There has been a lot said in the last few days about how much the Queen loved our special corner of Scotland.
Right across the globe yesterday people in their millions got a clear bird’s-eye view of one of the many reasons why.
Commentators waxed lyrical about the magnificent scenery as the cameras tracked the royal hearse’s stately journey alongside the glimmering River Dee.
It was easy to understand why our longest-reigning monarch was always so impatient to get back here.
What those images also revealed to the world though was another of the region’s assets that fed her enthusiasm to return time and again: its people. The tens of thousands who lined the route to say farewell in a tremendously moving demonstration that this was a mutual love and admiration.
People for whom a royal convoy is by no means a remarkable sight, turning out in their droves because this one was, so sadly, the last to involve Her Majesty.
All the way from Balmoral, through a packed Aberdeen, to the moment the cortege reached North Water Bridge and she had left Aberdeenshire for the very last time, they paid quiet respects. Not just from packed pavements and bridges and squares and verges either.
When the procession passed fields full of mourners on horseback – or indeed sat aboard a whole battalion of tractors – how could you help but picture that famous smile, somehow so cheekily endearing yet suitably regal all at the same time?
It is that Queen – the one so adept at throwing off the trappings of the throne and sharing a joke at a village fair – that we will miss most keenly here.
The state funeral at Westminster Abbey in a week’s time will be the nation’s chance for a formal farewell.
But in our own amazing way we have said “goodbye ma’am and thank you” to the lady who loved being among us.
The Voice of the North is The Press & Journal’s editorial stance on what we think is the most important story of the day.
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