Of course she missed Albert and went into deep mourning; yet managed to keep the Empire on an even keel. :-)
Your post is bordering on being Hilaryesque; sadly.
Look, she had a HUGE number of kids, suffered Post Partum Depression after most of those births and Albert, though she relied on him for many things, wasn't "ruling from behind the throne". And before you ask me how I know, I've been a BIG fan of Queen Victoria's since childhood and as such, have read many books about her, read her published diaries and letters, and have avidly studied her, her times, the MPs she had to deal with, watched every single movie and documentary about her and that era, as well as books about her children. Do I know EVERYTHING...every jot & tittle of her life? No, but then, NOBODY alive then, nor now did/does.
This is sort of neither here nor there to Victoria ruling, but your implied contention that she was a great ruler because she was the “grandmother of Europe” really means very little in weighing her leadership skills.
Having her children was little more than biology.
She had sex.
She got pregnant.
A child was born.
By most accounts she was not an entirely great mother, however it would be somewhat unfair to judge her according to today’s standards.
And of course, no fault of Victoria’s that her grandchildren marrying introduced hemophilia to several ruling families.
One thinks of Russia and the effect that Alexandra’s obsession with Rasputin had on events there.
The revolution would have happened anyway, but perhaps they would have survived if the populace and the court itself had not been so disgusted with them.