Eulogy of Her Majesty Cora Mills, The Queen of Hearts
By her beloved daughter, Queen Regina Mills
"Goodbye Mother"
"It's not about what you what, Regina," my mother once said to me, "I am your mother, I know what's best for you." I looked at her, confused. She explained: "Being queen means having power," she said, "And having power means that you can do whatever you want. Power is freedom, my love." I was six at the time my mother told me all this; at the time she had informed me that she had already decided what I was going to do with my life. Whether I liked it or not, my mother had had a plan for me to be what she wanted me to be since, perhaps, my birth: the queen. She did, after all, name me "Regina." For that, I can both thank her, and hate her. But now, as I stand here giving her eulogy, there are only two words I can come to say: Goodbye mother.
Cora Mills was born the daughter of a miller. Beautiful for her position in life, she used her ineffable charm and unique ability of being able to spin straw into gold to climb her way out of the boroughs of poverty and marry my father, Prince Henry. Later in life, I learned that it was during this time that my mother developed a friendship with the sorcerer Rumplestiltskin, who taught her very dark magic. My mother gained prestige in the kingdom for her limitless wealth and beauty. She was never made queen of the kingdom; however, thanks to falling through a looking glass, she became the queen of her own land, Wonderland, where she was known as "The Queen of Hearts" - a play on her nefarious collection of magical human hearts. For that, my mother deserves acclamations. She certainly furthered her position in life. Goodbye Mother.
My mother, the queen of Wonderland, was a vindictive, dictatorial, manipulative, overbearing, oppressive, power-hungry woman, who used anyone she could to further her own agenda. Her proverbial dictum "Love is weakness" was one I heard often, and one she repeated countlessly to her subjects, both in the Enchanted Forrest and Wonderland. She ruled Wonderland with an iron-clad, though lavishly gilded, fist, and ordered the execution of anyone who dared to make her angry. The count of people she's killed, whether by her own hand or by her order, is too many for me to number, and there are no doubt many of her kills who are unknown. The only way one could survive in her court was if they provided some use to her, and once their usefulness was up, she would order their beheading. She demanded the fear of her people, and the respect of her fellow aristocracy. Goodbye Mother.
The days leading up to my mother's sudden murder were filled with longing, hope and betrayal. We had been estranged for sometime, though we were reunited due to my mother's determination to see me. I must admit, I feared her return. But during the last days of her life, we were a team, united together. It was perhaps during those days that I felt closest to her, as we plotted to take revenge on my enemies. She apologized for what she had done, and even adapted into modern clothing! Despite that, I could see my mother had her own plan, an attempt for more power. And it was that which led to her own demise at the hands of one her previous victims. As I held my mother in my arms as life passed from her aged body, she muttered "You… you would've been enough." And so, there's nothing left to say but two words: goodbye mother.