Coronation Girls

male: Coronation Girls is sponsored in part by Parkers.

Bringing a true taste of Britain to the States.

From pies to puddings, we deliver proper British favorites to your doorstep.

No passport required.

female: It was like a fairy tale.

You couldn't imagine an experience of that nature.

female: Well it's like a Cinderella story.

You're just an ordinary little person going to school and doing the farm chores and all of a sudden you're rocketed.

female: Hard to believe.

How do you prepare for that?

female: It really was a life changer.

female: It was magic.

It was truly magic.

Carol Bowyer Shipley: There were 50 of us in 1953 from all across Canada.

I wasn't sure that I should have ever been on that trip.

You meet somebody and they think, "Uh."

You know, it's not gonna work and then they may become your best friend.

female: Show me your plane tickets.

I wanna see it.

Estelle Flesher Sures: When you're 16, we had no idea that this would be a lasting experience for us and I still find it remarkable that after 70 years, the friendships that have endured.

Louise Desrosiers McMahon: [Speaking in foreign language] Mary: As far as traveling across the ocean, I didn't even swim.

Sheila: Charlotte County in this corner of the province has no taxis or buses.

We have no public transit.

So, some group has formed a group that's called Dollar Ride, Charlotte Dollar Ride.

The drivers are volunteer.

They drive their own cars.

And I'm a driver at 85.

I had one woman I picked up, "I'm not gonna have someone older than I help me."

I loaded all her stuff in the car so she had to come.

But isn't that a hoot?

I'm so lucky.

I get my own car.

I can drive and so many of my friends, they've--family has canceled their licenses.

I've given my children power of attorney.

So, when I get to that point, they'll let me know.

So, this old town was built very--was settled very early.

Tiny town with 1000 people.

So, our population was very, very low.

We were protected in Canada.

I was born in '36.

So, when I was 3, it was '39 and my birthday September the first.

And the family was gathering for a party and I was the center of attention.

Was happy and happy and then nobody paid any attention to me.

All of a sudden people were crying.

World War 2.

Britain declared war.

[bombs exploding] male: This is the BBC Home Service.

Hello children everywhere.

This is one of the most important days in the history of Children's Hour.

Today, Princess Elizabeth is herself to speak to the children of the Empire at home and overseas.

Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth.

Queen Elizabeth: We children at home are full of cheerfulness and courage.

We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers, and army.

And we are trying too to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war.

And when peace comes, remember it will be for us, the children of today, to make the world of tomorrow a better and happier place.

Good night, children.

Wendy Weston Rebanks: My father was a member of parliament, you know, under Churchill and he was passionately loyal to the British Empire.

You know, he grew up in a time when you read Kipling and Roberts Service and all the things hurrah for the British Empire.

At two and a half, we moved from Toronto to England because my father wanted to start the biscuit company in England.

Those are very vivid years for us during the war.

male: Here's the Canadian who was inspired by the story of RAF gallantry to replace those 16 spitfires.

Mr. Garfield Weston.

Mr. Garfield Weston: I'm very glad indeed to be able to replace the planes.

My greatest sorrow is that I am unable to replace the gallant and devoted men who died in the battle.

My gift is a humble tribute to their heroism.

Wendy: After the war, he believed there was a great future for Canadian young and he wanted them to see the world and realize this was just a start for them.

The rest was up to them.

He was a visionary and he wanted young people to have a chance and women to have a chance, you know, having six daughters.

Queen's coronation came and he said, "That's the one thing you've all got to go to.

To see the queen go by and being part of the British Empire and to be part of something bigger than yourself."

As a schoolgirl in Victoria, or Yellowknife, who were you?

Who were you in the world?

Carol: I was born in Winnipeg at the Grace Hospital where I lived for the first four months of my life.

I was born to a young woman unmarried, who wasn't able to keep me.

I was adopted at the age of 4 months, moved with my adoptive parents to a very small little place called Fort White.

They were worried about me because I never smiled.

I was a sad little girl.

Something big had happened to me, but I had no idea what it was.

It was scary to carry that and not know fully who you are, yeah.

Let there be light Let there be understanding Let all the nations gather Let them be face to face Carol: I went to a two-room schoolhouse until grade 8.

I was a quick learner, so I had no problem with the teacher, but she was strict and if you didn't know your times table, she might come up and wrap you on the head with a ruler.

It was in the days when you were ranked and I strived to be first and that had to do with my adoption and what I lacked was the self-confidence to handle all that.

[choir singing] Carol: At age 17, I was the girl who had it all.

I had the highest marks in grade 11.

I was elected president of the student council.

I was trying for my gold cord and guides.

My father said just one thing after another.

Think that they were worried.

You know, this is this kid and she's doing all this stuff and I had boyfriends.

There was lots of dating that went on in those days.

Yeah, that's him front and center.

He's in the middle of the hockey.

Scored all five of our goals.

Then I'm called into the principal's office.

So, I was a bit worried I might get into trouble.

Judy Markstorm Langstaff: I was called into the office and I said, "Why am I here?"

And they said, "Well there are two gentlemen here to talk to you."

Clarice Evans Siebens: He kept asking me questions which I thought, "This is very strange."

Eleanor Duckworth: I do remember that I had to write something.

I don't know what I thought when I was writing that thing.

Judy: I went in to see the principal and he said, "Well you were talking to two superintendents who are looking to pick somebody to go to the Queen's coronation."

I said, "I was."

Clarice: The emotion that I've been waiting to know if I was gonna get it.

