Trapped In Lace

Fourty Two

I can feel the camera on me.

I can feel everyone's eyes on me.

Mum and Dad have asked me to say a few words, I said yes but now I'm massively regretting it. That and all of my life choices.

"Now, I believe Princess Lily has something to say" the priest says

I stand up and walk along the row my family is sat on and I walk up to the podium.

"Good morning. I stand before you today the representative of a family in grief, a country in mourning before a world in shock" i say and i wipe away a tear threatening to fall

"When I got asked to say a few words, if I'm being honest I didn't really know what to say. In my seventeen years on this earth I've lost a lot of people and you would have thought that I'd be good at this by now, my grandad always helped me through it. Through everything, and now he's not here to help me through this" i say

"But I know exactly what he'd say, some of it I can't say in a holy building" i say and a few people chuckle, "not a lot of people understood my grandad, his sense of humour and if I'm being honest, his slightly crazy personality. But I loved him, and instead of us mourning over this loss. We should celebrate his life, his achievements. I don't think I ever saw him without a smile on his face or in a bad mood. I can safely say that he lived his life to the fullest and I'm just happy that I knew him"

"He saw a lot during his lifetime: a world ravaged by war, he himself served thirty long years in the armed forces. In which he himself grew up and, later, raised his own family. Family was the most important thing in my grandads life, he cherished it the most, because family is forever. No matter how far apart we might be from each other, we always know that we have someone watching and supporting us"

"When i was little my grandad always said to me, it's not the amount of breaths you take on this earth, it's about the amount of times your breath is taken away from you. And it's fair to say my grandad has lived through his fair share of both"

"he was a caring, compassionate but serious man who only cared about everyone around him before himself. So as we stand in grief, we also celebrate his life.The way he would want us to, we may have lost him physically but we have not lost him spiritually"

"So before we meet again, we will all hold him close to our hearts. We remember his life was a blessing and our memories we will treasure forever. A moment only lasts a second but his memory lives on forever, for as long as we live" i say

I step away from the podium and make my way down and I walk down the isle to sit next to Lizzie and my uncle Charles.

•

•

"Lily" my grandma says as we walk inside of Buckingham palace

"Yeah?" I ask completely worn out

"Thank you" she says and I hug her

"It's alright grandma" I say

"No seriously Lily, what you said was beautiful" she says and i smile

After the funeral it was a... i don't want to say after party but I don't know what to call it. I'll just say a meal.

"Its okay" i say, "are you okay?"

She nods, "I will be"

"Lily, get to be you look shattered" my grandma says and i nod

"Night" i say and she hugs me

"I'm so proud of you, so is your grandad" she says and I hug her tighter

"I love you" i say

"I love you too" she says