Saturday, March 7, 2015

Condolences for the Death of Queen Fabiola of Belgium (2014)

Today, I got a response to the letter of condolences I wrote to King Philippe of Belgium on the occasion of his aunt, HM Queen Fabiola's death. Her Majesty died December 5th, 2014 at the age of 86.

Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragón was born on June 11th, 1928 in Spain to a noble family. Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain was her godmother. Fabiola trained as a nurse and worked in a hospital in Madrid. At the age of 32, she married King Baudouin of Belgium. They, unfortunately, had no children. When her husband, King Baudouin, died in 1993, he was succeeded to the throne by his brother, King Albert II of Belgium. ( King Albert II abdicated the throne in 2013, to his son, King Philippe.) Queen Fabiola supported women's issues, children and mental health.

This was the very first time I've written to the Belgium Royals. The note was written in French. Belgium has three official languages: Dutch, French, and German.


Roughly translated the note reads: 
Palace of Brussels 
Their Majesties the King and Queen send you their most sincere thanks for the kind words that you have sent to them on the occasion of the death of Her Majesty Queen Fabiola.  
The King and Queen were deeply touched by your words of support and sympathy.  
January 2015
Also included was a commemorative card from Queen Fabiola's funeral. The cover of the card features Queen Fabiola's monogram, as well as a picture of the Queen when she was young (circa 1960s). The inside of the card read "Always say YES to God" in Dutch, French, German, Spanish and English. (Queen Fabiola was born in Spain, which is why Spanish is included.)