I was--came home from school, I think it was in February, and there was a letter propped up on--so that I would see it to me.

I opened the envelope very carefully.

Carol: Great pleasure to tell you that you have been chosen, Garfield Weston.

Clarice: And my mother came in as I'm reading it and I said, "Mom, I seem to have won a trip to England, to the coronation."

And she started to cry.

Carol: It was a state of disbelief in a way from then on.

There were 50 of us from all across Canada, all the provinces and the two territories.

Eleanor: Lots of rural girls, people who'd never been more than 50 miles from home.

Sheila: They gave us luggage.

They gave us clothing.

Estelle: We were all dressed the same, which was kind of fun when you think back on it.

We all had the same outfits.

By doing that, of course, it identified as a group.

Carol: We were like young ambassadors for our country.

[train whistling] Carol: The arrangements were we would start on the West Coast and girls would board the train all the way along according to where they lived.

So, that was a lovely way to get to know each other because a few more and a few more and a few more.

Barbara Thomas Van Gent: I can see the steam.

It was nighttime and the steam on the platform.

Sheila: The girls from out West were really lucky.

The tour started days earlier.

Some of them sort of had groups of friends already.

Muriel Hill Martin: We met on a train in Branford, Mary and I.

And we've been friends ever since.

Mary Jackson Goodhill: I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

Frances Pendergast McSwiggan: I just remember coming into Montreal early in the morning and I'm seeing all these huge buildings along the outside when you look out of the train.

Sheila: Such an expansion of a--even just getting to Montreal and you know, that would have been a fabulous trip to start with.

Carol: It was in Montreal that we met the daughters of Garfield Weston who were accompanying the trip.

Miriam, Wendy, Camilla, and Gretchen, Barbara, and Nancy.

So, imagine all his girls were involved in this.

Wendy: We didn't have anything really to chaperone.

They were all pretty good.

They were the chosen ones, we were the tagalongs.

Mary: And after riding to the docks in buses, boarded the boat to tune the bagpipes.

[bagpipes playing] [bagpipes playing] Louise: [Speaking in foreign language] Frances: We had the streamers went out to the people.

It's something you'd see in the movies, you know and you held on to the ribbons and then they broke as you pulled away.

Mary: Got settled in, felt lonesome for my boyfriend back home.

Carol: And I got to my stateroom and there was a bouquet of flowers from my boyfriend so of course I had to shed a few tears.

A number of us were wondering how on earth we would manage with not seeing our boyfriends for that many weeks.

Sheila: As we were going down the Saint Lawrence, it began to get wavy and I thought, "I can't be getting seasick."

Louise: [Speaking in foreign language] Sheila: It was up, down.

Carol: Desperately seasick.

It's really horrible.

You wanna die.

You're afraid you won't die.

Louise: [Speaking in foreign language] Genevieve Tessier-Lavigne Desjeunes: I was very sick.

I didn't even remember who I--I know we're sharing a cabin.

I didn't even know who was in there.

Mary: May 24, awful cold weather.

Not sick yet.

Had dinner.

The tablecloth had soot on it and the waiter had been drinking.

Estelle: When you're on first trip on an ocean liner and you're seeing these icebergs, that's quite an experience.

Monique Henrie Guilbault: Very close to that iceberg.

I saw it breaking through.

Louise: [Speaking in foreign language] Carol: On the way over on the empress of France, we'd have morning lessons.

Clarice: The Western daughters tutored the younger girls in conduct and manners.

Frances: They were teaching us to curtsey in case we met some of the royal family.

Carol: How to eat like ladies.

They would set us up with a place setting, knives, forks, and spoons on both sides of the plate and then 3 or 4 at the top.

And we learn what to do with all of them.

What to do with a fish fork.

Louise: [Speaking in foreign language] Carol: So, we were of course practicing with these rather elaborate meals.

Mary: It's so boring everybody eats because there's nothing else to do.

Carol: I chose consomme vermicelli instead of split pea soup with sipets.

Gallantine of capon question mark.

I had no clue what that was.

Some of them gained 15 pounds and they couldn't get their jackets done up.

It really was a very amusing problem.

[air plane descending] female: Okay, here we go.

female: You know, we got off at Liverpool and we rode the train and we were just thrilled what we were seeing.

Monique: I had read about Europe for years because I started very young.

All these characters in my books, yeah, when it was my dream coming true.

It was my dream.

Yvonne Russell Harris: I didn't they have a lot of girlfriends in Whitehorse because there weren't that many girls like me.

Carol: There were certain things that touched me very deeply, but I'm not sure that at the time they necessarily did and I wonder if that's what travel is like that you don't necessarily really take it all in and process it until until later.

Louise Woof: Welcome back again.

It's lovely to have you here.

I'm one of the archivists here at Fortnum and Mason.

We've been here on this exact spot since 1707.

In the 1850s, Queen Victoria found out because Florence Nightingale wrote how bad the nutrition was for all the soldiers over in the Crimea.

And she asked Fortnums to send them all something nourishing.

So, we sent them a load of beef tea concentrate and we also provisioned when they discovered Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt, Ernest Shackleton when he went to the Antarctic in 1914, also the ascent of Everest by Edmund Tillery as well.

Carol: And of course we were pampered with food on Coronation day.

male: Lunch is served at the Western stand.

Yes, right there in the heart of the stand by Fortnum and Mason.

Complete with a traditional dish served on great occasions when the first Elizabeth reign, boars's heads.

