INNISFAIL — It was a day in Innisfail for a devoted group of women to proudly wear their best hats, gloves and pearls.
There was a most royal occasion to attend.
June 4 was the day for everyone in Canada and the other 53 countries of the Commonwealth to officially celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, and her historic and remarkable 70-year reign.
Across the world there were countless salutes and congratulations passed on to the Queen, even from non-Commonwealth republican countries.
The 96-year-old monarch has had recent health issues but on Sunday, June 5 she appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with her son and heir, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, to acknowledge the thousands who were expressing their deep love and devotion for her indomitable will to always serve the people.
In far, far away Innisfail, there was a special celebration that had been planned for months. Members of the Innisfail and District Historical Society, along with several volunteers, ensured there was a perfectly dignified celebration to salute the Queen on June 4 at the Ol’ Moose Hall.
It was also an event to honour the Women’s Institute, an organization that has long been of great service to rural Alberta, including the Innisfail area and which the Queen was a devoted member.
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Tea in Innisfail attracted a full house of 45 impeccably dressed women wearing their finest attire to salute the Queen’s 70-year reign, and to have a nice lunch, tea and scones over non-stop reminiscing of the Queen’s glorious reign.
The hall was adorned with royal colours of purple, silver and cream, as well as historical displays of the Queen and the Women’s Institute.
The event began at 1 p.m. with a bagpipe salute from Innisfail’s Bryn Chambers, followed by an introduction from Anna Lenters, the president of the local historical society.
Lenters then presented three special guests. They were Patricia Newman, Innisfail's first elected female mayor, Jean Barclay, the current mayor of Innisfail and Heather Taylor, the town's winner of the 2021 Citizen of the Year Award.
Newman told the guests she was married on June 2, 1953, the day the Queen was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London.
When she was mayor in 1990, the Queen made a royal stop in Red Deer to officially open an extension to the Red Deer Hospital.
Newman was invited to have lunch with the monarch.
“Now lunching with the Queen my status in life means I'm at a table here and the Queen is at the front door. Nevertheless, I was close enough to see she chatted happily with her table guests, and quite frankly she was chewing and talking at the same time, which I thought was very human and charming,” said Newman to the devoted Queen supporters at Ol’ Moose Hall.
“What discipline that woman has. I cannot imagine what strength and character it must take to have several duties to fulfill every day when, let's face it, you’re old and tired, and probably have arthritis. So, she is a natural and an admirable woman," she added.
"My mother never said, ‘The Queen’. She always said, ‘The Queen, God bless her,” added Newman. “And she's worthy of receiving blessings.”
Innisfail’s Faye Mayberry, a past-president of the Alberta Women's Institutes and Federated Women's Institutes of Canada, was one of the event’s five invited special ladies from the Women’s Institute.
She said it was important for citizens to know that the Queen always led by example.
“I know during the war years she was very involved in every-day types of activities, and I really think for a monarch to have done that is very important, and we need to we need to be aware of what she has done and to honour her for that,” said Mayberry.
The event also included a half-hour performance from Central Alberta’s Hearts of Harmony Chorus. The group delighted their Ol’ Moose Hall audience with their soothing four-part harmony barbershop-style singing.
Lenters said the afternoon tea for the Queen was a day attendees will always remember, not just because it was a success locally, but for being a fitting tribute for a long-serving monarch who has served faithfully, even throughout the most difficult of times.
“I always say to people,’ would you want her job? Could you do her job?’ Because there's very few that could,” said Lenters. “She's a remarkable lady.”
