BASS RIVER – Simply "wow."
That was the way Korean War veteran James Chipman summed up his recent meeting with Queen Elizabeth II during a gala dinner at the prestigious Royal York Hotel in Toronto.
"It was just a thing you don't expect in life," the 80-year-old Chipman said, of the opportunity to look Her Majesty in the eye and shake her hand.
"I was there in awe ... I shook her hand, yes, and I shook the Duke's hand, along with the Prime Minister and his wife."
Although the Bass River resident has been in the Queen's presence in the past while serving as an honour guard with the Canadian Forces, it was the first time he was able to get so up front and personal.
"How do you realize what you are doing?" he asked, of the star-struck moment. "You don't believe these things will ever happen to you."
As exciting as the event was, however, Chipman also admitted to experiencing a bit of nervousness to be in the presence of Blue Blood and other high-ranking dignitaries. After being introduced, he shook hands with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Queen (whom he properly addressed as Her Majesty) and then Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh. And that's where his little ceremonial faux pas slipped out, when he addressed the Duke as "Sir," instead of in the proper fashion of "Your Highness."
But that moment is well glossed over by the experience itself and Chipman said he still finds it difficult to believe the event actually occurred.
"Sometimes you think you are going to pinch yourself and wake up. It was just a thing you don't expect in life, I suppose, and being in her presence was something different," he said.
He was also quite content with his seating arrangements, which placed him in direct sight of the Queen from only two tables away.
"So we were actually looking right at her at all times and that was something phenomenal," he said.
A week earlier, Chipman received a commendation in Halifax from the Minister of Veterans Affairs and he said the two events coming so close together had a major impact on him.
"It put me in a whole different world," he said. "It was quite an event."
Chipman was accompanied to the royal gala by his daughter Carolyn McPherson of Ottawa.