Jo Newton: So, there is somebody that I would really like you to meet.

He's a gentleman that you're probably going to recognize.

He has a complete passion for perfume and what perfume does in terms of bringing back memories.

Richard E. Grant: Good afternoon.

I've been in show business for 40 years.

So, I've been in all sorts of things from "Gosford Park" to "Downton Abbey."

How I got to be here today.

When I was 12 years old, living in Africa where I grew up, I met an American girl that I'd never met an American before called Betsy Clapp with a double p and I couldn't afford to buy her scent for her birthday.

So, I tried to make it out of Gardenia and rose petals boiled up in sugar water and of course it just turned into stink bombs as you know.

And then, you know, 40 years later, a friend of mine said, "You should do it professionally because you're obsessed with scent."

So, I'd come to Fortnums when I was 12 years old in 1969, there were leather banquets in the restaurant.

And there's bergamot in Earl Grey tea.

The combination of patchouli oil from all the hippies on Piccadilly Circus, plus the leather seats and the petrol scent.

I put all of that into a bottle.

What I discovered in my passion for scent is that it's the shortest synaptic leap in the brain.

So, if you haven't smelled something for 40 or 50 years and you smell it, you are instantly back to where the first time you smell it, which is why I think it's such an incredibly powerful thing.

So, does anybody here have a scent memory of 1953 coming to the coronation?

Channel number 5, you remember that?

Roasting chestnuts.

[birds chirping] Carol: There's a lovely scent to the English countryside.

The flowers are lush.

They bloom all year round.

We were in Caversham.

We got up very early.

I remember it was cold.

Cold in our beds too.

Carol: I remember boarding the buses that morning to get to London.

You know, barely awake, but excited about going into the coronation.

Carol: It was rainy and the rain stopped as we arrived.

[crowd cheering] Louise: [Speaking in foreign language] male: The Western goodwill tour.

[crowd applauding] Carol: I remember coming down the steps and feeling so honored as young girls to be there.

Oh it was totally new.

It was totally new.

We were being received with respect and affection and applause.

So, there we were in the stands and there was this sense of anticipation that this was going to be a very big day.

Clarice: I had never seen television.

We didn't have it out West yet and then we go to the coronation and we have TV sets every, you know, 20 people or so.

I very vividly remember that.

male: Through the long years, she had grown amongst us, one of us.

Before royalty, childhood is but the preparation for service.

In the war, she served her country.

The king's daughter asked favor of none.

We had watched her through childhood, we rejoiced in her marriage, and the birth of her son and heir.

The little girl we knew has become Queen Elizabeth.

Dr. Geoffrey Fisher: Is your majesty willing to take the oath?

Queen Elizabeth: I am willing.

Carol: It must have been overwhelming, the acceptance of the weightiness of what confronts her.

We see the ritual that links the two establishments in her.

Dr. Fisher: Receive the rod of equity and mercy.

Barbara: Head of the church, wearer of the crown, and all the responsibilities that comes with monarchy.

male: The Duke of Cornwall sees his mother crowned.

[trumpets playing] Frances: I kind of felt sorry for her because I think it was pretty heavy.

The crown put on her head.

She was pretty young to take over.

Carol: The anticipation was building and the crowds were so joyous and loud.

They drowned out the marching bands.

[marching band playing] Carol: Lots of things to watch in the procession.

Barbara: The hoopla, the Queen of Tonga was fantastic.

Frances: Going by and her outfit and of course the mounted police came by, they got a big cheer from us in the stands.

Elizabeth was only like 9 years older than some of the girls.

Lots of kids have siblings in their family that are 10 years older.

That's pretty close.

Eleanor: It was a gloomy day when the carriage came by.

The prince was on our side and he saw us though and he asked the queen.

He told the queen what she could see if she looked right outside.

So she looked at our side.

And the sun came out at that moment.

Barbara: I think it was some kind of connection between us and Queen Elizabeth.

We were her and she was us is how I could put it.

Clarice: Oh yes.

Oh, I remember getting goosebumps.

Sheila: Very powerful.

Barbara: Something certainly triggered the emotion in me.

I was in tears just blubbering.

Muriel: In that golden carriage, that was beautiful.

Barbara: And then it was gone.

The moment had passed.

Richard: Do you think that there has been a significant change in who you are now, your character?

Clarice: It really was a life changer because we all became very interested in the travel and it opened the world to us and I think we all became sort of obsessed with knowing more and seeing more.

Most of us went to university and in our communities, I've had people say, "It's your trip that made me--if you could do that, we can do that."

Richard: So, you were the standard bearers.

Clarice: Yeah.

Carol: Well I talked to my--one of my granddaughters and she asked me about this trip and I said, "Well, you know Ellen, I never really felt that I deserved it so much."

She said, "Really grandma?"

But I don't know whether very many of you felt like that.

Clarice: Well I felt guilty.

Louise: I didn't feel guilty.

Richard: You didn't feel guilty?

Monique: I felt like a queen.

I felt like a queen myself just no, I was so happy.

It was a dream come true.

Clarice: Well, I didn't let the guilt bother me too much.

I was pretty thrilled.

Richard: Well, raise a teacup to that.

It's knowing each other for as long as you have done, do you feel that people are still the same because every job that I do now, I'm the, "Oh, I just finished a film last night."

I'm the oldest person on the crew and the oldest actor wherever I'm working.

But I don't feel when I'm working with somebody who's 20 or 30 or whatever, I don't feel that I'm any different, but their attitude to me is they offer me a chair or think that I'm gonna fall over or fall asleep.

