Jo has shared this story of how her son, Dennis (known as Coach Deno) has coped with the death of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
On the 8th Sept 2022 Dennis as usual went to his work at Light Cinema where he volunteers for 2 hours and then he watches a movie after his work.
When he came home that evening he was calm and very quiet, I inquired about his day at work he replied, 'it is sad, the queen has died, she went to Scotland and she has died, it is a sad day for us. One of the staff came into the screen to inform us about the sad news.'
He looked so grown up, the Light Cinema gave a condolence message on their website. As he left the cinema walking towards home he noticed several billboards with condolence messages and an image of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
He decided to wear black to show respect to the late Queen. We have been in this country since 2004 but never had an opportunity or made a trip to see the Queen although she did visit Bradford.
Dennis continued, 'everyone is sad, it is a sad day now the Queen has died. Who is going to look after her dogs? I'm having a bad day. The Queen went to Scotland by plane and we don't know when the funeral is yet. Everyone is crying in the Light Cinema and this is not looking good. We wear dark clothes to pay respects to the Queen.'
I said, 'everyone has to die including me and Mini (his grandma who passed away last year). He turned back and replied, 'no she cannot die she is home sleeping in her bed room.' He has not come to terms with the fact that Mini is no more. I fear when we visit my mom in India what will be the scenario? Will he act grown up like he did for her Majesty the Queen or will there be a tantrum? He bought the special edition newspaper about Her Majesty, how very thoughtful! He looked at the images on every page of the edition and wanted me to read and discuss the written articles.
He thought that the Queen would be buried in Bradford, he expressed his thought, 'She should be buried in the field in a big field where she can see the mountains and sky, buried in London too much traffic and noisy, she need peace men. Where they are going to bury her? The body of the Queen, they will remove it from the hall we need to bury deep inside the castle. She sit on the throne and say good bye.'
He mentioned the queen song (national anthem) playing at the cinema, he mentioned David Beckham standing in the queue to pay respects to the queen. I did not recognise him however Coach Dennis did, he quickly switch on my laptop to show me and we had all week the news broad cast on the TV of people paying respects to the Queen which does not normally happen as he does not like anybody disturbing his Netflix movies.
I would have taken Dennis to see but he is just recovering from his illness, waiting in the queue is not advisable, with large crowd gathering waiting in the dark and cold for hours. When I plan something I always make it easy for him to enjoy the journey and the event. I again asked him if he wished to go down to London he replied, 'No, it is dark and cold, it is better to watch on TV.'
The Light Cinema Bradford observed 2 minute silence for the queen with their customers which he vividly remembered and a condolence book along with her image was at the entrance of the foyer, he wanted me to write his message, whilst coming home he mentioned that he would like to take a condolence book to the sport centre to ask player and senior coaches to write message for the queen, why did I not think about this? It will be too late on the 24th September, Saturday is the day at Manningham sport centre where they have training session with the players. Before going for coaching on Saturday the 17th Sept he requested me to text senior coach to ask players to observe silence for the Queen as a mark of respect, which they did.
Coach Dennis does not like attending the Sunday service. I am not sure why, however he does listen to the live streaming on YouTube. On the morning of 19 September 2022, he woke up to attend the funeral service of Her Majesty in his bedroom. The cool temperature, light shower and cloudy weather outdoors made him stay inside with his cosy duvet wrapped around to witness the service of the longest reigning monarch indoors.
I reminded him about breakfast and he replied, 'after the service.' He therefore had his breakfast at 3pm whilst the Queen was on her way to Windsor castle. He watched the whole service and even rang his brother Jack to wake up and watch the service.