Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, and the Commonwealth, passed away at 96 years old at Balmoral Castle.

The Queen's influence was felt all over the world, and even small communities like ours were impacted by her presence. Carol Johnstone lived in Britain prior to moving to Canada, and she said she got to see the Queen when she was four years old.

"I went to Buckingham Palace with my Nana. It was the changing of the guard, and then she was coming out, it was the Queen's mum's birthday, and then my Nana met the Queen mum because my granddad was a stamp collector, and the Queen mum was also a stamp collector. And my Nana had my granddad's stamp collection, which was an absolutely wonderful stamp collection, and she met the Queen mom and showed her the stamp collection from my granddad," she explained.

The Strathmore Legion is flying their flags at half mast for the Queen's passing, as well as the passing of one of their own members last week. Strathmore Legion member Sylvia Westgard was also born in Britain, and while she's lived in Canada most of her life, the Queen always held a special place in her heart.

"It's a very very sad day. I thought she maybe would've lasted a little bit longer. She meant a lot to my life. My mother was raised in England, and she meant a lot because my mom and I, we really did love her. And I'm sad that she's gone. I've always respected her and watched her on all of her stuff like her coronation and everything else, I watched all that," Westgard said.

It's not just the older generation impacted; 24 year old Amanda Fulton said her entire workday paused when she heard the news.

"I feel like everything just happened so fast, and we actually ended up stopping our workday so everybody could read the articles that were coming out, watching the news and everything. It was very shocking, to say the least," she said.

For Johnstone, Queen Elizabeth was more than just another member of the monarchy. As a British-born Canadian, the Queen was a very important figure to her, so much so that Johnstone cried upon hearing of her death.

"I've never known another queen. She came to reign the year after I was born. So I've never known anything other than my queen."

With the Queen's passing comes the immediate question of succession. Prince Charles, Elizabeth's 73 year old son, is set to take the throne, but some people like Johnstone would prefer the crown went to the 40 year old Prince William instead.

"Personally, I think he should've had to do what Edward did, which was abdicate."

Westgard also hopes to see William become king.

"I do not think he should be the king. It can be handed down to William. Charles put the Queen through hell."

Fulton believes William should be the king, as Charles's age could be a concern.

"It would be nice to get somebody younger to represent everybody, it's really impressive that the Queen was able to reign for so long, but at a certain point if they're going to be making decisions for peoples' futures, it would be nice to have somebody with the current times a little more."

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