Somebody said to me the other day, "How old do you feel you are?"

And I said, "Well in my head, I know I'm 66 physically, I'm born in 1957.

But I feel 19."

And they said, "Yes, well you know, you are obviously going to have to mature as you get older."

So, my question is this, how old do you each feel that you are, rather than your biological age?

What do you feel your age is?

female: Well mine is 20.

Richard: In your twenties and what about you?

female: Like maybe 30.

Clarice: Yeah, I feel like 40 till I stand up.

[laughing] Carol: It's very, very delightful to--like we can go back to being 17 when we're all together.

Carol: Like we were together 7 weeks.

Seven weeks when you're 17.

Estelle: Each point there were so many things that were made available to us.

The castles we visited.

It gave us an appreciation for the history that went along that the same thing with the art galleries.

Just the countryside in England.

Such a beautiful country.

Clarice: We'd all study Shakespeare, but I'd never seen it live.

We went to Stratford.

It was so magical.

I think it was Rigoletto we went to in Paris.

Carol: It was rising to the occasion where we let our hair down a little bit more and we used to laugh our heads off.

Clarice: I used to worry, did we not behave well enough and there had been a little incident which we got bawled out for.

Sheila: I had a party with boys.

These were university students.

Carol: This is one of our last days, Monday the 29th of June and we're staying in Riddell Hall, a women's residence in Belfast and we're told that there would be a dance that evening.

Sheila: The young men they found for us were absolutely charming.

I think they'd been lectured.

Carol: Boys were older, mostly in 4th year.

Dentists, doctors, and lawyers.

Met Doogie Henderson and was with him for the rest of the evening.

He has a wonderful sense of humor in 4th year medicine.

He was really giving me his best self.

Sheila: I had my first kiss.

It was great.

Clarice: I think that was the first tango I ever danced.

Sheila: That was it, it was gone.

Oh, I didn't get his name.

Carol: Not my first kiss, but a better kisser than my boyfriend back home.

The dance was over and these guys boarded our buses and came back to Riddell Hall and the leaders could not stop them.

They went charging into the hall, ringing bells, throwing tennis balls, and carrying on.

Sheila: They had been let loose.

They were showing off.

That's great.

Carol: Yeah, the Irish guys went berserk.

Yeah they did.

So then, we were told that we were going to be meeting Garfield and Mrs. Weston.

He talked to us and he gave each of us a silver medallion and he talked about the model that's on it as being something that he himself lives by.

Richard: Oh, you've all got medallions?

female: Tis the set of the sails and not the gales that determines the way you go.

Richard: Tis the set of the sails and not the gales that determines the way they go.

Coronation year 1953.

Eleanor: I remember sitting on a hill in Scotland talking to Barbara and saying something about coming back or think I would never come back or could I ever come back.

I think I thought I'd never get back in that conversation.

That I wouldn't ever get the chance to travel so far again.

That's interesting.

It was so special.

[steamer blowing] Carol: There is something that's a little bit hard to bear about such a trip, this amazing thing that happened for 7 weeks and then you return to normal living and you sort of wonder where it all possibly fits.

Barbara: Subsequent to those--that trip, well I tumbled like tumbleweed in some ways.

Estelle: There's forks in the road.

You're at the threshold of trying to make decisions about what you want to do.

Carol: It was quite an adjustment to sort myself out.

Monique: On the ship, I was close to Jacqueline.

Jacqueline was very close to me and one day we were sitting down on the deck and Jacqueline started talking, talking, talking and she told us, "You know girls, when I get home, I'm going to be a nun."

Jacqueline Poirier: [Speaking in foreign language] I'm here and Monique is.

[Speaking in foreign language] Monique: I can't help but love her as a sister.

You know, when we got home at 17, we didn't--I didn't keep up that friendship with her.

I did not.

I feel very sad about that.

Eleanor: So, I was maybe 9 or 10.

I asked my mom when I was going to bed, "What good are men?"

And she said, "Oh Eleanor."

And I said, "No, no, no.

I mean, what good is man?"

And she said, "Oh well, when you grow up, philosophers think about that you can grow up and read philosophers."

So, I was happy with me for a while.

Somebody knows and so I went on.

But nobody knows what on earth are we doing here?

It's still a question that is--I can't think about it very much because I'd go crazy, but it's right there at the heart of my-- heart of my soul.

What on earth are we doing here?

What are we doing here on Earth?

I had the disadvantage of going then--a month later to university in the states and nobody there was the slightest bit interested in that trip of mine nor in all the friends I'd made in all across Canada.

That was hard for me.

They laughed at monarchy and weren't much interested in more than much of Canada so it--one of the big things was that it cut me off from that experience I just had.

I couldn't keep it going with connections, yeah.

The years go by far too fast these days.

Beautiful things.

We're not going by without noticing them.

I'm lonely a lot of the time.

I don't like it.

Well I'd like the interesting things that I've done, but I think I could have done them if I wasn't a solo officer.

I don't know.

I didn't choose to stay alone, I just never found the right person.

I wasn't so good at paying attention to other people's feelings and thoughts, experiences.

The memory is what's missing when you're a loner.

Part of not being a loner is you get memories with other people and they have many dimensions and they're firmer.

You know, I was thinking how great it was to meet these 50 other young women whom I wouldn't--who wouldn't have been part of my life at all without that tour.

I mean, I wouldn't have met them most of them.

