Renowned veterinarian Trude Mostue described meeting Queen Elizabeth ten years ago as one of the scariest things she has ever experienced.
– I didn’t really realize how unusual this was. “It’s very special to think back now,” said Mostue.
Elizabeth died on Thursday, September 8, aged 96, after 70 years as Queen of Great Britain.
Surprised
Mostue herself had lived in England for most of her adult life, and felt more British than Norwegian.
He was shocked by the after-death reaction.
– I’m surprised that it seems to be a big shock to people, given her age. It shows that Britain has elevated him to some sort of superhuman status, and treated him almost like a god, he said.
– It’s time to change
“Elizabeth has epitomized great cohesion in the UK, and through all the difficult times has emerged as a permanent leader for the UK,” he said.
– Forrest Gump-esque
He himself met the queen at a dinner at the British embassy in Oslo in 2012. The queen was celebrating 60 years on the throne, and Mostue was among the few invited.
In a previous interview with Seo Hr, he said that he “did everything wrong” in the meeting with the queen.
– It was an episode like Forrest Gump. I don’t really know how to behave, Mostue said to Dagbladet.
Here it is now
– Everything is very traditional, and you can see very clearly in the queen how much she is influenced by the role and background, said Mostue.
– Scariest
He himself explained that he almost “fell off the set of a film in Africa”, and that he wasn’t ready or fully understood how special it all was at the time.
– They were almost made gods. I’ve done a lot of scary things in my life, including dealing with wild animals, but this was the scariest thing I’ve ever done, he said.
It was King Harald who introduced Mostue to the king of England. After meeting the royal families of Norway and England, he believed that they were completely different types of people.
– This is something else entirely. He’s barely real. It’s like talking to someone you don’t believe exists, because he’s so marked by his role.
– Laugh
He described the queen as serious and righteous in her behavior.
– He’s not the easiest person to get along with with jokes, but I think I made him laugh a little when I said I was running around his house, said Mostue.
– The world won’t be the same
– I managed to squeeze in a few minutes of conversation that I had run past Buckingham Palace during the London Marathon. Then we laughed a little about it. He found it incomprehensible that someone would bother running a full marathon, Mostue said.
Prince Phillip, whom he also met, had a lighter appearance.
– He’s more lively, and makes more jokes, said Mostue.
Dog
During a conversation with the Queen, she spoke about her experiences as a rural veterinarian in England. The queen dog who ended up being very famous was naturally also a topic of conversation.
– The queen is one of the few to have a mixed dachshund and corgi. He called them “dorgies,” Mostue said.
However, this is not his first encounter with the British royal family, or their dogs. When Mostue was a guest at a garden party at Buckingham Palace just before the audience at the embassy, he was suddenly dismissed.
– I was asked to examine one of his dogs, “dorgi”. Only then did I realize it was the dog, Mostue said, and laughed:
– This is what it’s like to be a veterinarian.
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