I called my grandmother tonight to wish her a Happy Easter-- which you should all do, regardless of whether or not she celebrates Easter! We had a long conversation because it had been a while, and I had travels and various other life things to update her on. At one point she asked me if I'd be watching the Royal Wedding, which may sound like a classic grandmother-ly thing to be interested in, but her interest is pretty specific. In the early 1950s she was stationed, with my grandfather and my mother's two older siblings (she wasn't born yet), at an American military base north of London. As it turns out the base was near one of the royal family's vacation homes, Sandringham, so near that Prince Philip would occasionally stop by for lunch, or Prince Charles, as a three-year-old, would be brought by with his nannies to play in the American planes.
When King George VI died in 1952 he died at Sandringham; there was a funeral held for the people who worked at the home, and for some reason my grandparents attended, and saw the King's funeral train leave for London. While we were on the phone, I immediately clicked over to Amazon and arranged to mail my grandmother a copy of The King's Speech, a movie she missed in theaters but one of the few she had wanted to see in recent years. I find it, frankly, magical that all of that could happen, and that in a few days a woman who was present for the King's funeral will be watching, from her own home, a movie about his ascension to the throne. I love it when anyone in my life is interested in movies, period, but that goes quadruple-extra for my grandmother. I won't be watching the Royal Wedding, but when we get to talk about The King's Speech, I think that will make up for it.