It was really enriching to my life to know them, especially the last 20 years since we've had our reunions.

We had a 50th year reunion and it was just the beginning.

We've had about 12 reunions since then in the last 19 years.

So, it keeps growing these friendships.

That 50 year hiatus is, I mean we could have been doing it all along.

What a silly idea not to do that.

Carol: It was there for so long, lying dormant while we lived our lives.

The trip ultimately became about connection, but that didn't happen until we found each other 50 years later.

female: I've been waiting with bated breath to hear from Carol on the story of how she found all of us and that's what we have the pleasure of hearing now.

Carol: The search.

How did we do it?

Well, we did it by learning to use the internet, by making hundreds of cold calls, by placing ads in newspapers, by writing news releases, by phoning radio stations, by one Western girl leading to another.

One of the news stories quoted me as saying, that I've been kind of like a crazy person in my searching behavior and, you know, sort of.

Mary: We had lost track of time, but all of a sudden being in each other's company we all feel like princesses, princesses all over again.

Muriel: There was nothing special about me way back then.

Nothing in particular.

I fit the bill of all the native girls that were interviewed I guess.

I grew up down here on reserve, Six Nations reserve.

My parents were nobody in particular, you know, they were my mother and father and that was it.

I don't think my father was a chief.

Maybe his father was.

I just wanna be me because I'm not fancy.

I'm coming in Jeannie.

Jeannie: Good morning.

Muriel: Good morning.

Jeannie: How are you?

Muriel: I'm okay, forgot to take my shades off.

I'm the star.

I'm gonna talk about the Mush Hole.

Jeannie: Oh yeah, we have a lot that come into that talk about-- Muriel: The Mush Hole?

Jeannie: Yes.

Muriel: I never speak about it.

It's just a part of my life that it's long past, like 60 years or better.

I came here when I was 6-years-old, Mohawk Institute.

I left here when I was 13.

Porridge for breakfast, we called it mush.

That's why it's the Mush Hole.

Well I was only little, 6-years-old.

You would miss your mom.

You're fine when you're older, but when you're little, it's kind of hard.

But I survived so I guess I'm a survivor.

I wouldn't let them get away with anything with me anyway because if anybody pulled my hair they would be on the ground in a minute.

I would drop them.

High school wasn't too bad.

I made friends there and they picked me.

Well I was say awesome, you know, little old me from the Six Nations reserve.

That was pretty cool.

I think I'm right there.

I wouldn't be in front.

I'm always way behind, hiding.

Carol: She is very much her own person in there inside her, yeah.

Barbara: I wonder in retrospect how did we behave toward her.

Where we just young kids, friends together and so on.

How did Muriel see out?

How did she look out and how did she see us?

Did she see us as indifferent to the issues she had had to deal with in life.

Those things are important too.

Muriel: Well I was wondering, didn't they know there were natives all across Canada?

This isn't the only reserve or reserved.

How many in Ontario?

And hundreds and all across Canada too.

Barbara: That was the first barriers we were crossing, you know.

Carol: Of course, eventually it came out that she'd been in residential school, but she didn't, you know, really want to talk very much about that.

Tracey Hess: I'll show you some pictures Jeannie.

Jeannie: Oh my goodness.

That's her.

I wonder if that's buckskin.

Muriel: It was buckskin.

Jeannie: That is beautiful.

Tracey Hess: Right?

That's what I said.

I almost cried when he showed me.

Carol: Her dad wrote to Garfield and clearly he did not want her to be invisible.

Tracey Hess: Dear Mr. Weston, we want to thank you for giving our daughter Muriel the great opportunity of taking the European tour and would you be offended if she took along her Indian costume?

Our sincere thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Hill.

Carol: And of course Mr. Weston said yes.

Clarice: Not only do I give you permission, I insist that you bring that costume with you and you can wear it wherever there's a formal happening.

Mary: She didn't wear that every day, that was very special.

She doesn't like all this fuss and confusion.

There are a lot of things left unsaid.

Beautiful girl.

Muriel: Six Nations council gave it to me.

And it had the whole nine yards.

I had a bag, and the moccasins, and a headdress.

Clarice: And she was really representing the native population.

We were quite proud of her.

Muriel: I sure stand out in white, don't I?

Barbara Thomas Van Gent: Bravo, bravo.

Muriel: I'm going out now.

I can't talk and talk.

What's there to talk about?

Carol: So a few weeks ago, one of us, Yvonne said, "I think we should write a letter to the Queen."

I said, "Great, let's do that."

So, Yvonne kicked it off.

There were about six others that chimed in.

Well, first of all, it said that we were very grateful for her long reign and that she has been so steadfast and that we're old now and that that some of us have quite a lot of difficulty and that we appreciate that may be the case for her too.

And then we did a little fanciful thing.

We said, "Is it impossible to dream, to imagine that someday, some of us might sit down to tea with your Majesty."

I signed it on behalf of everybody, shipped it off.

Clarice: The Queen's funeral, that reminded me so much of the parades of the coronation.

Yvonne: It was playing all before us again.

Seventy years later, we saw the same thing.

The first time it was joyous and this time it was sad.

male: We have come together to commit into the hands of God, the soul of his servant Queen Elizabeth.

Here in St. George's chapel, where she so often worshiped.

Yvonne: I think there's a lot of emotion that comes from the the group of girls as we age and go through this process of going towards our deaths.

male: He remembereth that we are but dust, for as soon as the wind goeth over it, it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more.

