Thursday April 21st 2016 marked the occasion of Queen Elizabeth’s 90th Birthday. In commemoration of this significant milestone, Buckingham Palace released a video on it’s ‘youtube’ page titled “90 photos for 90 years”. It chronicled, through pictures, the Queen in her daily life and travels. It was with pleasant surprise that among those pictures (at 1:07 into the video) a picture of the Queen along with the late Mrs. Evelyn Hodge of Long Bay, Anguilla, appeared. This photo was taken in 1994 during the Queen’s Official visit to the island. At the time Mrs. Hodge was 82 years old. The photo captured the true essence of ‘Evy’, as she was affectionately known, as well as the genuine hospitable spirit of Anguilla, as they exchanged pleasantries and smiled with each other.
Mrs. Hodge who was the mother of 13 children died in 2007 at the age of 96 years. The family of the late Evelyn Hodge wish to publicly express their sincere pleasure of having the matriarch of their family, and a true Anguillian pearl, featured so prominently on this momentous occasion.
– Contributed