'Although it's a time of great happiness and good cheer for many, Christmas can be hard for those who have lost loved ones. This year, especially, I understand why,' the Queen said:
In her Christmas Day message the Queen has said there is"one familiar laugh missing" as she acknowledged the death of her husband Prince Philip.
The monarch, in what is likely to be regarded as her most fulsome public tribute to her "beloved Philip" since he died, remarked how his "mischievous, enquiring twinkle was as bright at the end as when I first set eyes on him", as she empathised with families who had lost loved ones this year.She also spoke fondly of her eldest son, the Prince of Wales, his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, and of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, for their focus on climate change.
But it was the Queen's long-serving consort, who died in April aged 99, who took centre stage for the festive message. The Queen and Prince Philip wave goodbye at Perth Airport at end of the 16th Royal Tour to Australia in 2011.The head of state, with a sapphire chrysanthemum brooch worn on her honeymoon in 1947 pinned to her Christmas red Angela Kelly dress, said of Philip: "His sense of service, intellectual curiosity and capacity to squeeze fun out of any situation were all irrepressible."But life, of course, consists of final partings as well as first meetings.
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