Copenhagen, Aug 29. (dpa/GNA) – Norway’s Queen Sonja, was marking her 58th wedding anniversary alone on Saturday, a day after the death of her husband, King Harald V.
The king died on Friday morning at the age of 89, after spending nearly two weeks in hospital. Queen Sonja, also 89, now faces life without the partner with whom she shared decades of marriage.
Their relationship was a love story that overcame considerable opposition.
Sonja Haraldsen, then a commoner, first met the Norwegian prince as a teenager. She encountered him again at the age of 22 and the two fell instantly in love.
However, Harald’s father, then king Olav, strongly opposed their relationship, forcing the couple to keep it secret for nine years.
In the end, Harald threatened his father that he would remain unmarried if he was not allowed to be with Sonja. Olav relented, and on August 29, 1968, the couple married at Oslo Cathedral.
Crown prince Haakon was born five years later. Following his father’s death, he has been King Haakon VIII since Friday.
The new king is expected to address the nation in a televised speech on Saturday evening.
Books of condolence were made available across Norway on Saturday, allowing members of the public to leave messages of sympathy and remembrance.
In Oslo, Mayor Anne Lindboe was among the first to leave a personal message for the monarch, according to the newspaper VG. “You didn’t need a crown to be king,” she wrote, according to the report.
Memorial services are due to be held on Sunday in numerous churches and in all 11 of Norway’s cathedrals. A service at Oslo Cathedral is scheduled to begin at 11 am (0900 GMT), the Church of Norway said. “We mourn the loss of King Harald and feel deep, sincere gratitude for everything he has meant to us all through his life and work,” says Olav Fykse Tveit, the presiding bishop of the Church of Norway.
Members of the public who wish to pay their respects in person, will be able to visit the palace chapel in the coming days.
After a brief period in the palace’s Red Salon, the king’s closed coffin will lie in state in the chapel on a draped platform, at specified times until the burial.
No date has yet been announced for his funeral, which will be held as a state funeral and is expected to be a major national memorial service.
GNA