Queen Elizabeth II “seemed very happy” just two days before her death, according to the photographer who took her final pictures.
“Obviously she was very frail, but she was very smiley,” Jane Barlow told the Daily Mail on Friday. “I got lots of smiles from her.”
The photojournalist got to spend time with the Queen at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Tuesday before snapping “unposed” pictures of the 96-year-old monarch meeting new British Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Barlow said that before Truss, 47, entered the room, the Queen commented “on how dark it was outside” as “the weather had closed in.”
The shutterbug gushed, “It was just a lovely moment while we were waiting for those few minutes.”
When Truss finally walked into the room, Barlow snapped a shot of the Queen grinning at Boris Johnson’s replacement.
“It wasn’t posed at all,” the photographer explained. “It was just a nice, natural moment where she just looked up and smiled, and now also all the more poignant.”
The Queen died on Thursday at the same Scottish castle after being placed under “medical supervision” hours earlier.
Truss provided a touching statement after Buckingham Palace confirmed the news.
“The death of Her Majesty The Queen is a huge shock to the nation and to the world,” she said. “Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which modern Britain was built. Our country has grown and flourished under her reign.”
Truss concluded by sharing her support for King Charles III, who ascended to the throne upon his mother’s death.
“With the king’s family, we mourn the loss of his mother,” she said. “And as we mourn, we must come together as a people to support him, to help him bear the awesome responsibility that he now carries for us all.”
The Queen’s health has been declining over the last year, and she was briefly hospitalized in October 2021.
Her Majesty, whose husband, Prince Philip, died in April 2021, was Britain’s longest-reigning monarch with 70 years of service.
While ringing in the major milestone with her Platinum Jubilee in June, the Queen was noticeably absent from a number of events due to mobility issues and “discomfort.”
Over the weekend, however, the sovereign was in “good spirits” — which is why Church of Scotland minister Rev. Iain Greenshields found news of her death such a “shock.”
“[We had] a fantastic visit,” he told the Times of London on Friday of having lunch with the Queen. “Her memory was absolutely amazing, and she was really full of fun.”