Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to Buckingham Palace after hearing of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II to bid farewell to the monarch who served Britain for over 70 years.
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Among them was Dr. Imbaba Kamara, 51, who was born in Sierra Leone in Africa, a Commonwealth nation, and has lived in Britain for 20 years. She works at a women's organization and came to the palace with a large bouquet of chrysanthemums accompanied by her colleagues.
"The queen was a great source of inspiration for me, as a woman," she said, "Despite all her tremendous wealth, she remained humble and respected everyone. I brief her passing personally. When I heard she passed away, I burst into tears. I grew up with her, and my children and grandchildren grew up with her. She was like a part of the family."
Another attendee, a 27-year-old man from Hertfordshire said, "I never knew my grandparents, so the queen was like a grandmother to me. I hope that King Charles will also know how to act to strengthen the kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations."
Twenty-fire-year-old Meghan, an Aussie who has lived in London for two years, said, "The queen was always in our lives. I grew up with her. My parents grew up with her. The feeling without her is strange."
Israelis visiting London also came to pay their respects.
Rita, 66, from Haifa, and her grandson Noam, 15, said they had visited the palace a week earlier and would never have imagined they would visit it again under such circumstances.
"She was a very smart woman," Rita said, "She knew how to run this country in a way that everyone would live in peace. The world thanks her for that. I saw a sign here: 'Farewell, queen.' It gave me chills. The world has changed. I was born in Ukraine. We have come a very long way to get here and see all this. Who would have thought that I, a girl from the shtetl, could ever make it to Buckingham Palace and say goodbye to the queen of England? It's very exciting".
Yosefa and Niv, from Modi'in, were in Britain to celebrate their wedding anniversary when the news broke.
"Like everyone in Israel, we always followed news about the royal family from afar," Yosefa said. "Nevertheless, the queen had a very special status. Somewhere deep down, we also wish we had a queen, to have such a symbolic monarchy. It is rare to have a queen, and with Elizabeth's influence on politics and Britain's foreign relations, as a feminist, I cannot help but feel that this is the end of an era."
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