Carol: We've lost some Weston girls.

I don't think you ever really adjust to that.

Like the, you know, there was one who died recently, that Shirley Bender Roddick.

She had this most awful Lou Gehrig's disease.

Couldn't have been worse.

She would say, "Well, life is tough, but you know, I don't think I'm doing that bad for a person that's got one foot in the grave."

And she said, "This is my last great trip.

No taffeta dress, no red handbag and no--I'm just, I'm going and it's--I'm on my way."

I suppose I've learned a lot about how to live from from the Weston girls and I'm also learning how to die.

Yvonne: Lately I've been working on climate change.

I've been trying to convince the inevitable governments and it's totally hopeless.

I try so hard to tell them, "Don't cut down trees for God's sake."

They just cut more trees all the time.

They don't understand the value of a tree.

Over my dead body they're taking it down.

And I started writing.

I don't know how I got so many books written when I was writing children's books.

They went very fast.

The other books of the novels, they took a lot of research and now I've written my last book.

I had so many years of success as a cross country skier.

This is mountain climbing and later on as a canoeist.

I could really, really handle a canoe well.

Too bad canoeing wasn't around for the Olympics in 1953 because I would have made a good Olympian I think.

We were always ready to race, quest, which was 740 kilometers with only one sleep.

Thought of myself as being invincible.

I was having pain episodes.

Quite unbearable, for me and for my husband.

I got to the ER and I was there for 8 hours.

And the next week, I thought, "Well, I've got to protect myself from this.

I can't stand it."

I was thinking about having M.A.I.D.

come.

Medical assistant--she was a medical assistant, yes.

I will just get a few needles and go to sleep.

[gentle water sounds] I dream of canoe racing.

It was a quiet on the water.

You just hear the paddles.

It's beautiful.

I set a date.

My husband knows about it, but our children don't.

They don't know that I actually had a date, but they don't.

Well that was in my mind.

So, they were okay with it, I think, I'm not sure.

Carol: Hello.

Hi Yvonne, can you hear me?

Oh, I can't hear you.

Oh it's--your voice is very funny.

We're on our way.

Hello?

Yvonne is very ill and you know, is this our last visit?

I don't know.

I think it's gonna be kind of emotional, I do.

male: How are you doing?

Carol: We're doing fine, how are you?

male: Good, come on in.

Carol: Where are you?

Where are you?

There you are.

Yvonne: I won't bother putting my side little hug.

I want to give you a hug.

Carol: Yes.

Yvonne: Hold me up.

Carol: Oh my God.

Yvonne: You look so little.

Carol: So do you.

Let me see you.

Yes you do.

Yvonne: I always thought about Mr. Weston, who told us we had to.

I always felt bad because I didn't achieve what I was supposed to achieve until later in life.

Carol: Me too.

Yvonne: You too?

Carol: Absolutely.

Yvonne: Are you sure?

Carol: Absolutely.

I let the side down.

Yvonne: Well we both did.

I don't think you did.

Carol: Yes I did.

Yvonne: How come?

How?

Carol: I thought I was gonna marry a jet pilot and then I realized, you know, when reality set in, I didn't wanna do that and I fell into a depression.

Yvonne: You did?

Carol: Yes I did a very bad depression.

I got a job and then-- Yvonne: Well what?

Carol: A secretarial job and then meanwhile Ken came into my life and so I got married.

And bang bang bang, had three children and so was that what Mr. Weston expected of me?

It wasn't it.

Yvonne: I don't think so.

Carol: I know I don't.

I mean, of course, I was overjoyed to have children.

I wanted this.

Yvonne: So did I.

Some of it would help us.

Carol: Yeah, so, you got married young too.

Yvonne: Yes.

I got married to somebody I don't love at all.

One a good thing to do.

Carol: No, no.

Yvonne: Well those are the days-- Carol: Yeah.

Yvonne: Back in the 50s.

Carol: And I mean, I don't know.

Like all Mr. Weston thought we would do is come back and make speeches about what we'd learned and what impact that it had, which we did.

So, that was really all.

He wasn't really, well maybe with that set of the sails and not the gales.

That was what got us, yeah.

Yeah that's right.

That medallion.

Well okay, one last.

Yvonne: When going to sing together?

Carol: One last.

Yeah, we will.

Yvonne: Bye bye honey.

Carol: Bye.

Yvonne: I love you.

Carol: I love you.

You know, maybe when she said, "When are we going to see each other again?"

Maybe what she was really thinking is we won't see each other again, but I guess we didn't want to go there.

No we didn't.

Neither one of us did.

Yvonne: A bit optimistic because I've been to a doctor and he thinks he could find the cause of my pain.

I canceled M.A.I.D.

But I would like to see my book published first.

So, I'll try to hang on for three more months.

Barbara: Knowing that there was this trip to England, it was like a little beacon of light.

The ones who came were quite lucky to be able to go and quite determined.

You certainly saw some determined women.

It wasn't easy for, look at Yvonne.

For me also, it came at a perfect time.

I was leaving behind married life.

I was--had just been widowed.

I was leaving my city, my friends, my continent, and coming back to Canada.

I tumbled into it.

Tumbled, tumbleweed.

I had been through a really ghastly time.

When I went to elementary school, Diane was my name and I came home from the first day, I said to my parents I was not going to be Diane anymore.

There were 5 Diane's in the early class.

So, I said, "I'm going to be Barbara."

Well this leads up to high school.

It seems ridiculous looking back, but I didn't want to go to the coronation.

