We were all in our lunch period at Friends. The news traveled like wildfire. The Queen was dead.

On September 8, 2022, the world received the news from a letter hung on the gates of Buckingham Palace. 

Queen Elizabeth II had died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Her cause of death was not released to the general public. Earlier that day, many had suspected she might be near death when Buckingham Palace released a statement saying the Queen’s doctors were monitoring the 96-year-old Queen closely, as she was not doing her best. 

She was the longest-serving monarch in the United Kingdom, and had reigned for 70 years. Queen Elizabeth was born Elizabeth Alexander Mary on April 21, 1926. She was not only the queen of the UK, but also the queen regnant of 32 sovereign states, including The Bahamas, Jamaica, and New Zealand.

Many important world events happened during the queen’s lifetime. As a young woman, she experienced war between Nazi Germany and Britain. Both she and her sister Margarete stayed in Windsor Castle during the wartime, since her mother ignored the idea of them being evacuated to Canada. 

Once she passed, the UK went into a mourning period. This period lasts 12 days, in which flags fly at half-mast, the royal family flies out to Balmoral to have a private viewing of the Queen, and TV stations and blogs only show memories from the Queen’s life and news of her death.