As we discussed, Queen Elizabeth did not attend the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey. She canceled her appearance on Friday and said that Prince Charles would go in her place. She happened to cancel around the same time that Prince Harry officially said he would not go to Prince Philip’s memorial service, which is scheduled for March 29th. The British tabloids were full of editorial tantrums about how dare Harry disrespect his dead grandpa by refusing to show up. Welp, it looks like the Queen will probably end up skipping Philip’s memorial service too. And it’s all because of mobility issues. Or should I say, it’s all because of the Queen and the courtiers’ deeply ingrained ableism.
Fears were growing among courtiers last night that the Queen may be forced to pull out of the thanksgiving service for Prince Philip at the end of the month. It comes after Buckingham Palace announced she was not fit enough to attend tomorrow’s Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey. While the Queen ‘still hopes’ to attend Philip’s service, which will be held at the abbey on March 29, she may not be mobile enough to do so.
The Mail on Sunday understands she has ruled out the option of using a wheelchair at this stage and remains determined to continue to walk for as long as possible.
This is despite the Monarch reportedly being too frail to walk her beloved corgis over the last six months, there are fears she may never again. A source told the Sun: ‘She is not well enough. The Queen usually turns to her beloved corgis in time of crisis and stress and took them out almost every day after Philip fell ill and then died last year. They are an enormous source of solace, so it is a real shame.’
The Queen, who turns 96 next month and has recently recovered from Covid, was last week moving around Windsor Castle without a walking stick and is not suffering from a new illness.
Nevertheless, her mobility issues remain at the heart of a ‘regretful’ decision taken late on Friday to pull out of the annual Commonwealth Service, which is usually a highlight in her calendar. Instead, she will be represented at the service by the Prince of Wales. The Queen will deliver a message to the Commonwealth and will watch the service on television from Windsor Castle.
But the news has raised concerns in Palace corridors about engagements later this year. Detailed plans are being configured to find a way in which the Queen may comfortably attend the service for Philip, Britain’s longest-serving consort and the beloved husband she once referred to as ‘my strength and stay’.
The thanksgiving service has already been cut down to a relatively brief 50 minutes and to save the Queen from the long walk down the aisle to reach her seat, a side door may be deployed. Yet even that may prove too much.
Penny Junor, a royal biographer, said: ‘The Queen is extraordinary. She has gone on with great vigour for years but we have to remember she is 95 and not superhuman. In other respects, she is on great form. The Queen is fantastic on Zoom calls, but I think events where she is required to walk or go up any steps are not going to be feasible any more. And fortunately we have the technology that means she is not going to disappear from view altogether.’
My dad had mobility issues in the last few years of his life, and my mom uses a wheelchair. It’s really no big deal? By that I mean, a lot of people need wheelchairs or canes and a lot of people have mobility issues and everyone adapts for it, including businesses, institutions and governments. Here in America, the Americans With Disabilities Act ensures that all public spaces, government spaces and businesses have handicap-accessibility. I have no idea if that’s the same in the UK, nor do I have any idea if Westminster Abbey would have any kind of access for wheelchair users, but it would be completely ridiculous if they did not. The Abbey is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the UK – do they simply not allow for any wheelchair-users to have access points?
