LONDON?Queen Elizabeth II gave thanks in a nationwide broadcast Monday for the outpouring of public affection following her mother’s death, and for the love the country gave the Queen Mother during her life.
“I have drawn great comfort from so many individual acts of kindness and respect,” the queen said in a message filmed at Windsor, where the Queen Mother Elizabeth died at age 101 on March 30.
Some 200,000 people filed past the coffin at Parliament during the weekend, and the line waiting outside on Monday snaked through the city and along the River Thames. Officials said 2,000 people per hour were passing through after waiting for up to five hours, and the hall has been open day and night for three days.
The Queen Mother, who won the support of the nation during World War II, maintained that bond through half a century, appealing to new generations with her humor and dignity.