Elizabeth II refuses the award for the elder of the year: “You are old when you feel old”

Ninety-five years and not hear them, at all: for Elizabeth II it is not just a cliché, but the pure truth. And the sovereign has proved it once again, replying with irony and impeccable English humor to Sir Edward Young, who last July 30 communicated at Balmoral Castle that His Majesty would be awarded the The Oldie of The Year Awards. Established by the magazine Oldie, the award is awarded annually to prominent public figures, but the queen preferred not to accept this unusual recognition.

«His Majesty believes that one is old when one feels old, as such he does not believe he meets the relevant criteria for acceptance, and hopes you can find a more worthy recipient.», Reads the response sent by the sovereign’s personal assistant, Tom Lairg-Baker, to the direction of the award. Published on Twitter by the same Oldie Magazine, the queen’s response immediately went viral on the web.

In short, the sovereign may well be of a certain age, but she does not think at all about considering herself old. To prove it, the temper of steel, and an even more active life. After the forced isolation in Windsor due to the pandemic and the weeks of pain following the disappearance of her husband Filippo, last April, Elizabeth II has returned to be seen in public.

First in Scotland, last summer, then in Cardiff, where together with his son Charles and daughter-in-law Camilla he participated in the opening of Parliament, at Buckingham Palace, and on 16 October in Ascot, for the final of the races.
Her Majesty’s agenda couldn’t be richer and she wouldn’t seem to mind at all. Only compulsory renunciation? The evening martini, which his doctors do not really like. However, it is difficult to imagine it obeying and impossible to contradict it. It still is The Queen.