So are we assuming Edward and Sophie stood in the garden an consoled the queen?

[satishoused]

I hope they didn't and instead used their common sense. Hopefully more and more people are doing the same thing.

No one has to get married but a few I know are. They have cancelled and delayed but actually just want to be married and have chosen to go ahead with a much smaller gathering. I completely understand that. We can all give up things and absolutely should in order to move through this situation but some life events are exceptional. Death, birth and marriage are exceptional circumstances. Visiting and spending time with a dying family member should never be restricted.
@Xenia We had a family funeral outdoors. We sang. It was actually a lovely ceremony even though we were all worried it would be compromised. It was different but lovely in its own way.
I hope your child’s wedding is a fantastic day for all of you.

Sorry @Kitkat151, the timing of your post just seemed a little heartless after 2 posters had literally just said they hadn't hugged family and friends after they had lost someone.

@RichardMarxisinnocent - I hope you get to hug your family soon. It will be so lovely to see my sister again, and lay my mum's ashes to rest, and hopefully give her a bit of the send off she deserved.

@MindyStClaire

When my dad died a couple of months ago we didn't distance among the immediate family. I imagine most families are doing this regardless of the guidelines and I would hope the royals are no different. I was actually wondering that yesterday, if they'd be able to see each other or if they're going to have to be seen to be super strict. Hopefully not.

Sorry for your loss. We have recently lost a family member and have the funeral on Monday- we’ll all be sensible and take LFTs but given that we’re a fairly small group and the older family members are vaccinated I don’t expect we will be socially distancing. And I would expect the same to be true for the Queen and her family.

@phodopus

I don't know whether it was within the guidelines or not but I don't care if any family does this, royal or not. Sometimes you just have to what is right and humane and worry about the legal technicalities later.

Having staff around is absolutely not the same thing as a son. How could anyone with a brain and a heart suggest it is?

For gods sake don’t call anyone heartless on here...you’ll get slated for it🙄 However I totally agree with you

Yes; think of all the poor people over the past year who have lost loved ones and had to cope without the comfort of family members. So far we know both Charles and Edward have been over. As for “providing care” to probably the most mollycoddled old woman on the planet, do me a favour. She and Philip seemed to live pretty much separate lives in later years by all accounts

I’ve always been broadly in favour of the Monarchy but all the garbage over the past 24 hours has me moving towards republicanism.

I can’t believe the vindictiveness displayed. The queen is an elderly woman who has sadly lost her husband of over 7 decades. And people are bitching about the fact that her son may have visited her and MAY have given her a hug?! What utterly horrible individuals these people must be to wish to a)actively hope that an elderly woman has been denied support- should she have wished it- from her family following her husbands death; and b) use this situation to make a point about covid restrictions.

Actually, as the queen is now a single person, she is allowed to have one other household visit her. So if Charles or Edward did visit, it would be perfectly reasonable for one of them to stay in the castle with her. Secondly, if you are providing care (a broad definition) to a relative, you are allowed to visit indoors and have physical contact. I think providing support to a very elderly bereaved lady would come into that. And it can be more than one household providing that support. So actually, they would not be breaking rules.

@RichardMarxisinnocent I too don't think that you and your family aren't uncaring at all, you did what you thought was right. It's been so difficult for people to know what to do for the best for many reasons.

@satishoused

I hope she was hugged and kissed and consoled by all of her visitors *@HalfShrunkMoreToGo* in defiance of these inhumane rules

The rules are inhumane, I agree. But while they are in place I don’t see why the RF should be exempt.

@joystir59 sorry for your loss

@Marpan

If someone’s dad died are they really not going to see their mother and hug her or go into her house Really???

Yes I know people who have been in this position as the loved one died of Covid and the next of kin had to isolate. I even remember a case last year of a poor woman who couldn’t get to go to her child’s funeral because of the rules.

[quote ballsdeep]@cyclingmad
Are you seriously saying, if a close member of your family passed away you wouldn't console your family because of the covid rukes????????[/quote]
You might need to read the OP again

‘So are we assuming?’ You may be; personally I’m not looking for the smallest opportunity to try and criticise a 95 year old woman who has just lost her husband, Queen or not. Do you go through the obituary column in your local paper hypothetically considering who may have hugged a relative?

Some of these comments are vindictive.
I don’t think anyone who has not been able to see a loved one at a difficult time would wish it on anyone else ( I really hope not).
I know a couple of families in similar situations right now, dealing with it in a not dissimilar way. Most people’s first reaction would be sympathy.

@HalfShrunkMoreToGo

There's something really sick about you trying to make your feelings about the Covid rules known by using a grieving widow who has just lost the man she was married to for 7 decades.

I couldn't care less if she was hugged, kissed, had 1, 7 or 300 people console her.

This!

@satishoused

I hope they didn't and instead used their common sense. Hopefully more and more people are doing the same thing.

What on earth are you on about??? Do you honestly not have anything better to do

If someone couldn't see their dying loved ones because they were in a home or hospital and there were people there enforcing the rules, I have the utmost sympathy. It shouldn't have been like that.

But as someone who, as I said, have followed all the rules since last March, I'd positively encourage families to get together following a death. (Or before, if the dying person is at home.)

When my father died in December, I hugged and was hugged by the wonderful nurses at his care home. We are human. We needed it. And, apart from him, ironically, nobody died.

I do feel for the Queen of course but no more and no less than anyone else who has been in the same position.

@AbsolutelyPatsy

none of our business.

Quite.

If they've all been vaccinated, what's the problem anyway?

i hope they all hug each other they just lost a dad/husband/grandfather

By my understanding as a single person is the queen now not able to form a bubble with another household?

don't be tell them its all above aboard and within the rules, the miserable fuckers won't like that

This isn’t picking on the queen. This is using the very public example of the queen’s bereavement to say the rules are not fit for purpose and should not be applied to ANYONE in these particular circumstances.

It’s not about empathy, it’s about equality and the intrinsic value of human contact to human beings regardless of their rank in society.

Thank you @NoBetterthanSheShouldBe. It's amazing how many people have completely misunderstood my point.

The people saying "it's none of our business" or "it's a private family matter" are overlooking the fact that for the last year the government have had unprecedented powers over all of our private lives, dictating whether or not we can see and have physical contact with our families, who we can have in our homes, etc etc

She's a single household now so would be allowed a bubble (household staff don't count do they?)

Anyway I'm with you OP. I hope they, and anyone else in a similar position did the normal, human thing and spent time together to mourn and support each other. Inside or outside i don't care.

RIP Prince Philip

@satishoused

Thank you *@NoBetterthanSheShouldBe*. It's amazing how many people have completely misunderstood my point.

The people saying "it's none of our business" or "it's a private family matter" are overlooking the fact that for the last year the government have had unprecedented powers over all of our private lives, dictating whether or not we can see and have physical contact with our families, who we can have in our homes, etc etc

I don't think people have misunderstood. But what most posters, even those who've rigidly stuck to the rules, are saying is that if they had been or would have been in the same situation would have said a very impolite 'stuff it' to the rules if they possibly could.

I certainly would have done. I would have had to cross three county boundaries to get there, and you wouldn't have wanted to be the police officer who tried to stop me.