Dear Editor,

It was with great sadness that I learnt today of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.

The first time I saw The Queen was on our black and white TV in 1981 while watching the wedding of Princess Diana and then Prince Charles, who will soon be crowned King Charles III. I was in high school and my mom woke me in the wee hours to view the wedding of the century, as she called it. The Queen was travelling in a royal carriage.

The second time was when she visited Jamaica in 1983 at a procession in Liguanea when she came to view her loyal subjects, and the last time I saw her was when she visited The University of the West Indies during early 1994. In fact, I recall her pausing for a moment to speak to my younger brother who was in primary school at the time.

She seemed to have been a pleasant and caring person. Her reign was the longest for a monarch in British history. In fact, a friend of mine just reminded me that it is such a coincidence that today will mark 53 years since the Jamaican currency became decimalised and we decided to use our own currency.

The passing of Queen Elizabeth II will definitely be a sombre moment for the United Kingdom and the rest of the Commonwealth. As the media noted, it is the end of the “Elizabethan era”.

We look forward to the reign of King Charles III as this generation has never witnessed a King rule England. This should be very interesting.

Daniel Morgan

dmorgan239@gmail.com