know whether [King] Charles will get the same level of admiration,” she added. “Give him time.”
The photograph not taken
For former North Shore News managing editor and photographer Terry Peters, meeting the Queen was among his professional responsibilities.
But it was probably a chance encounter when he didn’t get a photo that sticks out most in his mind.
Peters was on the scene when the Queen visited BC Place with then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and B.C. Premier Bill Bennett to announce Expo86 in 1983.
“The Queen did a number of different events when she was in Vancouver,” he said, including the walkabout at UBC.
After taking several shots of the monarch meeting and greeting the crowds, “I ducked into a trail” to find a route to a better vantage point, said Peters.
Moments later, “There’s the Queen walking right towards me by herself,” without any security.
“I just said ‘Hello,’ ” he said, “She smiled and kept on going. It wouldn’t happen today.”
Peters said he was so stunned and surprised that he didn’t raise his camera.
“That would have been an interesting photo,” he said. “But it would have broken that little magic moment.”
People loved the photos of the Queen on tour when they appeared in the North Shore News, he recalled. “Canadians are always royal watchers.”
The secret life of seals - and the Queen
Toby Ward is another North Vancouver resident who had a secret encounter with the Queen.
Ward’s father was involved in raising money for a new gallery at the Vancouver Aquarium in the early 1980s.
Ward was 12 at the time he attended the Queen’s official opening with his father – along with a throng at the aquarium.
Ward decided to duck inside on the off chance the Queen decided to visit some of the marine animal displays before moving on to official business.
He was the only person inside, Ward recalled.
After about 40 minutes, sure enough John Nightingale, then-director of the aquarium, and the Queen began walking towards him. “There she was,” he said. “I backed away and did sort of a half nod and a quiet hello. I knew the protocols. You’re not supposed to approach her or put your hand out.”
“It was just the two of them and me watching the seals. She had quite a few inquisitive questions.”
Ward describes the chance encounter as exciting but also completely outside of what would be allowed today. “I guess it was just a different world back then,” he said.
Ward said he’s taking the Queen’s death as bittersweet. “At first I was sad,” he said. “Then I thought: what an amazing life and amazing career.”
A special necklace
Former West Vancouver resident Peter Bruderer also had a special connection to the Queen.
He made the necklace and earrings presented to her on behalf of the province during an official visit in 1971.
Bruderer immigrated from Switzerland, where he had been trained in fine jewelry-making, in the 1960s, and for many years worked for Toni Cavelti, whose Vancouver store was the go-to for high-end jewelry for many decades.
When the Queen’s visit to B.C. was announced, the provincial government, under Premier W.A.C. Bennett, commissioned the Cavelti organization to create a necklace and earrings for the Queen using native B.C. materials – including gold and semi-precious Jadeite.
Bruderer put the necklace together from Cavelti’s design. “It was quite a project,” he said.
Bruderer said while he didn’t attend the event where the necklace was presented, he felt proud when he saw photos of the Queen wearing it.
“They weren’t diamonds and rubies like she usually wears,” he said. “But it fit well and looked great.”
For years, Bruderer – who retired to Kelowna about 10 years ago – kept a photo of the Queen wearing the necklace in his workshop.
Like most people, Bruderer said he had range of emotions when he learned of the Queen’s death on Thursday. “It’s a remarkable life,” he said. “I was 10 years old when she became Queen. It’s the end of an era.”
Monarchist flies to London
MacKenzie, meanwhile, said as a devoted monarchist, he intends to see this Elizabethan age out personally.
“As soon as I got the news of her death I immediately booked a flight to London,” he said.
MacKenzie said he’s previously attended royal jubilee celebrations in person, and for a monarchist, nothing could come close to experiencing the tributes to the Queen in person.
Luckily, MacKenzie said he has good friends who live in Windsor, home of Windsor Castle, and two sons who currently live in London.
“I just want to experience it when all of this is unfolding,” he said of the official period of mourning for the Queen, followed by the state funeral.
MacKenzie said he also has high hopes for King Charles III. “I have a lot of enthusiasm for him,” he said. “He’s the best prepared heir to the throne in history.”
[email protected]
twitter/com/janeseyd