I was the first girl president of the school.

My boyfriend was a quarterback on the school team.

I was organizing graduation and the graduation dance and I would have to miss it.

Couldn't imagine what was ahead.

And in fact on the trip, any of the girls could have told you, I got a "Dear John," letter from my boyfriend telling me that he was going to go to the dance and telling me who he was going to take to the dance and he ended up eventually marrying her, but all the girls on the trip, you know, had this "Dear John," letter and made an issue of it.

Christmas in London.

It was something to, yeah, to grab on to a little bit, yeah.

The set of the sails and not the gales, but everybody had gales in their life too, of course.

It was the togetherness that was as important as what we did in a way.

We get each other going.

The intensity of the friendships, they can't be compared.

Carol: It's indefinable what makes a good friend.

I think it's knowing that somebody really, really loves you.

A lot of people, they think, well at 88 you just got to kind of hold yourself together and make sure you have a shower every day and, you know, and it's just kind of like marking time.

No, no it's not.

Like you never know what's around the corner if you stay open to it.

I'm sure the people on the outside were thinking, "Well who are they?

Look at that.

They're pretty old, aren't they?

Why are they going in there?"

The gate opened and we were going in.

That was really amazing.

Then to drive right up to the front door, the front door of the palace.

Caroline De Guitaut: So, here we are.

We're standing in the grand entrance.

And it was here on the 2nd of June 1953, that her Majesty the Queen, with Prince Philip, departed through this space, alighting into the Gold State coach and set off for Westminster Abbey for her coronation and of course, you were all here on that day.

So, history repeating itself.

So, we're going to have a little tour of some of the spaces here before you come back down here for a cup of tea.

Carol: So, Barbara was beside me.

Then I looked over and there were these grand steps, these red carpeted steps and big wide balustrades on the other side.

And I said to her, "Do you think we could walk up those steps?"

Barbara has macular degeneration and she said, "I don't see why not."

And so, off we went.

From then on, we were 17 being awestruck by the beauty and the grandness of it all.

And being able to relate to each other both as in our late 80s and as 17 year olds.

We were doing that the whole time.

Barbara: And I thought of the queen.

Very much focused on her, riveted on our connection with her.

Queen Elizabeth: Though with great difficulty, I am God hither.

Yet now I do not repent me of all the trouble I have been at to arrive where I am.

My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage and my courage and skill to him that can get it.

My marks and scars I carry with me to be a witness for me, that I have fought his battles, who now will be my rewarder.

Caroline De Guitaut: There are some wonderful works of art in here which I'll mention very briefly in the-- female: I think we've got slightly less time.

Caroline De Gaitaut: Oh, we've got slightly less time.

Okay fine.

female: Under five minutes-- Caroline De Guitaut: Five minutes.

Carol: And then we were asked to leave rather suddenly and go downstairs for tea.

Caroline De Guitaut: Many more treasures that I wish I could talk to you about, but I think we need to make a move.

This is the bow room.

It's where you're going to have the tea.

Barbara: For once we were having tea, I felt this crackling in the room.

I don't know what it was.

Crackle crackle.

Wendy: Apparently that was a sign of gentility, the little finger.

Barbara: Something's gonna happen.

Wendy: Do you watched The Throne on TV?

Clarice: Oh yes.

Yes, I've become a Royalist.

[doors opening] Barbara: And in he walked.

female: Do we stand?

male: Ladies and gentlemen, His Majesty the King.

Carol: Well, I'm speechless.

He is a man, an ordinary man who's had his triumphs and his heartaches just like everybody.

But he's the king.

All that goes with that.

Carol: Good morning your Majesty.

His Majesty: I'm so glad to have a chance of seeing you.

I hadn't realized you were.

Carol: Yes we did, 1953.

His Majesty: When I was four or something.

Carol: Yes you were four.

You were old enough to go to the coronation.

His Majesty: I was.

My grandmother explained things to me while I was there.

Carol: I see.

His Majesty: I can remember quite a lot, yes.

Well, particularly what I was dressed in and what the barber did to me before.

Carol: Yes, your hair was very perfect.

His Majesty: Was it?

Carol: Yes, I remember.

Muriel Hill Martin-- His Majesty: Ah yes yes yes.

Carol: Who is a Mohawk from the Six Nations reserve in Ontario.

His Majesty: Ontario?

Carol: Yes, and she's a mother, a grandmother, and a great grandmother.

His Majesty: Marvelous.

How many great grandchildren?

Muriel: One.

His Majesty: One?

Carol: Judy Markstorm Langstaff from British Columbia.

His Majesty: Such a long way away, isn't it?

Judy: A long way away.

His Majesty: And that's the only trouble with Canada.

It's so vast.

Carol: You must come back soon.

His Majesty: Don't worry, I'm sure I will, if I'm still alive.

Judy: No, you'll be alive, we won't.

Carol: Spend a lot of time with our indigenous peoples.

His Majesty: Yes, absolutely.

Muriel: There's a lot across Canada so you can't miss them.

His Majesty: I know, they're very special.

Carol: Sheila Caughey Washburn of New Brunswick.

Sheila was the only engineer in your class, right?

Sheila: Woman engineer.

Carol: Woman engineer.

His Majesty: It was quite something in those days, wasn't it?

Sheila: It was, I was the third.

His Majesty: So, were you a civil engineer?

Sheila: Yeah, I was very civil.

[all laughing] His Majesty: Jolly good joke that one.

Carol: And he really was able to connect with people.

