109-Year-Old Gets a Royal Apology From Prince William

LONDON, May 13, 2009 — -- Catherine Masters had about all she was going to take from Queen Elizabeth II. Or at least all she was going to take of the Queen's yearly birthday card, showing Her Majesty in the same pose in the same yellow dress.

"The dress," the 109-year-old said to a patient BBC reporter, "yellow. Every one, the same," as she stabbed a finger at the cards all proudly displayed in front of her. When asked if she got fed up with it, the centenarian drew in a deep breath and, teasingly, said, "Yeah, wouldn't you?" Clearly, a great-grandmother not to be trifled with.

So Masters of Oxfordshire, England, wrote a complaint to the Queen in hopes of securing, for her 110th birthday, a card with a different picture and, above all, showing the Queen in a different dress.

The response was surprisingly, and satisfyingly, different than anything she ever imagined. Prince William himself, on short notice, stopped in at her nursing home, the Grange Center in Stanford in the Vale, to deliver a Royal apology.

"She nearly fell off her chair," said Wendy Mead, a nurse at the home. "She was in total shock.

When he came to the room, she asked him if she could squeeze him to check it was actually him. "She had a good squeeze," Mead said.

After all, it's not every day one gets to squeeze a Royal.

Per British custom, the Queen sends a birthday card (previously a telegram) when a citizen of the United Kingdom or its many Commonwealth countries hits the century mark.

If one lives to 105, the Queen sends a yearly greeting. More than 5,000 Royal birthday wishes were sent last year. The cards and pictures are changed every few years, a spokesman from Buckingham Palace said. It will change this year.

Masters received a card with the Queen in a purple dress on her 105th birthday but it was yellow, yellow, yellow and yellow every year after that.

To say the Royal emissary and the centenarian got on well together might be understatement. They had tea, talked about the Prince's great-grandmother and swapped recipes for shepherd's pie.

When Prince William told Masters that he used a masher to mash the potatoes, the less-than-shy great-grandmother said he was doing it wrong and a fork was a better way to fluff potatoes. One can only assume she has some experience and skill in the subject.

'Lovely' Prince William Gets a Thumbs-Up

It was an interesting turn of events for the ever-protective Royals.

Typically, it is Queen Elizabeth herself watching out for and taking care of her brood. In a 2004 interview with the BBC, Prince William said of his grandmother, "She's been brilliant, she's a real role model. She's just very helpful on any sort of difficulties or problems I might be having."

Now it was William's turn to help the Queen out of a tight spot. A Royal source said it is simply a matter of family taking care of family, something very important to the Queen and all her relatives.

So as a Royal emissary, how did Prince William of Wales, second-in-line to the British throne, do? Catherine Masters' review was simple: "He is lovely." Apology offered and happily accepted.

Masters is now invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace in July. For that Royal do, she says she'll need a new hat and a new dress. Probably not yellow.