Where will the queens body rest tonight?

[orangechoco]

I find it hard to think that the family will stay in the castle where the queen will also be?

It is normal in some parts of Scotland. It is a privilege to prepare them and be with those as they lie and the family keep with them until their funeral service. Telling stories. Laughing. Crying. Sitting in silence. Remembering.

And as others have said, you have more need to be scared of the living than the dead.

It isn’t at all frightening but then I’ve known this from when I was small.

I suspect she will be embalmed and the process has already started or been completed on site at Balmoral. So there won’t be any smell or unpleasantness. It’ll be like she is asleep.

Either at Balmoral, or I suspect maybe en route to Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh already. The formalities state she’ll lie in rest at Holyrood for a couple of days before going to London by royal train and there’s been a few bus diversions announced on their twitter feed tonight without reasons given but all in or around the place area…….

I was about seven when my grandmother died and she was lying in her coffin in the living room for everyone to say goodbye. It’s nothing scary, just a sort of vessel that isn’t really anything like a person. I hope that I’ll have a chance to spend some time with my mum before her body is donated to science. It should be weird but somehow isn’t!

For the Royals I think there’s plenty of space that they’re not sharing a wall.

I saw my dad after he died when I was 6, 3 of my grandparents as a teen and then my mum at 29. Seeing the body after they've gone has really helped me as imo they don't really look like them any more, as if their soul has clearly gone and it's just a shell left behind. It's very peaceful to just be with them.
With my mum I took a cup of tea in with me so I could have one last brew with her.

Honestly, there's no need to fear OP.x

Don’t apologise OP some people are being very unkind to you. It’s not unusual to be afraid of things we don’t know much about or haven’t seen and death does get shrouded in so much mystery when there is really no need. It’s such a natural process and dead bodies are just still and cool and lacking in all the little mannerisms and shapes that made that person who we knew. That’s how I see it anyway and how of felt when I have seen dead relatives

The queen will have been washed and been wrapped and covered and will have people keeping watch over her all night. She is not alone a

Your dad sounds like he was a lovely man. How wonderful that you can still hear and feel his laughter. What a wonderful legacy of love he has left.

I heard that the queen will lie at Holyrood tonight and on the morning she'll be brought up the Mile to St Giles Cathedral where she will lie in state for a day and be viewed by the public. Then she will go to London and lie in state until the day of her funeral.

Nope. There is a whole procedure set out in the press, Holyrood first then to London by Royal train after that.

@orangechoco it's not as scary as you think it would be especially when it is your parent. My Dad passed away very recently. I always thought I wouldn't be able to see him when he did but I did manage it and not only that, it was actually really peaceful being in the room, on the bed, with him. I'm no longer scared of death (well a peaceful passing anyway) because of the time I had with him after he passed. The royals will likely find great comfort in sitting with the Queen and being with her.

My father died in a hospice. I kept hold of his hand afterwards, partly as I was chatting to him, but also I wanted to get my mother home before he turned cold.

I started to feel him losing warmth after about 90 minutes, so I took her home then. They had estimated about two hours.

everyone is different OP. It was important to me to sit with him for a time. I also went to the chapel of rest to see him in his coffin. My sister absolutely couldn't contemplate it, and that's fine too. I had chosen his shirt and tie and wanted to see that he was correctly attired for his and my preferences.

I would have been okay if his body had been in the house at any point but I don't think my mother would have coped.

I was a nurse all my working life (now retired) and have seen loads of dead bodies also been with people, including my late DH and my mother when they passed.At the moment of death the body changes somewhat, I can't explain it fully but I think it because the soul has departed and what you see is an empty shell.It is not the person you knew.
I went back into the room with my son and granddaughter after my husband died when the nurses had washed him.He was not the person I knew.The priest came to bless his body then we left.
I declined to visit him in the undertaker's a few days later when we brought his clothes in to dress him.I let the undertaker do that.
As for bodies lying in houses after death, the was very common when most people died at home.I can remember my grandparents lying in coffins at home before the funerals.As previous posts have said it is very common in Ireland even now.The body usually lies in the living room and is never left unattended, people take turns to sit there at night.

I remember my Gran lay on her bed after she died 3 days until day before her funeral then she went to funeral parlour.

@orangechoco as previous posters have said, it really isn’t scary although I completely understand as I always was. Have only been with one person when they died and they were unconscious in icu (to be honest, I think they’d died several hours before and were only alive artificially) but have held pets as they were put down and could honestly see the soul leaving the body (for want of a better phrase). Like a ‘whoosh’ and suddenly you’re just looking at a vessel not the person.

I was with my 28 year old brother when he died and we all stayed with him for many hours after.
I didn't want to leave him in the hospital, didn't want to leave him alone.
When you're there, with them, it isn't scary. For someone seriously unwell, the passing is a relief, to the end of their suffering. You no longer have to watch them in pain.

I found it harder going to view his body in the funeral home, because although it looked like him, there was nothing of his essence left. But that was emotional pain, not fearful pain.

It is easy to be scared when you've not experienced it, but I promise it isn't scary. But it's ok to fear death, we all do at one point or another. Until we realise that death isn't the worst thing that can happen to us, immense, prolonged pain and suffering is.

I was going to say don't marry into a Orish family then. Things are very different and a lot more healthy imo. We are too detached from death in England. It's sanitised to the nth degree

In Ireland it's the norm for the deceased to be waked at home. My mother died on a Saturday evening, I stayed up with her all night along with my father, siblings and son, the undertaker collected her early the next day and had her back home three hours later, she was laid out in our, thankfully large sittingroom where she stayed until her funeral on the Tuesday, some of us stayed with her at all times and lots of family, friends and neighbours called to say their goodbyes. The
day before the funeral our neighbours opened up a field, put up floodlights and it was used as a car park for the 100+ that turned up that evening, there was food dropped in by so many and the local GAA club provided seats, water boilers, tea and coffee pots, cups etc. It was a wonderful night in a strange way, to chat with so many who knew and loved here, it really helped us. Please don't fear death, if you have good people around you it will be easier.

OP wasn’t suggesting that it was.

Yes I know exactly what you mean.

I thought the same for my grandparents but that was comforting for me.

The living human body is like a suitcase all packed and ready for a holiday. When you die, that suitcase is empty. The holiday (life) is over and you no longer need the suitcase.
That was how it was explained to me anyway..

I imagine there is a private chapel at Balmoral, she is probably there. Or if not in a separate room or parlor. The family members etc could choose to spend time there. OP, it's not like she would be in the middle of a space where everyone is tripping over her. Some family would choose to spend private time with her, others would choose not to. It's very personal.

@BMW6 same, saddest sight I've ever seen. Kept expecting her to wake up

According to the "London Bridge" longread article, Operation Unicorn kicks in because she died in Scotland. The protocol laid out under Operation Unicorn states that her body will spend the night in Holyrood Palace before being transferred by train to Buckingham Palace, where she will lie in state in the throne room.

Thank you all for your kindness and sharing your delicate and sentimental memories. I really appreciate the thought that has gone into all of your posts on this thread. I am sorry that you all have experienced so much pain in life. When I lost my dog of 13 years I was absolutely heartbroken, it was losing a family member, but I couldn't bring myself to stroke him one last time, I found it so upsetting that he wasn't there anymore, but I have always felt immensely guilty for not doing so. I hope he knew that I loved him, he must have knew, I really hope he did