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Easterwill be particularly poignant for the royal family this year as it marks their first withoutQueen Elizabeth.
The history-making monarch died in September 2022 at age 96, and her eldest sonCharlesimmediately succeeded her as King. As Buckingham Palace prepares for hiscoronationon May 6, the Easter holiday provides a chance for members of the royal family to get together. It’s also an opportunity to reflect on her remarkable life, as she would have turned 97 on April 21.
King Charles, 74, is expected to continue his mother’s tradition and lead the family at Easter mass at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on Sunday.Prince WilliamandKate Middletonwill bein attendance, but it remains to be seen whether their three children —Prince George,Princess CharlotteandPrince Louis— will join them. Inside, a special prayer will likely be said for Queen Elizabeth, who is buried in the adjacent King George VI Memorial Chapel.
During the Christmas season, a former palace staffer shed light into how difficult it would be for the royal family to mark holidays without their beloved matriarch.
“It will be hard, as the Queen was all they knew, like most of Britain,” theinsider told PEOPLE, adding, “The first year is most difficult, as it is always the first of everything that you notice.”
Queen Elizabethfaithfully served as the ceremonial head of the Church of England since 1952, a power vested upon her after her accession to the throne. She was a devout Christian throughout her life and attended services regularly, turning toonline worshipin her later years when she couldn’t go in person.
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“You felt that history was in front of you, but it was history with those piercingly blue eyes twinkling, that extraordinary smile and the relishing of a quick dry comment,” the church leader added.
AsQueen Elizabethnavigatedthe difficulties of lifeduring a global pandemic in her nineties, those who knew her told PEOPLE that while she truly missed the community feeling of church.
“Her Christian faith means so much to her, and those rituals of going to church on Sunday and praying in chapel are not happening,” a close insider told PEOPLE in May 2020.
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However, the sovereign saw with the wisdom of her years — and decades on the throne.
“She feels the poignancy, but that does not turn into depression or defeat,” royal historian and biographer Robert Lacey told PEOPLE. “She sees it in the bigger context of her religious faith and of a God who holds her and her family in his hands. It is the solid and simple faith that sustains the Queen.”
source: people.com
