FORT SMITH, Ark. — Many across the country woke up early to watch as the Queen was laid to rest. And for one Fort Smith woman from England, it was a day of celebrating the Queen.
“It’s monumental. It’s historical,” said Lisa Parker.
Lisa Parker and her nine-year-old son Lewis moved from Norfolk, England to Fort Smith seven years ago. She says in England everyone had the day off work and school to pay tribute to the queen and watch her funeral. And parker and her son followed that tradition back here in Fort Smith with her friends putting on a celebration of life for the queen.
“I felt a little bit homesick with everything going on and it would’ve been nice to celebrate with family, but my friends here are like my southern family, so it’s really good they turned up today,” she said.
They chose to watch the recorded funeral service at 11 o’clock our time since that’s the time the service was held in London.
“It’s just amazing hearing ‘God save our Queen’ for the last time officially because the words will be changed to ‘God save our King’. For me, that sounds so weird because I’ve only grown up with a Queen and in my lifetime, there isn’t going to be a Queen again,” she said.
They drank the Queen’s favorite tea, earl grey, and ate finger sandwiches like what’s served at the Queen’s garden parties.
“I mean, they’ve put on a real royal affair,” she said.
Parker’s nine-year-old son Lewis stayed home from school to honor the queen. And earlier this year, the two traveled to London the week before the Queen’s platinum jubilee.
“It was kind of weird going to the Jubilee for the Queen but then a few months later she dies, so it was all happy there and then sad,” said Lewis Parker.
Parker says it was wonderful to see all the people line the streets today. She’s amazed at how the U.S. has embraced the royal family.
“The fact that the royal family have to grieve so publicly and when obviously Prince Charles becoming King Charles on the day his mom dies, there is celebration in that but there is such sadness as well,” she said.
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