Well this is a surprise! Queen Elizabeth stepped out today to open up a new subway line at Paddington Station. She lifted the curtain on “the Elizabeth Line.” She wore a sunny yellow coat and hat and, while she carried and used a cane, she was able to get around pretty well. Prince Edward accompanied her. He was by her side during the Royal Windsor Horse Show too. It feels like the Wessexes are doing their part to spend more time with the Queen… especially if it means edging out Prince Andrew.
For months now, Queen Elizabeth has only made a handful of hyper-managed public appearances, mostly in or around Windsor Castle or Sandringham. She did get out for the service of thanksgiving for Prince Philip, which was held at Westminster Abbey. The conversation has definitely been that the Queen has one foot in the funeral pyre. I do wonder if the Queen has completely normal mobility issues for a woman her age, and instead of just talking about that openly and acknowledging it through use of walkers, canes and wheelchairs, the Queen’s aides have clammed up, leading people to believe that she’s at death’s door. Or maybe she’s been doing really poorly for months and she’s just having a good week with her mobility.
Her appearance today really was a surprise. Buckingham Palace only confirmed it at the last minute, with aides briefing reporters: “In a happy development, Her Majesty The Queen is attending today’s event to mark the completion of the Elizabeth line. Her Majesty was aware of the engagement and the organisers were informed of the possibility she may attend.”
🚆Celebrating the opening of the Elizabeth Line!
Named in honour of The Queen, today Her Majesty and The Earl of Wessex visited Paddington Station ahead of the new railway opening to passengers next week. pic.twitter.com/uLAdtyIbA3
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) May 17, 2022
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Queen Elizabeth II at Paddington station in London, to mark the completion of London’s Crossrail project.,Image: 692028428, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Matthews / Avalon
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- Queen Elizabeth II at Paddington station in London, to mark the completion of London’s Crossrail project.,Image: 692028431, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Matthews / Avalon
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- Queen Elizabeth II and The Earl of Wessex at Paddington station in London, to mark the completion of London’s Crossrail project.,Image: 692028444, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Matthews / Avalon
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- Queen Elizabeth II unveils a plaque whilst the Earl of Wessex watches to mark the Elizabeth line’s official opening at Paddington station in London, to mark the completion of London’s Crossrail project.,Image: 692028450, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Matthews / Avalon
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- Queen Elizabeth II with The Earl of Wessex at Paddington station in London, to mark the completion of London’s Crossrail project.,Image: 692028458, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Matthews / Avalon
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- Queen Elizabeth II at Paddington station in London, to mark the completion of London’s Crossrail project.,Image: 692043490, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Matthews / Avalon
Wow. She is thin. She seems happy. I wonder if she intentionally dressed in Paddington bear yellow?
Wow she’s thin is right, even her cankles have noticeably slimmed down. And now we can see just how huge those shoulder pads are, yeesh.
She looks GREAT in that color! I love the coat, hat and her brooch game is spot on, as always. The bit that I’m curious about is Edward’s new role, and what kind of deal Charles and the Queen have made.
She does, doesn’t she!!! She looks absolutely lovely in her entire ensemble too! She is a picture of the beautiful colors of spring too!!
She is all smiles and seems genuinely happy!
She is so cute. She must be feeling better these days because she certainly looks it. Love that color and her smile. Don’t get me started on her brooch. Gorgeous.
The coat lining matches the dress. The flowers in the hat are the same colours as the dress. Very Queenly outfit.
Lovely! Could a PT or OT comment on the ergonomically of her, what seem to me, tall cans with no handles?
I wish Edward would try a modern cut slim suit instead of those 1930s baggy sFu I it’s he wears.
Edwards is always horrably ill-dressed; beggy, outdated, oversized oldman’s stuff.
I was wondering about that walking stick, as well. It seems a little high for her, and her thumb rests on the interior of that fork at the top. I’m neither a PT nor an OT, but I do use a walking stick for balance. If she just needs something to steady herself a bit, I’m thinking this would be fine, especially if it’s just for short distances & short amounts of time. Too, it may also be something she’s used to, I’m guessing she & Phil would go for walks up at Balmoral. Charles uses sticks like this for tramping about the hills, I’m guessing Elizabeth would have as well. What I’m getting to is that, if you’re used to one style of walking stick, you like to keep with it. She used the same walking stick at the Windsor horse show the other evening, with her hand just below the fork at the top. I think she’s used to it & likes it. Change is hard when you get older. I have a perfectly decent bamboo cane to use, but I rely on my LL Bean walking stick instead.
I wondered about the height of the walking stick also. I had to use a cane for 16 months before I had a miracle hip replacement that gave me my life back. I researched canes, and the height of the cane should be set at where your wrist bends as you are holding your arms loosely at your side. That did work perfectly for me.
Oh my!!! He is dressed as if it’s a zoot suit!! Yuck….
Man has money, look at his eldest brother for inspiration, please!
