STOICISM IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY

 

As the sad death of The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh has dominated the headlines this last week I confess to being rather surprised at the extent of the news coverage. 

He was without doubt a stellar national figure who made a significant and lasting positive impact on the lives of many. This includes my own niece who, having had a rocky start in life, after completing her Duke of Edinburgh gold award became a spokesperson for the charity. 

What worries me though, and we went through this when Princess Diana died, which attracted significant opprobrium at the time, is the public outpouring of grief from those who had neither known him, nor had met him. 

It is natural to be sad at the death of someone, but at the age of 99, and in poor health for some time, it was not unexpected.

Whilst it is right that we should show our respects, in the course of the last week I will have attended no less than a dozen meetings in which proceedings were halted for two minutes silence. In some cases, it has been suggested that we don formal attire for our virtual meeting.

Notwithstanding the recent behaviour of some members of the royal family, I have always been a staunch royalist. What I have been giving consideration to is the feelings of the Queen, and not because of her royal title. I can only begin to imagine how devastating it must be after 73 years to wake up one day to find that someone who you had relied upon for emotional and practical support for that length of time is no longer there. It does not bear thinking about. 

What has impressed me is that just a few days after her husband’s death she has taken the ‘life must go on’ approach and despite her own advancing years has picked up where she left off, continuing to carry out her public duties.

We are all different, as are our individual circumstances, and how we handle grief cannot be fitted into a ‘one size fits all’ approach. As a nation we are not as robust as we once were, and at times can be inclined to self-pity, but this level of stoicism in the face of adversity demonstrated so ably by the head of our nation is truly admirable and to be applauded.