WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- The death of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has focused the eyes of the world on England. For one Colonial Heights woman, her death brought back a unique memory that also was shared around the world.
68 years have passed since November 11, 1954, when Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother visited Williamsburg.
"This story is about me when I was four years old when I was Little Beck Estes," Becky Estes said. "When I look at the pictures from the newspaper, she was quite beautiful and dressed eloquently."
That day was one that she can't forget. Her mother packed up the family for the short trip to Colonial Williamsburg.
"She thought it was important that my brother and I would see these people so we would know that there were things available outside of our little family. We went and we stood and I saw a bench and I wandered over and sat on the bench," Estes said.
It just so happened that the Queen Mother was inside.
"This lady comes out of a door and everybody starts telling me to look at the queen. Well, I didn't see a queen, she didn't look like any of my story books, she didn't have a crown or fancy big dress, I didn't see a queen," Estes said.
Little Becky alone on the bench wouldn't look up.
"And I was just too shy to even look at her. I put my head down with everybody yelling at me to look at the queen and I never lifted my head," Estes said. "She saw me and she came over expecting this little girl to say hello or do something."
The moment was captured on film.
"So there were photographers that starting taking pictures of this little bashful girl sitting on the bench, not looking at the Queen Mother. The pictures were published in papers around the world," Estes said.
Estes said that the death of Queen Elizabeth II hit her harder than she thought it would. The memories from that fateful November day came flooding back and so did the four words the Queen Mother spoke to young Becky.
"She looked at me and said, I dub thee shy."
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