Royal Flush
Wendy pays tribute to a wonderful lady and role model, but leaves Prince Charles in a right royal flush.
"Since being a grandmother myself, I've always placed 'The Queen Mother' as a role model.
So, on the day of her 90th birthday we got to London outside Clarence House with a birthday card ready. A guard on horseback allowed me to hand it in to the Sentry Box.
We waited, hoping to have a glimpse of her from a distance.
She appeared in the background and kept coming closer and closer... so close she seemed to be saying, "There's Wendy over there, I must go to see her!" - I could have given her the card personally.
I jokingly say she told me she cut her finger on a corned beef tin!
At the Builth Wells Show - on the Queen Mother's 100th Birthday - Prince Charles was doing a walkabout, shaking hands and talking to people... as he came up to me I thought immediately what I wanted to say.
He shook my hand and I said, "Your highness, if you'd allow me to give you a peck on the cheek, would you please give it to your dear grandmother on her birthday from me as I think she's a wonderful lady. Tell her it's from Wendy."
He blushed and smiled and said 'ok' and he bent forward and allowed me to kiss him to the cheers of the crowd. Friends asked if he turned into a frog!
My husband, Enos, was flabbergasted with my request, but unfortunately security stopped him taking photographs so the moment is only recorded in my mind.
I often wonder if Prince Charles did deliver my peck on the cheek to the Queen Mother. Love and admiration from one grandmother to another."
Wendy Sims
