Elizabeth was everyone’s queen

The death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday, Sept. 8 at the age of 96 has been mourned worldwide, and justifiably so. No other nation's leader, royal or otherwise, was treated by people of hundreds of countries as their leader, too. Indeed, no other leader has made millions worldwide feel better by just being herself, and by being there.
Elizabeth first became the leader of Great Britain and the Commonwealth on Feb. 6, 1952, at the age of 26, when her father King George VI, died, and it was truly remarkable that she reigned every day until her death --- for more than 70 ½ years.
That’s a record for a monarch that's unlikely to be broken --- and it’s worth noting that she was still on the job two days before her death as on Sept. 6, she met with outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his replacement, Liz Truss, to facilitate the handover of power following Johnson’s recent resignation from the post.
But Elizabeth, as has been noted by the many British royal watchers and experts who have given their analysis since her death, was so much more than a ruler. She was the maternal figure for Great Britain and indeed, for much of the world,
It was especially fascinating to watch the TV coverage, aired on the news in Boston, of her visit to the Hub in July 1976 during America’s Bicentennial celebration. She spoke with grace and gratitude about her visit to Boston, where --- as she said on that day --- the American Revolution had begun 200 years earlier.
Evidence of how much that visit 46 years ago meant to the people of Boston and Massachusetts could be seen in the face of former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, who greeted the queen when she disembarked in Boston.
Dukakis, in an interview with WBZ-TV on Thursday, beamed with pride when talking about Elizabeth, and he was smiling and joking with ease while reminiscing about how the queen tripped while walking off the royal yacht, but did not fall to the ground. He was relieved, he said with a smile, that she hadn’t fallen, because it was an unwritten rule that no one should touch the queen, and he was afraid he’d have to violate that rule in order to prevent her from hitting the ground.
Like so many, I will miss the queen, who was the only queen of England that I ever knew. Indeed, she reigned for all of my life, as she ascended to the throne a little more than six months before I was born in 1952.
Elizabeth will be missed greatly. I wish King Charles III much good fortune and good health as he takes his mother’s place as a leader in what is a very dangerous and volatile world.