Wednesday, June 21, 2017

The Queen's Funeral Plans

I recently saw a news report about the plans that have been in place for several years regarding what will happen when the Queen of England (Elizabeth II) dies.  (Currently she is older than 90.)  Pre-planned details for nine days following her death include:
  • her private secretary will call the Prime Minister on a secure line and say "London Bridge is down"
  • security and transport arranged for multiple scenarios
  • a bulletin to the press association within 15 minutes at the same time a guard places notice on the Buckingham Palace gates
  • website changes
  • an obituary light will flash at national radio stations instigating a switch to somber music in anticipation of breaking news
  • pre-assigned locations for broadcaster coverage from the palace
  • body carried to Westminster Abbey by military procession, scheduled to arrive at the steps at the exact moment Big Ben begins to chime
  • new king declared the day after her death
The report had me both intrigued and relieved.  Obviously I'm no queen but it was slightly reassuring to see that even someone like the queen gives advanced thought to her death.  It is slightly a relief to know that at least I haven't planned it down to the deatil of when the church bells will start to chime at my funeral.

In fact, as the time gets ever closer I haven't planned anything but lunch on 7/12/17.  I haven't written letters; I haven't updated my will or even found a lawyer, And I'm starting to realize that most likely, I won't.  For the next 10 days I'm busy volunteering at my church.  Maybe I will do something after that because my youngest will be at sleep-away camp so I will have a lot of time to reflect and take care of things.  But I'm thinking I'll probably find 100 other things to distract myself with.  At the very least I am more attracted to finishing "the blanket", working on my novel (still probably wouldn't finish it) or creating a family heirloom art that I've been wanting to do for a couple of years.  Even catching up on nine years of scrapbooking sounds more attractive than updating a will.  

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