So what is the real issue here? Is it simply that a 95-year-old woman and her fussy courtiers can’t bear the thought of people seeing the Queen in a wheelchair? Do they realize that by treating the Queen’s mobility issues as something to be hidden from sight, they’re saying that handicapped people should not be seen? So much of ableism is a visibility issue too – people act as if wheelchair-users don’t exist or don’t deserve to be visible in society. Seeing the Queen use a (needed) wheelchair to get around events would be beneficial for handicap visibility.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Queen Elizabeth II, using a walking stick, leaves after attending the opening ceremony of the sixth session of the Senedd in Cardiff. Picture date: Thursday October 14, 2021.,Image: 638008259, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Photoshot / Avalon
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- Queen Elizabeth II receives the Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey during an audience in the Oak Room at Windsor Castle, Berkshire. Picture date: Wednesday November 24, 2021.,Image: 644696436, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- EMBARGOED TO 1800 GMT Friday February 4, 2022. Queen Elizabeth II looks at a fan as she views a display of memorabilia from her Golden and Platinum Jubilees in the Oak Room at Windsor Castle. Issue date: Friday February 4, 2022. PA Photo. The fan was presented to Queen Victoria to mark her Golden Jubilee in 1887 by the then Prince and Princess of Wales, later Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. The Queen has since travelled to her Sandringham estate where she traditionally spends the anniversary of her accession to the throne – February 6 – a poignant day as it is the date her father King George VI died in 1952.,Image: 659181324, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- Queen Elizabeth II leaves Sandringham House, which is the Queen’s Norfolk residence, after a reception with representatives from local community groups to celebrate the start of the Platinum Jubilee. The Queen came to the throne 70 years ago this Sunday when, on February 6 1952, the ailing King George VI – who had lung cancer – died at Sandringham in the early hours.,Image: 659601837, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Joe Giddens / Avalon
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- Queen Elizabeth II cuts a cake to celebrate the start of the Platinum Jubilee during a reception in the Ballroom of Sandringham House, which is the Queen’s Norfolk residence. The Queen came to the throne 70 years ago this Sunday when, on February 6 1952, the ailing King George VI – who had lung cancer – died at Sandringham in the early hours.,Image: 659602010, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Joe Giddens / Avalon
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- Queen Elizabeth II leaves Sandringham House, which is the Queen’s Norfolk residence, after a reception with representatives from local community groups to celebrate the start of the Platinum Jubilee. The Queen came to the throne 70 years ago this Sunday when, on February 6 1952, the ailing King George VI – who had lung cancer – died at Sandringham in the early hours.,Image: 659635986, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Joe Giddens / Avalon
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- Queen Elizabeth II with Rear Admiral James Macleod (right) and Major General Eldon Millar as she meets the incoming and outgoing Defence Service Secretaries during an in-person audience at Windsor Castle. Rear Admiral Macleod relinquished his appointment as Defence Services Secretary as Major General Millar assumed the role.,Image: 662999385, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Steve Parsons / Avalon
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- Queen Elizabeth II receives Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during an audience at Windsor Castle, Berkshire.,Image: 666793870, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Steve Parsons / Avalon
Yes, she is. As I recall, she gave her sister Margaret shit for needing a wheelchair when her health began to decline. She had no sympathy for her at all and found it embarrassing.
Seriously? I didn’t know that. Gross.
Karma is a bitch. She was awful to Margaret. What comes around goes around.
Oh, that shit is bad. I was going to say that whatever Elizabeth’s faults as a person, using an assistive device is a process that requires emotional assistance and generally a bit of learning, and that I have a hard time judging people who struggle with the process instead of immediately adapting.
But this is different. If she’s bullied wheelchair users in the past, she’s even grosser than I realized.
I don’t recall that (not saying it didn’t happen, just that I don’t remember it). But Margaret also tried to take the wheelchair that Elizabeth supplied for their mother (who was pushing 100 at the time), so maybe Elizabeth was fed up with Margaret’s entitlement or didn’t believe she truly needed it?
Just to say all new buildings are designed to accommodate the mobility impaired, and a lot of work is being done to retroactivly bring other buildings up to MIP standards.
I think this is more about the perception of the loss of power to be seen in a wheelchair.
I’d be using a wheelchair rather than sitting home and missing out. I look forward to someone pushing me around gardens in twenty years. My mother just stayeed home rather than admit she needed a wheelchair. She sat home miserable.
This reminds me of the episode of Mad Men where the British guy gets his foot run over by a lawnmower, and the other British guys told Don Draper that the guy’s career was over because he couldn’t walk normally or play golf.
Whew, she really thinks she’s special, doesn’t she? Better then the rest and can’t be seen in a wheelchair. It’s humbling to age but this is beyond that. This is about her not wanting to be seen as less after having been the #1Queen her whole life.
I wonder if a lot of it has to do with the fact that the wheelchair accessible entrance isn’t the super duper special monarch’s entrance. Or that the spots in the Abbey where you can park a wheelchair aren’t way up front in the super duper special monarch’s seat area. I think that’s also why she didn’t go to commonwealth day service. She usually sits in the best seat way up front. If she needed to sit in her wheelchair the whole time, it would have to be parked in the aisle or like in front of her regular seat. I know at my old church they had one pew that was shorter so that there was room to park a wheel chair next to the pew without it being actually in the aisle. But that wheelchair spot wasn’t right up front, it was around halfway back.
I’m thinking this, too. Wheelchair accessible locations aren’t usually prime access and she’s ‘The Queen’ etc., etc. The ableism is through the roof.
The accessible entrance is probably around the back somewhere and all clabbered together out of plywood and 2x4s, and there’s nowhere grand to park inside.
