For anyone approaching their 100th birthday, a letter from the Queen has always been a long-anticipated honour. But for Gwendolyn Hoare from Essex, who turned 100 over the weekend, all hopes of congratulations from the Queen had gone.
Yet on Friday, the day after Her Majesty’s death, the postman knocked on her door with a very special delivery: her letter from Queen Elizabeth II – one of the last to be sent.
Her family contacted the BBC’s special tributes live page to tell us about the special delivery.
“My Aunt, Gwendolyn Betty Hoare, is 100 today [10 September]. For decades she talked about receiving a telegram from the Queen and was devastated to hear the news… but her telegram arrived yesterday and she was ecstatic.”
“I think I am very privileged to have it. And I – being a royalist which I am – very much admired her and all she did. So when she went it was a sad moment but she didn’t go before she sent me this. I wasn’t sure that I would get it but I was thrilled when I did.”
Gwendolyn Hoare