I’m not a royal fan, well I wasn’t and I’m still wondering if I am. I have dabbled in being a Republican in the past when under the influence of my best friends mother.
I recall when I was young touting “what exactly do we need them for. They are just are after our money- arent they?” The wisdom you have at eight but I got to tell you these young royals particularly Meghan and Harry have sucked me in and now I am {we} all set to watch the royal wedding.
So does that make me a royalist now? Not that it matters. Not right now.
I recall watching the wedding of Charles and Diana. My mother had set up a TV in her bedroom because my father gave less than two hoots about the couple; he wanted to watch Nightrider instead- fair call I thought at the time. I was five when it was broadcast and so the memory is brief. I remember hanging over the edge of the bed staring at the set, upside down as you do and watched as Diana’s long train trailed behind her as she walked up the aisle, and my mother saying her dress was beautiful.
As a kid of 80’s and 90’s I watched Diana a lot, reading about her through my godmothers New Idea and Woman’s Day magazines; magazines I actually detest as an adult. My interest first peaked with Diana because someone said once when my hair was short and blonde that I reminded them of her but as I grew it was not because she was a style icon but because she was a hot mess of a woman who still did good stuff. Her vulnerability and strength was something I admired.
I recall the death of Diana and thinking it was a prank. I didn’t watch or follow the family after that with the exception of the odd scandal that was plastered across the news. I stopped following or thinking of them as ‘our family’ I guess because their relatability had gone after Diana passed. Diana was a human I could relate to and I liked her. Since then obviously, there has been Will and Kate who as lovely as they are still they didn’t peak my interest in the Royal Family.
Up until the other day I had absolutely no interest in the family, as much as I am a complete history buff. I am not a gossip mag lover (such cruel things) and I don’t follow “celebrities” on social media. I do however love a good philanthropist, women’s activist, environmentalist and humans with real social conscious.
So it was by accident that I was watching file footage of Harry and Will consoling the crowd when their mother had died that got me. In the footage, you could see they were visibly upset- they all were. Harry was so tiny; a child dealing with his own grief yet he was expected by his ‘people’ to console them. True to myself I cried much like I’m crying now at the thought of a child having lost their parent.
Their grief was a public display and whilst some will say that was their role wasn’t it? That’s what they were born into but at 11, was it? As a world, we should have been embracing them with understanding. Perhaps its because I am a mum now, but it changed how I thought of him and his brother. How much Harry reminds me of youngest boy B3 and how would have my children have behaved. How remarkable they have done despite what the world asked from them.
Since then I have found myself watching random things on Meghan as if I need to know what Harry has got himself in for. What sort of addition she will make to their pack. Like my opinion on her matters; but I got to say, I knew nothing of her before; creepily now I know too much about her now. I have watched her talk on women’s rights, third world issues, feminism and I’m captivated with her. I am barracking for Meghan; this woman who I have become enraptured with; because not only of her values, normal upbringing, her self-madeness but her complete batshit crazy family trying to ruin her day. She has made the royals touchable and completely relatable again; well as much as they can.
Now I find myself barracking for them, just like it seems the rest of the world is. I’m planning my evening and for the next few hours, the world seems just a little bit lovely despite the reality that exists.
I’m wishing them all the good stuff I can; thinking somehow that by watching the wedding they will feel that, the love and hope I’m feeling for them- its possible right? That we can give back to him; and them the same support they showed way back when their mother died. When the shoe should have been on the other foot. When the world should have embraced their grief and said when your ready son. It’s the right thing to do right. Show them some love?
Regardless of the world right now seems a just little bit more lovely.
x Deb
