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Queen’s funeral: Some Canadians to watch with sadness; others will skip it
Global News
But while some Canadians are planning their day around the queen's funeral, many others have no intention of watching, and the day will be like any other.
For some Canadians, the queen’s funeral on Monday will prompt sadness and trigger personal memories, but for others it’s a distant event they intend to miss.
David Edwards, the Anglican bishop of Fredericton, says his mother was born the same year as Queen Elizabeth and died about five months before her, linking changes in his family life to the historic end of a 70-year reign.
“Important figures in our lives, when they die, they leave a gap … a hole in our lives,” he said in an interview earlier this week.
Edwards says he’ll watch the funeral with a sense of gratitude for the monarch’s life, and he will likely be thinking of his 1998 meeting with her when he was part of a church group invited to the palace.
“I’ve known no other monarch. It’s a sad day,” he said. “She clearly fulfilled her role and her promise to fulfil her duty as the Queen. In many ways, she’s kind of been released.”
As a bishop, he says he expects a straightforward Church of England funeral liturgy, but the service will also represent a symbolic shift in leadership of the church, as King Charles has assumed the role of supreme governor.
Edwards said he sees in the funeral a healthy exercise for Canadians who often tend to shun death and grieving. “It gives people permission to grieve in their own lives … We need the whole of society to learn how to grieve better,” he said.
Maggie Archibald, 28, a Halifax resident who works for a high-tech industry association, says she’ll be up before breakfast to watch the event, and she will also recall a meeting with the queen.