Prince William Meets a 96-Year-Old Admirer During a Visit to Edinburgh
As the future king, Prince William has had his fair share of admirers throughout his life. And today he met with one of his older fans, 96-year-old Betty Magee, during a day of engagements visiting the work of faith-based community organizations in Edinburgh.
The Prince sat down to chat to Betty and her granddaughter Kimberley Anderson during a visit to Queen’s Bay Lodge residential care home, which is run by CrossReach, the Church of Scotland’s Social Care Council. “He’s a bit of alright,” Betty said afterwards. “I liked him...He can be my king any day.” Kimberley told how Betty had asked William for “a little kiss,” with Betty adding, “I never got one!”
“He was just so lovely,” Kimberley said, “So content and really engaged and chatting with everybody which was really lovely to see...He was asking how things have been this last year. We were saying it’s been kind of difficult but things are getting better now.” Betty, however, was full of praise for the care home, said she was having a “jolly good time.”
Chief Executive of CrossReach, Viv Dickenson, described William as “very personable and easy to talk to,” adding it was “fantastic that the Duke spent such a long time with residents clearly having a lot of fun.” William met three residents and their families as well as staff. He was presented with a painting of a giraffe created by an artist with dementia. “He was delighted with it, very taken with the art,” Dickenson said.
The charity was launched in 2005 and supports more than 10,000 people in Scotland through care homes for the elderly, support for children and families, and support for people with alcoholism, drug, and mental health problems. It it part of the Church of Scotland, but its services are open to people of all faiths.
“I think there is some public awareness already of what staff have had to do, how hard they have had to work,” Dickenson said about the visit coming following a hard year for care staff. “I was talking to the Duke about how it takes a fair amount of guts for a care worker to walk in for extra shifts into a home where they know that coronavirus is present. And actually that’s what they were doing, they were volunteering for extra shifts. I hope that what it’s done is raise awareness how amazing social care staff have been throughout this time.”
She described William as “keen to hear more and directly from the people who were affected, which I thought was lovely. He was very keen to speak to those people who had been worst affected and I thought that was great and exactly how he should be.”
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