Telegrams don’t exist in the UK any more, so it’s just a card- but one which has some very specific rules for how it’s delivered:
This is a Royal Card Special Delivery Item from Her Majesty The Queen which must be delivered on the first delivery on the date shown overleaf. Before delivery commences on the due date, you must telephone the Telegraph Clerk, Buckingham Palace, […] to confirm that the item has been received and is about to be delivered. Failure to do so by 09.30 will initiate an enquiry from The Palace. On delivery, if there is no answer and the premises are not derelict, etc. the item should be delivered without receipt.’
Of course, as well as hundredth birthdays, the Queen sends wedding anniversary cards for 60th (and later) anniversaries.
Examples:
One of my best friend lost both his parents within a year of each other. Mother from COPD, Father from stomach cancer
My paternal grandfather died within 1 year of my grandmother
Exceptions:
Queen Victoria survived her beloved Prince Albert by 40 years.
My maternal grandmother survived my grandfather by 25 years to the ripe old age of 97.
Remember how mother Theresa died the same day as Princess Di so that people wouldn’t focus on her death in the news and she could quietly slip her mortal bonds?
Well now Prince Phillip died so that DMX could also slip away quietly…
Only the news has gone back and forth on whether DMX is dead. It sounds like he is on life support at this time
It has been repeating for at least 1500 years, when Saint Herbert of Derwentwater died on the same day as his friend Saint Cuthbert.
Herbert visited Cuthbert in Lindisfarne every year to receive spiritual direction. In AD 686, hearing that his friend was visiting Carlisle to give the veil to Queen Eormenburg, he went to see him there, instead of at Lindisfarne as was usual. After they had spoken together, St Cuthbert said, “Brother Herbert, tell to me now all that you have need to ask or speak, for never shall we see one another again in this world. For I know that the time of my decease is at hand.” Then Herbert fell weeping at his feet and begged that St Cuthbert would obtain for him the grace that they might both be admitted to praise God in heaven at the same time. And St Cuthbert prayed and then made answer, “Rise, my brother, weep not, but rejoice that the mercy of God has granted our desire.” Herbert, returning to his hermitage, fell to a long sickness, and purified of his imperfections, died on the same day, 20 March 687, on which St Cuthbert died on Holy Island.
Thatcher died on April 8th, Philip died on the 9th… if Elizabeth kicks the bucket on any April 10th in the future, it’ll be a 3-day celebration of self-important British tools that don’t care about regular people or the poor kicking the bucket!
It’s also worth remembering that he was a genuine war hero. In addition to the article below, he also served on a ship that covered the Allied landings at Sicily.
My grandmother-in-law was married for 50 years, widowed for 18, and has now been married for another 6 to strapping young nonagenarian. Her hundredth is approaching in the Fall.
The most fun was the wedding (she was 93) and seeing two tables of shocked 50-70 year old ‘children’ trying to figure out why their parents were marrying. The bride and groom were and are quite in love. All very sweet.
