Queen Elizabeth II: Girl gets card after monarch's death

A nine-year-old girl said she was "flabbergasted" when she received a card from the Queen the day after the monarch's death.

Lois, from West End in Hampshire, had sent a poem to Her Majesty to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee in June.

The postmark on the envelope, which was sent from Buckingham Palace, dates it to Wednesday. Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral on Thursday aged 96.

"I opened it and I was just surprised, I was speechless," Lois told the BBC.

She said she wrote the poem because during "all of her years of reign she's done so many things for all of us".

"I really like her smile," she added. "She's like a grandma to all of us."

In the card, the Queen gave Lois her "grateful thanks" for her "kind message".

You shine oh so bright, like the stars in the night, happy Jubilee.

I hope you have a nice cup of tea, the Jubilee will be history, and looking back you're what they'll see, happy Jubilee.

Mum Zoe said: "Because Lois had written a poem, I said it might be a nice idea to send it to the Queen. She might see it, you never know.

"So we put it in a letter and we sent it off to Buckingham Palace just after the Jubilee and just sort of forgot about it."

She added: "To have the Queen pass away one day, and the next day to get a card from her, I'm happy and sad at the same time.

"I think this is now so precious, and a card from the Queen would always be precious anyway and it would be treasured, but to have it on that day, it was probably one of the last things that she sent."

Lois said she was "sad" and "emotional" to hear of the Queen's passing, but believed as she had lived "a long happy life, we might as well celebrate it".

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