From the CBC:
“Meeting the Queen online a
'humbling honour' for retired B.C. physician”
(During a virtual session with
the Royal Life Saving Society, Queen Elizabeth spoke with Dr. Steve Beerman of
Nanaimo, B.C., seen in the lower right of the screen.)
Hello, royal watchers. This is
your regular dose of royal news and analysis. Reading this online? Sign up here
to get this delivered to your inbox. For Dr. Steve Beerman, it was in many ways
like having a pleasant conversation with his 92-year-old mother. Except it
wasn't his mother. It was the Queen. Beerman, a retired family physician in
Nanaimo, B.C., spoke with Queen Elizabeth online the other day as she gave him
— virtually — an award recognizing his longstanding work in drowning
prevention. "I'm very delighted to be able to present you with this cup, a
very large cup, which one day you might see if you come to London,"
Elizabeth told Beerman as she honoured him with the King Edward VII Cup during
the virtual session with the Royal Life Saving Society. Beerman, co-chair of
the Canadian Drowning Prevention Coalition, was quick to reply that it was
"a pleasure and a humbling honour to be with you."
Being with the Queen in this way
has become the way of the royal world during the pandemic. Many observers have
said that virtual sessions involving the Queen have offered new insight into
the 95-year-old monarch, who has more often been seen from afar, giving formal
speeches or doing a walkabout. "Many people who commented to me about the
interview [said] that they had never seen her have what they would describe as
a nearly normal conversation with some people," Beerman said. “My own
mother is 92. This was not a whole lot different than talking to my own
mother." Beerman, a trustee with the Royal Life Saving Society, had met
the Queen at Buckingham Palace a handful of times in connection with that
Commonwealth organization. But his most recent session with her was memorable
in a new way. "It was more chatty," he said. "It was more
communicative than when I've experienced these encounters in real life, face to
face. So I thought this was actually a better way to do this."
A seven-minute video of the
session involving Beerman and others honoured for their drowning prevention
efforts was posted online, but the overall virtual encounter lasted about 20
minutes, and came after participants had two practice sessions. "In the
second one, we actually rehearsed what we were going to say and we were coached
in a very nice way by the people from the royal household about pausing and
being slow enough to allow her to interject with comments or questions,"
Beerman said. "We were very much encouraged to participate in a
conversation as opposed to doing an acceptance speech." Still, there was a
bit of nervousness for Beerman as the call began. "There's always some
nerves about are you going to misstep or say something in a way you might
regret or that might be perceived to be awkward by others," he said. As
the conversation progressed, Elizabeth shared her own memories of receiving a
life-saving award as a teenager. In 1941, she became the first person in the
Commonwealth to receive the Royal Life Saving Society's junior respiration
award. "I didn't realize I was the first one — I just did it, and had to
work very hard for it," Elizabeth said. "It was a great achievement
and I was very proud to wear the badge on the front of my swimming suit. It was
very grand, I thought." Beerman sees the shift to the virtual world for
the Royal Family as a signal the House of Windsor can change with the times. "I
think it's a strong statement of ... we can pivot when we need to, we are
flexible, adjustable and, like the rest of the world, we have to respond to the
reality that we live within."
^ Even after all the recent loss
the Queen has faced she is still committed to her Commonwealth and her people ^
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