Myrtle Kelly was a schoolgirl when she met Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
The monarch was only a month into her reign — following the sudden death of her father King George VI the previous year — when she visited Belfast as part of her coronation tour.
“She came to our school in Balmoral,” said Myrtle, from Dromore, Co Down. “I got picked to meet her and it was just lovely.”
Almost 70 years on, Myrtle — now using a wheelchair and flanked by her family — travelled to St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast to pay her respects to the queen and wish well her successor King Charles III, who led the congregation in a service in memory of his late mother.
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Asked if she was from a background in the North traditionally associated with loyalty to the monarchy, Myrtle hooted with laughter.
“I don’t think so, son,” she chuckled. “But I’ve definitely been captivated by them. Very much so. It is a real honour to be here. I see them as a family to look up to, really. I have great respect for them.”
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Myrtle was among the chosen few in central Belfast allowed within touching distance of the king and his queen consort Camilla.
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“Stranger things have happened,” says Myrtle. “At the end of the day the queen has bridged a way for a lot — hasn’t she? We will have to wait and see.”
Amid a tight security operation, around 300 hand-picked well-wishers — vetted and security searched — were corralled into a special enclosure at Writers Square, across from the cathedral.
Much further back on Royal Avenue, many more — some waving union flags, others holding flowers — cheered and chanted from a distance God Save the King and We want King Charles.
Like his mother, he was “lovely” too, says Myrtle. “But the queen really is a hard act to follow, isn’t she?”
Also there was 16-year-olds Sharon Alfred and Emily Beggs, who are no great fans of the royal family. The pair, who attend Hazelwood College, an integrated school on Shore Road in north Belfast, were nonetheless “really excited” about seeing the king.
“I’m half here to pay my respects, and half because it is history,” said Sharon, the daughter of a mixed marriage.
“It was sad when the queen died, it didn’t feel real. But I don’t think it affected us the same as it affected people in England. She was a very long reigning monarch and an inspiration for many, and she did a lot for her country. I didn’t feel any personal loss but I will miss having a woman in power though.”
Emily agrees with her friend that the queen “was a good woman”.
Also from a mixed marriage family, she said hers is not a royalist home “but they think it is good I’m here”.
“I wouldn’t be a fan, but it is an historical event. I wouldn’t say the queen was a feminist icon or anything, but it was nice having a woman in the role. Now it’s a man ... well, all the people in power are men.”
For Ellie Sparkes (15), who attends Grosvenor Grammar in east Belfast, her “very much royalist family are all definitely envious of where I am today”.
“The queen stood for a lot, she helped out in the war, she did a lot for women’s rights,” she said. “She was someone to look up to — she held her own.”
Clare Eakin, from Ballyclare, Co Antrim, a volunteer with Girl Guiding Ulster — of which the queen was patron — was struck by the unusual dynamic of the latest royal visit. It was, at once, a moment of celebration and mourning, she said.
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“It brings back memories for people too who have lost a parent,” said Eakin, whose own mother died eight years ago. “All of this has been bitter sweet, knowing that is what King Charles’ family is going through now.”
Shaking hands with the monarch, she offered her condolences “and he thanked me for that”, she said.
“When he saw we were girl guides, he said ‘it is very hard to get leaders’. He said ‘keep up the good work’ and I thanked him for that.”
Dressed in black to mourn the late queen, “proud royalist” Roberta Turkington, from Lurgan, Co Armagh, who also shook hands with the king, did not envy him his task ahead.
“I wished him the very best,” she says. “It is not a job I would like myself, especially at his age. But he knows what he has let himself in for — he knows what is ahead.”