3 Lessons From the Death of the Queen

by Rebecca Roberts Galloway | Sep 16, 2022

The death of Queen Elizabeth II has created an opening for people to overcome our shared societal taboo and talk about death and dying.

With the event, also comes some lessons about how to prepare for the inevitable ending we all face, even those of us who are not monarchs.

Plan ahead

Operation London Bridge is a meticulous, not-so-secret plan that was created years before it was needed, outlining everything that would happen in the days after the queen’s death. The queen made many choices herself including the location of the funeral and that her daughter, Princess Anne, would escort the coffin.

Be transparent

The queen herself did not plan to hide her final chapter, designing a hearse with large windows so the public could clearly see her coffin. “I have to be seen to be believed,” she once said about her mortal appearances. Apparently, she believed the same about her last journey home.

‘Dying is mainly living’

Retired UK palliative care doctor and author, Kathryn Mannix, recently shared a viral 12-post tweet thread about the lessons from the queen’s death. Mannix has long been working to normalize death by encouraging the use of the “d-word” and educating the public about the normal stages of death.

Mannix says in the end, the queen “demonstrated the phases of ordinary dying to us all” and showed that “dying is mainly living, after all.”

“At the edge of life, we can still enjoy love, and peace, and companions,” Mannix wrote.