CALGARY — In 1939, little Frances Vockeroth stood at a small-town train station, clutching a bouquet of flowers.
Freshly scrubbed in a summer dress, her hair curled prettily, the nine-year-old waited for the Royal train to arrive.
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were on board, travelling through Alberta on a royal tour. Frances had been chosen among classmates at her Walsh, Alta., school to present the couple with flowers.
When the big day came, the train rumbled up to the station where the little girl waited among a crowd of royal watchers, holding a bouquet almost half her size.
But the train chugged on by.
“The train continued to move on. The King came out when it was just about passed the crowd and stood there and waved, but the train just kept on moving,” recalls Frances, whose last name is now Miller. “Everyone was pretty disappointed.”
Perhaps no one more so than Frances herself.
Seven decades later, Miller, a retired dairy farmer, will get a second chance to mingle with royalty.
After a local newspaper took up her case, the Medicine Hat resident now has the chance to meet the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during the royal couple’s visit to Calgary next month.
“I didn’t think such a thing would happen,” says Miller, 81. “It’s kind of overwhelming right now. I said to my husband, ‘It seems like a dream, it doesn’t seem real.’ ”
It was likely due to a simple miscommunication that the train didn’t stop in Walsh years ago, Miller says.
An individual who was on hand later informed the royals about what happened. Miller received a letter from Buckingham Palace. Enclosed was a photograph of the King and Queen, and their daughters — including Queen Elizabeth II, Prince William’s grandmother.
According to a report in the Medicine Hat news, when Prince William and Kate announced their upcoming visit to Canada, a senior reporter with the newspaper decided to advocate on behalf of Miller to meet the great-grandson of the royals she missed seven decades ago.
Letters were sent to the Governor General, the local MP and MLA, the Prime Minister’s Office and Buckingham Palace on her behalf, Miller says.
“I was just blown away by it,” she says of their efforts.
On Tuesday, the Medicine Hat resident was given the news that the Prime Minister’s Office has stated she will have a role in the upcoming royal visit.
Details are still be worked out.
The news is just starting to sink in, Miller says.
She’s begun planning her wardrobe, and will likely choose a smart suit with which to greet the royal newlyweds.
The chance to fulfil her girlhood dream more than 70 years later is pure delight, says Miller.
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