That's what he did.

He's a--yes he's a connector.

It's as though that we moved into another way of knowing him, you know, there was humor and grace.

We're chuckling a little bit about how we feel and that he's a friend.

Yvonne Russell Harris.

Yvonne: I won't take hands because I have a cold.

I wanted to thank you for your work on the environment.

You do a wonderful job.

I'm worried about plastics in the ocean.

HIs Majesty: Which is a real problem.

Yvonne Russell Harris: You're right, it is.

His Majesty: And are you doing a lot?

Are you encouraging others?

Carol: Nothing can stop her.

His Majesty: Well thank goodness you're there to battle away.

Yvonne: Yes, I'll keep it up if you do too.

His Majesty: Don't worry.

But I do hope your cold gets better.

Yvonne: Yeah, I do too.

His Majesty: I'll tell you what it's like if I get it.

Carol: This is Eleanor Duckworth.

Eleanor: Well I want to thank you for your contribution in Dubai.

Thank you very much for that talk you gave.

Yeah, you were on the right side.

HIs Majesty: Well, we have to keep hoping that the follow up will be the key.

Eleanor: Yes, not all--not the right people are making decisions.

His Majesty: I couldn't possibly cover it.

Bless you.

Carol: And this is our lovely Genevieve Tessier-Lavigne Desjeunes of Montreal.

Genevieve Tessier-Lavigne Desjeunes: I admire your mother very much and I think when we came in 1953 here, she was such an inspiration for us to follow.

We're young and she was so young when she became queen, so it was very impressive.

His Majesty: But I remember it all so well then because I remember my sister and I had bath time in the evening.

My mom used to come up but wearing the crown to practice because you have to get used to how heavy it is.

I've never forgotten.

I can still remember it vividly.

Carol: And it was very heavy for you as well?

His Majesty: Yes, because it's very important to wear it for a certain amount of time because you get used to it then.

But the big one that you're crowned with, the Sir Edward's crown, is 5--it weighs 5 pounds.

So it is much heavier and taller.

So, there's always that feeling of slightly--feeling slightly anxious in case you have to carry--you have to look straight-- Carol: Like that.

His Majesty: Anyway, it's been such a pleasure to see you all.

They're the happiest of Christmases.

It's been a great joy for me to meet you all after all these years.

Take care, bless you.

Thank you.

Carol: Now we can shed a few tears.

Oh my goodness.

Oh my goodness.

Wendy: Well, we're all a bit awe struck, I think.

Sheila: Yes, we're speechless.

Carol: Now just you know the signs for heart attack and stroke and all that.

Oh, that's good.

Wendy: So it's as surreal as being chosen in 1953. female: To me it is as surreal as-- Sheila: I know.

Look and the blue sky is coming up too.

Carol: And I mean, a lot of people were--would be saying, "What?

You know--you're-- that's not gonna happen.

No, come on."

God save the king.

God save the king.

Barbara: Everybody could say they had had a private little chat with the king.

Barbara: We're in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral where we were on June 19, 1953.

Carol: When we knew we had the opportunity to come back, I thought about, "Where do I want to retrace my steps?"

The first one I thought of was this because it seemed to have an impact on all of us.

You know, we kind of knew about the war.

But the impact in Britain, it just really hit us.

Barbara: It's imagining people being bombed.

It gave me that impression.

Eleanor: And the destruction of a beautiful building also impacted me, brought the war very present.

Carol: There was no question that they would carry on.

That's what they did.

There was some determination that Coventry Cathedral was--would carry on in some way.

They built a new one beside it.

Barbara: Tis the set of the sails and not the gales that determines the way they go.

Mary: This is how we lived our lives.

There are lots of gales in life, but if we have our sails set right we can overcome a lot.

Barbara: And I remember thinking I'll always remember that I was here and it was my 17th birthday.

Memory.

It it's the attenuation of memory because you forget things, you know.

Eleanor: I can remember things when I'm with them.

I can't remember them all by myself.

Carol: Every month that we live, our own age will get in the way.

Hard to get your head around it.

It was kind of a magic thing, wasn't it?

Sheila: We had so little we could spend.

We had to be very careful what we bought and I picked that up at one of those little shops.

See the Queen there waving at us.

It's--it was just a a miracle.

It was something never to be forgotten.

Carol: Well this will be it, surely.

I mean we're 87.

This is not gonna go on.

I mean, be sensible.

Well, no.

No, we're to get together in Toronto probably or Ottawa or--no, we're gonna go on until-- Barbara: We drop.

Carol: Until we drop.

Eleanor: Can we warm up now?

male: Yeah.

Barbara: How many did we lose to pneumonia yesterday, was it?

Or the day before.

male: Still working on it apparently.

Eleanor: Okay, did I leave anything there?

No, okay, good, here we go.

What are you laughing at?

Oh dear, they're so slow those others.

Poking along down the stairs they go.

Gosh.

Barbara: There we go.

Eleanor: Don't they know time is precious?

[all laughing] Barbara: Oh God, we got to get indoors.

Eleanor: Are you cold?

Barbara: Freezing.

Eleanor: How about you, your legs?

Barbara: My bum is cold.

Carol: 1953.

Barbara: That's what it was when we were here.

Carol: What year was it Barbara?

Barbara: If you say so, Carol.

Carol: It'd be nice to have a a dance with those boys from Queen's University in Belfast again, but that ain't gonna happen.

male: Coronation Girls is sponsored in part by Parkers.

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