DENVER — As people in the U.K. and beyond mourn the death of Queen Elizabeth II, those far from home in Colorado are also grieving in their own way.
"When I heard, I felt I was prepared for it, but you're never really prepared for death, any kind of death, even if someone's been ill for a long time," Sylvia Lambe said.
She left London for Denver about five years ago, but the news of the Queen's death is as impactful today as it would've been then.
"This is the end of an era. I've only known the queen. She's been the head of state forever," Lambe said.
While it may be hard for some Americans to empathize, Lambe says we have to look at the queen as someone who served her people in a bipartisan way for seven decades.
"You can only respect somebody like that, who has that sense of duty to their country, to their nation, to their people, to their subjects, to their citizens," she said.
Patrick Forgarty, a British ex-pat and employee at GB Fish & Chips on South Broadway, questions what will happen next.
"It's sad. It's an end-of-an-era kind of thing," he said. "Everyone loves the Queen. Everyone just loves her. Like, she's always been there. She's always been cool. It's kinda like when your grandma dies, you don't know what to do kind of thing."
People were coming to the English restaurant throughout the day Thursday, Forgarty says, to have an authentic meal in honor of the Queen.
"Brits, Africans, anyone from the Commonwealth comes here. Jamaica, New Zealand, Australia. Everyone comes here to buy meat pies, sausage rolls, that kind of thing," he said.
While there's division across the pond, just as there is here, Lambe hopes, in some way, the Queen's death will bring them all together.
"I think the collective mourning, in a strange way, has come at the right time," she said.