You would think with the money that they have all the men could get more modern suits! I was thinking that the other day while watching Baldy at Parliament
She looks good, though considerably aged.
Good for Edward and his family to move in and push out Andrew!
Hell, bring in a team of her corgis instead of Andrew! lol
Liz looks pretty good for 96!
Her tailors are doing one hell of a good job, because the suit dresses she wears help her look a bit more sturdy. Strong colors, good cut and shape to the coat, it all helps.
She is 96, and tiny and as with anyone her age, fragile.
I hope she retires officially soon.
I think her children and several of her grandchildren have turned out to be very disappointing to her. Criminal, in Andrews case.
Edward and Sofiesta just might get their Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh after all.
@Nyro, that thought occurred to me as well, though it’s pretty cold in my mind that you would negotiate terms to squire your own elderly mother around if that’s the case. But the RF is a bunch of wheelers and dealers anyway.
She’s skinny but she’s alive and kicking, ain’t she? Last year, I thought she wouldn’t even make it to the jubbly but she’s looking like she could be around another three or four years. Wow.
Yup!!! She’s certainly been given a healthy dose of “I’m going to go out and enjoy this weather and my country as much as possible, everyone else can FO and watch how a 96 year old can do it!!”
She seems genuinely happy and in good spirits!! She may have his a big road bump but maybe as she becomes much more agile her muscles and bones are surely becoming much more strong.
Maybe her doctors convinced her to try some new meds and these are doing the job well enough for her to get out and about for certain things. If she had an incident last fall that left her with these mobility issues at her age it would take her far longer to recover and perhaps she is also turning a corner there. I am decades younger than the Queen but a fall two years ago has left me with mobility issues and knee pain. Some days are good, some are bad, and frankly I’ve had a couple days where I was all the way back to square one. There is no straight line towards recovery with these things.
Upvote
Well said. Recovery from injury and/or living with chronic conditions is not a straight line. More often it feels like Jeremy Bearimy.
She might also be receiving some physical therapy to help with the mobility issues. It’s amazing that she’s on her feet, that’s half the battle, and doing things at her own pace. At her age, my mom was wheelchair bound and had to be lifted to be moved. It certainly looks like the queen is feeling good these days and looking good too despite the frailty. I guess we have to put the Weekend at Bernie’s scenario on the back burner for now.
I think for the Queen it’s a combination of things. She has mobility issues, sometimes she’s too tired to work, other times she doesn’t want to do events and that she has decided she will come out for events that are important to her or that she will enjoy. I think for the Jubilee she will be out for Trooping and the church service only.
She does look happy here and pretty mobile. Wonder if the combination of the “back issues” (i.e. whatever happened in the fall) and COVID this winter just really knocked her for a loop, and now she’s feeling better so can get back to more things, even though obviously her schedule will stay pretty reduced ? I feel like this is the first public event like this that she has done in a LONG time, even before November.
Well, well, well. She looks marvelous! What a quick recovery. Not at all suspicious. While we were all worrying about her immobility/dementia/long covid issues we’ve completely forgotten and forgiven her for paying out millions of dollars to make her favorite son’s pesky sex trafficking lawsuit go away. Operation Restore the Jubbly complete! Well done, crisis managers.
Maybe Harry, Meghan and their children upcoming visit has put a spring back in her step and motivated her to put her best foot forward. I love that yellow on her .
Exactly what I was thinking. Charles and william rushing her to the grave, with the two preparing to be kings, and backstabbing each other.
Harry appears, and says protect the queen, has her up and about, and grinning like a Cheshire cat. I am loving it. Have a sit down fellas. Lol.
Maybe Angela Kelly’s permanent presence helped after all?
Not yet, bitches lol.
Ugh. Edward is a creep. Did anyone else catch how he indicated to the man showing her how to use the Oyster card to keep his distance…?
I just saw the footage.
The GAUL !!!
That man was doing his job, nothing Eddie knows about.
While i think that the Queen is part of a horrible family/organization and hate her for paying Andrew’s settlement money and for her role in the mistreatment of Meghan & Harry (and for other reasons), i do have to admit that i am happy to see her out & about and looking really great.
While I HATE that she covered for Andrew’s behavior for years, I feel that his victims deserved to be monetarily compensated for his abuse, and as long as she used personal and not public funds, I don’t hate her for paying most or all of Andrew’s settlement money.
Well I guess we can add trains to the list of things HM enjoys, along with horses. She does have a senior citizen railcard so maybe she’s secretly been whizzing about the network for years!
If she’s anything like some of the seniors I know who’ve stayed fit (and she’s only just recently had to use a stick, which is pretty good going) her reluctance to use aids might stem from not feeling old in her head, and wanting to retain what independence she has. Her whole life is scheduled, so being able to cross a room in her own time is probably something she’s reluctant to give up.
It might also be that’s she’s being encouraged to stay mobile – use it or lose it is a real risk at that age. If she starts using a chair it could result in loss of muscle tone very quickly.
