Nan Graham, 91, sang quietly with the congregation at Westminster Abbey as they began the first verse of The Lord is My Shepherd, one of the hymns also sung at the Queen’s marriage to Prince Philip in 1947.
She was watching the funeral of Britain’s longest-serving monarch, who was only a few years older than her, she noted, sitting in the cinema room of David Walker Gardens, a purpose-built facility for older people managed by South Lanarkshire council.
On Monday morning the unit balanced solemnity with celebration. In the dining area, tables were set for a special afternoon tea, with triangle-cut sandwiches, regally decorated fairy cakes and flutes of sherry.
“It means an awful lot to watch this,” said Graham. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
She had been watching the televised events across Scotland, Edinburgh and London over the past week “morning, noon and night”, she said. “Seeing them all in my room, I felt they were near me.”
Her mother was a royalist, and her grandmother before her, “so she’s been through the generations in our family”.
Graham proudly recalled serving the Queen at two official dinners in Glasgow when she was working as a waitress in her 20s – one at the city chambers and another at the Central hotel. “Four of us took responsibility for the top table. I remember she smiled up at me. What an honour that was.” She was so nervous, her hand was shaking for days in advance.
Watching with her was Jean Gilligan, 86. “It’s very sad. She was a good yin. I always loved her hats.” Graham nodded in agreement. “I think she was well loved. You can see that here,” she said, gesturing to the crowds on the wide screen in front of her.
The camera panned along a row of senior royals in the abbey, pausing at the Queen’s great-grandchildren George and Charlotte. “I think that’s the older two,” said Graham.
Gordon Cowan, who served “for Queen and country” in the Royal Navy, will celebrate his 100th birthday in November. Nursing a tumbler of whisky and water, he admired the wreath of flowers on top of the Queen’s coffin and noted the Scottish accent of Iain Greenshields, the moderator of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland, as he offered a prayer to the congregation.
The unit’s temporary manager, Megan Watt, is well attuned to the need to mark moments like this with her residents, as with the platinum jubilee, when they “partied for three days”. She said: “I think especially for the generation we look after, it’s important to mark this occasion. Some fought for their country during the last war.”
Other residents had congregated in the central garden courtyard, to listen to a piper play through a selection of Scottish airs. This area has been the focus of many landmark moments for the care facility in recent years, particularly during the pandemic, when the open air allowed residents to celebrate VE Day.
On Monday it was festooned with purple-trimmed portraits of the Queen at different stages of her life. “She deserves it,” said Helen Morrison, 82. “All these people standing to watch. They all want to see her.”
“She was such a lovely person,” added her friend Jeanette Graham, 76. “She seemed so homely, and no matter who she met she always had a smile. She had such a gentle way about her. I’m not way into the royal family but you’ve got to give respect where it’s due.”
