Herts family reflect on queueing 13 hours to pay respects

St Albans Dad, Joseph Philipose, 43 spent his birthday paying tribute to the queen along with his wife Geetha, daughter Thea, 11, and son Bennett, 10.

With permission from the children’s schools the family left their home, in St Albans, at 4am on Friday morning.

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Mr Philipose said: “The Queen means a lot to us.

“She was a great inspiration to my children because she showed commitment to serving the nation, the commonwealth, and the world, until the end.

"She also showed the perseverance to welcome all the challenges of recent years.

“Not only that, she showed the tolerance to work with different prime ministers as well as nations and cultures.

“In the queue for 13 hours, all these qualities were reflected.

"We had to have the determination to set off early and go and do it, we had to have the patience and the perseverance to last 13 hours, and the graciousness to go to pay the final respects.”

Thea, Geetha, Bennett, Joseph. Picture: Joseph Philipose (Image: Picture: Joseph Philipose)

The Fintech consultant described what the experience of queueing for so long was like for the family.

He said: “We logged 32,000 steps, that’s what we wanted to do as a family for everything she did and who she was.

“The first few hours we were excited and we had some snacks and sandwiches.

Thea, Bennett, Geetha, Joseph. Picture: Joseph Philipose (Image: Picture: Joseph Philipose)

“But after 5 hours the kids started to feel hungry and we realised we had to find something more to eat.

“They were trying to sit wherever possible, where there were benches or walls.

"From then, we had to be determined, we had been there for five hours, we had to do it.

“For the final 45 minutes we could see the hall, but the queue was so slow moving, we were tired but we could see we were going to get there.”

The family also shared the condolences they dedicated to the Queen.

Geetha, Thea, Bennett, Joseph. Picture: Joseph Philipose (Image: Joseph Philipose)

Bennett said: “Thank you for being the greatest queen ever.

“You inspired me to not give up because you served until the last few days of your life.”

Thea said: “Thank you for serving our country and we are grateful for all the sacrifices you have made.

“You will always be in our hearts.”

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