Who, given a chance, would...
Illustration
Who, given a chance, would not be a monarch and "stand in the place of the great?" But, dreaming aside, the harsh realities of ultimate power have brought more treachery, tragedy and loss than happiness to the lives of the great. In our community there is a stately home which resembles a palace. It was built in the 1920s by a woman who was queen of society in her day. Now this 120-room Tudor mansion is a museum.
As tourists walk through, they compare her life to their own and envy her wealth, her status, her style of living. They don't know what a lonely woman she was. In the last years of her life she lived alone in that huge house, without even any live-in servants. Two husbands died before her, two of her children were dead and she had alienated the rest of her family by her imperious and demanding ways. She lived and finally died alone and lonely, surrounded by wealth but lacking human contact.
As tourists walk through, they compare her life to their own and envy her wealth, her status, her style of living. They don't know what a lonely woman she was. In the last years of her life she lived alone in that huge house, without even any live-in servants. Two husbands died before her, two of her children were dead and she had alienated the rest of her family by her imperious and demanding ways. She lived and finally died alone and lonely, surrounded by wealth but lacking human contact.
