Ahead of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral on 19 September, Dandenong’s famously British butcher Rob Boyle was torn on how to give fitting tribute.
The normally ebullient Mr Boyle had recently celebrated the late queen’s Silver Jubilee with an elaborate window display.
This past week, he has been reticent to look like he was cashing in on the death of a monarch he’s long admired.
While London shops darkened their windows, Mr Boyle opted to quietly rename his one-kilogram pork pie ‘the Queen Lizzie’ as a “mark of respect”.
“There’ll be no promotions, no specials.”
Like many, Mr Boyle has known no other British monarch before Queen Elizabeth II. She’s been a role model for all of us, he says.
“She’s been the rock, the glue that’s held the Royal Family together. She just seemed to always do the right thing and say the right thing.
He fondly recalls the story about how Her Majesty pranked American tourists as she picnicked in the grounds of her Scottish holiday home, Balmoral Castle.
When asked if she’d ever bumped into the Queen, she replied that she hadn’t but her bodyguard had.
The tourists asked the bodyguard what she was like, and the Queen agreed to take a photo with them and the bodyguard.
“It just showed her terrific sense of humour.”