Such a missed opportunity to actually lead by example. (But for the BRF just another Tuesday.)
The thing is, they could easily construct a majestic-looking, gold-plated (I’m probably exaggerating but you know what I mean!) temporary ramp for her at the main entrance if there’s a service at the Abbey she feels she really wants to attend…it’s not as if this is a problem that cannot be overcome.
I agree with the others who think it’s more of a lucidity issue and they’re afraid of her saying or doing something unpredictable. But if that’s the case, that will still be problematic for the Jubbly.
I really have my doubts now that she’ll show for the Jubilee or if so it’ll be a highly controlled situation. My experience with two elderly, ill and frail parents is that things only get worse and don’t really improve. No sooner do they overcome one hurdle, there’s another one around the corner. And they never really recover from prior health concerns. Not at this age. It’s a constant battle at such an advanced age and in a fragile state, both physically and mentally.
Well if this is the case, then Queeny needs to step down and let Chuckles officially take over. If she wants to do the job, then she needs to do it whether she needs a wheelchair or not. Staying home from pure vanity is ridiculous. You can’t tell me they can’t accommodate The Queen’s wheelchair. There are ways.
But honestly, I don’t think it’s just being in a wheelchair that’s stopping her. She apparently gave Margaret flack for using one, but I’m sure she’d feel differently about herself. I think TQ knows her presence is important and isn’t skipping things lightly.
I’m still of the mindset the Queen is either not stable mentally (ie, they can’t trust her to be lucid for long periods of time) or is simply not well enough to be out of bed for long periods of time. I suspected last year when she was hospitalized that she might have intestinal/bladder control issue as well. This could also be a possibility.
Or hell, maybe Betty just doesn’t want to be around certain family.
Re: lucidity
I’ve been thinking that myself for the past few months. In recent pictures, she just looks like she has the facial expression of “oh dear”, far more wide eyed than she has ever looked before.
I was just going to say something similar. She probably does not want to underline her legacy with being seen in a wheelchair.
However, by pulling out of events like this, she breaks the vow she made to serve her “whole life” and should just abdicate already.
The last part. She only cancelled after Harry announced he wasn’t coming but wanted to see her.
He might be the only family member she actually was wanted to see. Which isn’t surprising cause he’s the only decent one.
If I was the 96-year-old Queen I sure wouldn’t want to spend a second of my limited remaining life with Charles, William, and their god awful little couturier minions either as they lick their chops with excitement over getting control of the monarchy soon.
As pathetic as the Queen, courtiers, and the BRF in general are at reading the temperature and mood in the room and the world, I’m not in the least surprised that they are more concerned that she not appear weak or infirm than that she show she can still be engaged, even if from a wheelchair. If the Fail is reporting this, I think it’s a foregone conclusion that the Queen won’t participate in the fakakta thanksgiving service, snubbing poor Philip.
I’m sad that the Queen and those around her think this way. You would think that her “duty before all” attitude would extend to using whatever technology or devices allowed her to perform her job.
Personally, I have had elderly relatives who refused to use a wheelchair on occasion because they didn’t want a “fuss” or to be a “burden”. But luckily, they were convinced by the idea that either missing my wedding entirely or having to rely on help to move about would be “fuss” as well. At least a wheelchair gives some independence.
The answer is yes, she is.
At this point, TQ won’t be at her own Jubbly if this keeps up.
It’s certainly dicey. Like I wouldn’t have scheduled it for June if I were them.
I’m not sure if its the wheelchair or not. At first glance, I think “yes, she is canceling appearances to avoid using a wheelchair,” but I would think especially for something like the commonwealth service or Phillip’s memorial, they could find a way around that (have her come in a side entrance or whatever, no grand entrance down the cathedral).
But she missed Remembrance Sunday where she wouldn’t have needed a wheelchair, she could have used even a walker for support below the balcony and no one would have known. I know that was shortly after her mysterious hospitalization but still.
Someone on here at the time speculated that she had continence issues and I wonder if something like that is going on, hence why they really seem to not want her to leave Windsor to attend any public events anymore.
There are so many discrete ways of addressing those issues these days — I said yesterday on this subject – I believe it is just an endurance issue because she’s old.
By the time they get her all powdered and bejeweled up and she has to ride somewhere, manage some chit chat etc. she’s probably just whipped. My mother is 74 and she gets ready in the morning, takes a break, might go grocery shopping and then she’s done for the afternoon. Endurance, mobility etc. makes for a big fat fall risk.
