The Centenary

Queen Elizabeth II was born on April 21, 1926, in London, in a house that has since become a tourist attraction. She did not choose to be born on April 21. This decision was made for her. It would be the last decision made for her for approximately 96 years.

She became Queen on February 6, 1952, when her father died in his sleep. She was 25. She had not campaigned for the position. There was no interview process. The position passed to her automatically, which is how the British monarchy prefers to handle things: quietly, without anyone having to ask.

She reigned for 70 years and 214 days. (I want to be clear about this number. 70 years and 214 days. That is 25,633 days. That is roughly 614,000 hours. That is more hours than most institutions have been operating.) She met 13 US presidents. She met 15 prime ministers. She met a horse named Burmese who carried her for 18 consecutive Trooping the Colour ceremonies without complaint. There is no record of Burmese ever attempting to advise her on economic policy, which puts the horse ahead of several chancellors.

She died on September 8, 2022, in Scotland, at Balmoral, which is the castle the royal family uses when they want to not be observed. This strategy worked for the actual dying part. It did not work for the part that came after.

Today she would be 100 years old.

She is not.

This has not stopped the commemorations. The commemorations were already prepared. The BBC has a segment. The palace has issued a statement. There are photographs — there are always photographs — of her at various ages looking exactly as a queen should look, which is to say she looks like she has been doing this for a very long time, which she had. Flowers have been placed at gates. This is something people do. The gates do not require the flowers. The flowers are for the people placing them, which is another thing the British understand about these events: the ceremony is for the living, and the living need somewhere to put the feeling.

(The flowers at Buckingham Palace in 1997 famously confused the palace for several days. They had not planned for that volume. They had not planned for that particular kind of grief. They planned better after that.)

She was photographed with Winston Churchill. She was photographed with Charles de Gaulle. She was photographed with every major world leader for seven decades, at every summit, state dinner, and royal occasion that required a woman who had been doing this for seven decades. She attended them all. She wave at all of them. She perfected the wave — the particular economy of it, the slight elevation of the hand, the acknowledgment that says I have seen you and you have seen me and we both understand what this is.

She would have been 100 today. She would have given the wave from a balcony, probably. She would have sat through the BBC segment. She would have received the flowers with the expression she used for receiving flowers, which was the same expression she used for everything: composed, slightly amused, unwilling to explain what about.

The wave cannot be given now. The flowers are there anyway. The coverage continues.

She had 70 years of practice appearing at things she had not requested. This is the first one where she missed it. Based on the available record, she would have found a way to manage.