The Queen grants heart girl's wish on anniversary

[FetchingHag]

AbsolutelyWilliam] The Queen grants heart girl's wish on anniversary day



A nine-year-old will take centre stage in tomorrow's celebrations to
mark 50 years since the coronation, report Simon Trump and Adam
Lusher.

A nine-year-old girl awaiting heart transplant surgery will have her
wish fulfilled tomorrow when she presents the Queen with a bouquet to
mark the 50th anniversary of the Coronation.

Louisa Harrington, who has been awaiting surgery for more than a
year, was selected by the Queen after writing to Buckingham Palace
asking if she could meet the monarch and "be a princess for the day".

The Queen read the letter and insisted that Louisa play a starring
role in tomorrow's anniversary celebrations. The youngster will take
centre stage immediately after the service at Westminster Abbey, as
the Queen unveils a plaque marking the Golden Jubilee Extension of
the Jubilee Walkway in the Mall. Louisa will wear a lilac "princess
dress" that she helped to design and will present the Queen with a
crown-shaped bouquet.

"I'm very excited," said Louisa, of Clevedon, Somerset. "I've been
practising my curtsey but it's very difficult to get it right.

Louisa, who will be accompanied by her parents, Jude and Alex,
suffers from restrictive cardiomyopathy, which means that blood
cannot be pumped properly around her body because of a weakened heart
muscle.

This has restricted her growth, meaning that she needs the heart of a
child not older than two: this will be transplanted to help her
existing organ continue to function in a so-called piggy-back
operation.

Her letter was sent by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a charity which
helps children with life-threatening illnesses. A spokesman said: "It
was at the Queen's instigation. We were told that she had read the
letter and made it clear to her aides, 'I want to meet this little
girl during the anniversary celebrations'."

Tomorrow's events have been designed to offer as many echoes as
possible of the Coronation - the star guest will be Sir Edmund
Hillary along with other members of the Everest expedition - and the
congregation will include 240 guests who played a part in the events
of June 2, 1953.

The Queen has invited 34 people who were born on Coronation Day, and
also former scholars of Westminster School who heralded her arrival
in the Abbey with cries of "Vivat Regina Elizabetha".

Royal aides said that the Queen was deeply touched that Sir Edmund -
who has become a close friend of the monarch - had insisted on
travelling from Kathmandu for the anniversary service. Hillary, 83,
will be one of the honoured guests at a deliberately low-key service
to which no foreign dignitaries have been invited. Sixteen members of
the Royal Family will be in attendance, led by the Prince of Wales
and Prince William. Camilla Parker Bowles, Prince Charles's
companion, will also be in the Abbey alongside her widowed father.

As in 1953, the first hymn will be All People That On Earth Do Dwell.
The choir will sing from Psalm 84, Behold, O God Our Defender, to
music composed by Herbert Howells for the Coronation, in addition to
performing the Te Deum, which was sung 50 years ago.

There will also be new elements to tomorrow's service, however. In
addition to music from Bach, Purcell, and Vaughan Williams, there
will be a new anthem, composed by Jonathan Harvey and specially
commissioned by Dr Wesley Carr, the Dean of Westminster.

Dr Carr said that after enjoying the pageantry of the Golden Jubilee,
the Queen wanted a "quieter, more reflective" way to mark the
anniversary of the Coronation. In the bidding, Dr Carr will remind
the congregation of how the tradition of coronations at Westminster
Abbey stretches back to the 1066 and the crowning of first Harold and
then William the Conqueror.

He will explain that tomorrow's service is based around four
commitments made by the Queen in 1953 - to God, to the service of
others, to responsibility, and to showing respect for her people -
and will invite the congregation to share in those commitments.

Dr Carr said: "One of the main aims of the anniversary service was to
use aspects of the Coronation as building blocks. In 1953, the Queen
made some very heavy commitments of duty and service to the nation.
It seemed to me appropriate that we reversed the situation now, and
committed ourselves with her to the same ideals."

Michael Kennedy, The Telegraph's music critic, said that he was
impressed by the Queen's choice of music for the service. "It is
splendid that they are repeating the wonderful arrangement of All
People That on Earth Do Dwell by Vaughan Williams, which was played
at the Coronation. Charles Villiers Stanford's arrangement of the Te
Deum is also a sound choice.

"It's good, too, to see British composers among the likes of Bach. In
particular, the Queen deserves credit for choosing leading modern
British composers such as James MacMillan and Jonathan Harve. It's a
good choice of music. It's well done."

The 50-minute service, which begins at 11.30am, will be broadcast
live on BBC1 and on BBC Radio 4.

[PrincessPreppy]

Ohhh thats soo sweet. If I ever "made a wish" it would probably be to meet William.