Becks, I am thinking she might not even be physically up to using a walker. The Trudeau photo is one of the very, very few recent photos we have of her meeting someone in person. I suspect that even standing up for that photo might have taken great effort, but it was done in order to be able to give the public a “See? all is well” type photo of QEII to cover for the likelihood that all is not well at all. I don’t think it is a coincidence that the photo is with Trudeau, whom she has known since he was a little child and who would probably be happy to help keep up the charade that QEII is fine.
Was there a video of that meeting or just photos? In the past there would be video but I don’t recall for this one.
It could definitely be as “simple” as that – we did see her at Sandringham for her accession day, at that reception where she cut the cake, but no clue how long that event was, and obviously if it was at Sandringham then she didn’t need to travel etc., just get dressed and show up at the reception.
I remember my mom and I borrowing a wheelchair for her so we could tour a large museum in Los Angeles. We had the best time, my mom loved being chauffeured around and at one point she wanted to walk a bit so I got in the chair and she pushed me around, we got some strange looks but just laughed them off. It was one of the best days we ever spent together.
This is so sweet!
My mother travelled with my grandmother (her ex-MIL) a few times in my grandmothers later years and they would always book a wheelchair for the airport, grandma was comfortable and they got to jump queues all over the place. Everyone wins.
It’s not an issue with Westminster Abbey – they have wheelchair access and even have wheelchairs on site which they loan out for visitors who need them.
The Royal Family does have some strange thing against using them though. I think it’s about not showing “weakness”, or some such rubbish. As if there’s any shame in using a wheelchair if you need one. They really are hopelessly old-fashioned and out of touch.
I think it’s simply that TQ’s health situation is a lot worse than we’ve been given to believe. It’s months now since she’s been seen in public (October?) – those carefully staged photo ops with assorted dignitaries don’t count IMO.
Agree. It’s more than any vanity over using a wheelchair. A whole lot of cancelling has been going on. Using a wheelchair shouldn’t be a source of any humiliation. FDR, the only president to serve more that 2 terms (4), had to use a wheelchair. He didn’t necessarily like it. He did help design them himself.
The BM has often said the Queen just gets on with things. Never complain, never explain. Apparently, a wheelchair is her rubicon in getting on with things now?
It certainly seems there is more to her situation.
I don’t think it’s just the issue of a wheelchair either. Didn’t Philip use one a bit as well? I think those who said it was an endurance issue have hit it and heading from Windsor to London even for a short ceremony would be too much for her.
My take, she is not always entirely lucid and so her behavior is getting too unpredictable to let her out in public. They don’t want to risk her suddenly saying or doing something odd like when she told that guy “I can’t move” or when she stabbed the cake.
That is what I think, as well.
I think her mystery stay at the hospital last Fall was a stroke. I think she recovered quickly but is now somewhat impaired, mentally and physically, some of the time. When she’s well enough to meet and greet, they trot her out. When she is spaced out or physically weak, they cancel her appearance.
This will make me sound cold, but if she doesn’t want to be seen in a wheelchair because of vanity, she needs to step down and give it to Chucky, she gets millions of pounds a year to be a show pony. So if she is unable to be on show, she needs to exist the room and go retired in wood farm, no one would begrudge her at that this age .
ITA
I’m thinking that they don’t want the Queen out and about with a large number of people in a cold church? She’s old so her immunity is probably compromised even before getting Covid. And even though masks have gone there is still covid in the community?
The queen is also still recovering from a bout with Covid, right? As many here have said, that can wind even a healthy, boosted person. I think it’s understandable that a 95 year old might have lasting effects on her breathing, her stamina, or her mobility.
It makes it all the more egregious how hard the courtiers were pushing the “QEII is GREAT, actually, she’s kicking Covid to the curb, an example for us all, in fact we’ve scheduled her for a public waterskiing demonstration on the Thames later this week. There was too much emphasis on rushing her back at any cost, likely because they are terrified of what it will mean when Charles is in charge.
Oh, Jay, that waterskiing image….😂
Yes, an image for certain!! 🤣🤣🤣
The Abbey’s website indicates that there is wheelchair access, though limited. (https://www.westminster-abbey.org/visit-us/plan-your-visit/access-facilities-and-faq)
Remember, her mother was so determined not to be seen in a wheelchair that she was transported in a special van with covered windows and taken in through a back door so there could be no photos of her in one. I think the Queen sees her, her father’s wife, as a role model and is not going to be seen in one either. It would make her seem to much like a regular person.