You probably learned in the news recently that the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth the Second died. She was the queen of England for many, many years and lived to be 97 years old. Her story is very long and very interesting. She was a very important person in the history of England and also an important person for the whole world. Of course the world is sad that she has died, but we also can be grateful for the many things that she has done over the years.

I want to share with you some interesting information about the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth the Second.

Queen Elizabeth the Second was born in 1926 and she became the Queen in 1953. She was only 25 years old when she was the Queen. That is amazing. Many people thought she was too young to be a queen, but she took the challenge and she did her best. She was the longest queen ever in England. She was a queen for 69 years. She was the queen for so long she saw 15 different prime ministers during her time as the Queen of England.

The Queen enjoyed all kinds of animals but her favorite animals were dogs. She especially liked the fat dogs with short legs called, “corgis”. Queen Elizabeth was a very popular queen. Over her life she received about 3 million letters, and she wrote over 50,000 Christmas cards. That is a lot of post. Queen Elizabeth traveled a lot over 50 years. She took 251 overseas trips and visited 128 different countries.

Queen Elizabeth was very intelligent and studied a lot of history, literature, geography, and art. She also could speak perfect French. The Queen also never had a passport or a driver’s license but she drove a car and traveled everywhere she wanted to. During the Second World War the Queen also joined the army and she learned how to repair trucks and cars.

Queen Elizabeth was also a symbol of peace. She was the first royal to visit Russia and the first to visit China. She was very unique and wanted to be outside the palace to meet people and to serve others. She always wore very bright clothing so that people could see her easily when she would go outside.

It feels a little strange to think that the Queen of England has died. She is not only the Queen of England but she is also the Queen of Canada, and Australia, and the Bahamas, and Jamaica, and New Zealand, and many places in the Caribbean. The face of the queen is on all our coins and our money. For many countries, her image is in our everyday life.

So, now that she is gone, we need to think about how to continue living. Charles will be the new King, and we hope he can do his job well. The old are getting older and times are changing. We need to think about the future and we need to be responsible for it too.

Here at Otemae your teachers are teaching you every day. Maybe you think it feels like you are here forever, but in truth, you can only be an Otemae student for a short time. One day you will be a little older and you will leave your home for university life. In university you will study, and grow more, and learn more. You may need to have an important job in the future. You may need to have a job to help other people.

You might be a doctor, a lawyer, a business leader, a teacher, a scientist, an artist, or a musician. You might be a sports person, a cook or a chef, a researcher, a computer programer, or a shop owner. In any of these cases you will need to be a leader and a good person for other people to follow.

Queen Elizabeth used her whole life to serve other people. Yes, she lived in a big rich house. Yes, she had many shoes and clothes and diamonds. Yes, she had many people to serve her. But she was also not free like you and I are free. She had to be at her job to lead and serve England from 25 years old. Every day she had to be The Queen. Even on Sundays.

I think that I will miss the Queen and I am grateful that she was a leader. She was a good person who served other people. I hope that you and I can live a good life like her too.