“The lessons from the peace process are clear; whatever life throws at us, our individual responses will be all the stronger for working together and sharing the load. Queen Elizabeth II”

It had been over a week since Queen Elizabeth II’s death, and I was visiting one of the people with disabilities today. Note Jacek has been deaf with CP (cerebral Palsy) and speech impaired since birth. His disabilities do not stop him from being independent. It was Jacek for his late parents, who came from Poland and Germany, to live in New Zealand after the Second World War as new chapters of lives.

Before driving into his driveway, Jacek was delighted to see me and told me the sad news about the Queen. I thought of asking him if he saw the Queen during the visit to New Zealand around 1963 or 1974. Jacek responded that he saw the Queen with Prince Phillip with his parents in Auckland in February 1967 at the time of his surgery to straighten his legs. Jacek was twelve years old. My mind has gone muddling about the year he mentions – never mind Jacek!

Everyone looked up high. Jacek was signing in his own sign language about seeing the Queen and Prince Phillip passing along the crowds and waving at them.

Jacek was no fan of Prince Harry’s wife or Prince Andrew. He asked me about these family members, and I told him that I am no fan of the Royal Family but admired Queen and her works throughout her 70 years. Out of curiosity, I asked Jacek whether or not other D/deaf people saw the Queen. Jacek has no idea because not all of his elderly D/deaf friends do not communicate with him for a long time. Many other D/deaf people do not understand his sign language or struggle to understand Jacek’s communication over many years. Yes, Jacek went to Auckland’s Titirangi School for the Deaf and Kelston Deaf School. Today there are not many D/deaf with disabilities elderly friends living in Hamilton and keep in touch with Jacek. I am the only person to stay in touch with his friends when Jacek asks for them through me.

Jacek loves looking at the photos in the books where we went to The Warehouse in Hillcrest, Waikato, for his social outing with me as a paid job. Off we went further to have lunch and do the grocery.

I dropped Jacek off at his place with his grocery, and he said he would be watching the funeral tomorrow night. What! I told him – you will stay up all night until the early hours of Tuesday morning. There goes ‘oh, oh-oh?” from Jacek as he did not remember London Time is opposite our New Zealand time. He said, Never mind, he will see how he goes tomorrow evening. I explained to Jacek that the Breakfast Show would show more news about the funeral on a Tuesday morning. A thumb up from Jacek.