My own suspicion is that she’s been knocked by Covid and there’s some joint damage/wear & tear that causes good days and bad days – it might even be weather dependent and that’s why they don’t really know until the day how she’s going to feel – but she’s basically in good shape for age.
The first thing I thought when I saw the picture of her today is that her dresser is back to doing her job and outfitting the queen in clothes that fit. It was shameful that for a while there the Queen was wearing old clothes that didn’t fit and no one bothered to make alterations before having her wear them in public. She looked good at the horse show also, she looked cared for.
I’m glad to see the family is finally doing what they promised which was for one of them to be with her when she made appearances. They made a big announcement, followed by one or two appearances with her and then we saw the queen by herself at some appearances looking a bit disheveled.
They may have all gotten into their feelings when Harry commented about her care but from what I can see there has been an improvement in her care for public appearances.
On a different note, is it possible they’re giving steroids to get her through these outings?
If I were a full-blown conspiracy theorist I’d say they must have perfected the QEII body double with how quick this turnaround has been.
The Queen is letting Charles know that he better give Edward his Duke of Edinburgh title.
@Sunday. I hear you. I’ve wondered that myself. Or as @Athena mentioned steroids. I’ve got RA and soon after my diagnosis I went on a low dose of prednisone. OMG I felt so good and the pain was much diminished. Even my boss asked what was different. I was giving him way more files to review and he said I even walked differently.
@Sunday, yep, “body double” is the first thought that went through my mind.
It’s also interesting that she was out the other night and again today, right after William and the National anthem got booed. She constantly has to come out and clean up after her family. Her being at the horse show had to be last minute. The queen sat next to Edward and Sophie sat somewhere else not looking too happy. I think it was Edward and Sophie who were suppose to be there together.
As far as Edward being with her, maybe he’s being a good son, he had the most flexibility in his diary so he accompanied his mother or maybe after his “I’m not taking any notes” comment in the Caribbean, she’s showing him how it’s done, just like she took William back to Scotland after he messed up. I can also see how Edward may have made a deal with Charles for the Duke title, but as a parent it bothers me a little that Edward appearing with his mother might be transactional and not the act of a loving son.
I agree with you about the possible transactional nature, Athena, if Edward is angling for the DOE title. I said much the same same thing upthread.
You know what they say about the elderly when they get a boost of energy, just saying 😏
That was my thought exactly, she looks very perky and I was uh oh…
The rally is usually a week to a couple of weeks before
Glad to see the Queen looking so “lively” although her smile strikes me as more of a grimace, and I’m glad her clothes have been tailored to her new weight.
I may be mistaken about this, but I thought in the announcement of Edward’s title at the time of his wedding that he would ultimately inherit his father’s title after the death of his parents. Technically, the Queen is Duchess of Edinburgh, and Charles his son is technically Duke of Edinburgh. That’s how titles work. So, when the Queen passes, some of Charles’s titles revert to the crown and then Edward should get his ducal title. If he inherited the title now, it would be unusual that the title would not pass on to the first born but the third son?
Technically the Queen is the dowager duchess of edinburgh, but I am not even sure about that because of how titles work with the Crown. But Charles is Duke of Edinburgh and Camilla is the current Duchess. Edward can’t really inherit the title now. I think the current issue is that Charles has supposedly indicated that he is not willing to name Edward Duke of Edinburgh when the time comes (I would not be surprised if William is pushing for that title for George upon his marriage or Louis; York would be expected for Louis but even if Andrew is dead when Louis gets married, the York title may need to sit a few plays out.)
I do know how mobility issues are very real for the elderly. I have the same issue with my 89- year-old Mom. I have to say that I’m a little suspicious about the way that she suddenly, almost overnight, is going to engagements and looking happy. I think that when Harry visited he saw a disheveled grandmother. I bet that’s something that he had never seen before. Who thought that letting her appear in public (in Zoom) without a bra and in dresses which here too big for her was a good idea? I have a feeling there’s something in the background that we’re not aware of, and I’m glad that TQ is looking so well. Was this about the grey men making themselves more important or valuable? Just wondering.
I’d have liked to see her with Paddington Bear. Ridiculous, but that’s what I thought. I love her in yellow.
As a PT I think her mobility is looking pretty good. She doesn’t really seem to be needing the cane (or using it properly) which makes me think balance isn’t the real issue. So then its either got to be endurance or cognitive decline. My vote is cognitive decline because if it were only endurance there’d be a ton of accommodations they could do to allow her to be able to make more appearances. Also doesn’t she seem more smiley lately? Another indication dementia.
@eggbert, You have voiced tan explanation for my concern for her newly acquired smiley countenance which we have rarely seen before. I’ve wondered if it is due to new medication or dementia.
Putting a kibosh on the ableist lense and walking about with the non rapey son. Dare I say progress? For the love of God could the Bar be set any lower for this woman ? No wonder Kate feels so amazing of a person. Unreal