Prince Andrew, his daughters Eugenie and Beatrice, Prince Edward and Sophie and Princess Anne had gone to Crathie Kirk, the church near Balmoral where the Queen and her family worship every Sunday while on holiday in Deeside. for a short, private service just before 2pm on Saturday. . On their way back to Balmoral, their motorcade stopped at the narrow granite bridge over the River Dee to allow the family to greet around 150 well-wishers, who had been waiting patiently for up to 45 minutes behind a barrier of crowds. Before returning to the estate, Sophie was seen wiping away tears as she read some of the inscriptions on the bouquets. flanked by his daughters and brothers at the black and gold gates, Andrew raised his hands together in a prayer of thanks, prompting an outburst of applause from the crowd. Dressed in a black mourning suit, Andrew was the most talkative, asking visitors where they had come from. He spoke to Jackie McIntosh, 69, an airport worker from Aberdeen. “It’s very sad to see him because at the end of the day it’s a family, they lost their mom,” he told reporters after their brief exchange. John Coutts, her 49-year-old partner, added: “It’s only been a couple of days since they lost their mother, like the rest of us people, nobody expected this. It was decent of them to talk to us.” Elaine Rose, from Nuneaton, who has been holidaying in Inverness with her family, said she was at the Braemar Highland Gathering last Sunday – an event usually attended by the Queen. Instead, he then saw Prince Charles and Camilla and Princess Anne. Andrew spoke briefly to her and her family: “Thank you very much for coming,” he said. Another well-wisher, Sue, had traveled to Balmoral on her way from a holiday in Gerloch near Ullapool and told Prince Andrew she was on her way home to Durham. He expressed surprise at the distance she had traveled and thanked her for coming. She was reluctant to speak to Prince Andrew, she said. “I really didn’t want to. I felt like I couldn’t because other people started moving away from him so I had to say something. But I didn’t feel comfortable.” Tom Harrison, 62, from Forres, Moray, spoke to Prince Andrew and Princess Anne. He asked Andrew, “How are things?” Andrew replied: “They allowed us a day as a family. Tomorrow we start the process of delivering it.” Princess Anne noticed his bright flowers and asked, “Are they from your garden?” Harrison said it wasn’t. “I told her I didn’t pick them myself,” he said afterward. “I wish I’d lied and said it was from my garden.” Harrison added: “They were very gloomy. They lost their mom and their grandmother. It’s a family mourning.” Jefferson Campbell, 46, was at Balmoral with wife Solange, 47, and daughter Giovanna, 14, and had traveled from Westhill, Aberdeenshire, where Prince Edward scored the Brazil football shirt Campbell wore. “I didn’t think they would walk here. We didn’t expect this moment,” Campbell said. Solange, a teacher at the school, said: “It’s a sad time for them but they always talk to people.”
