Farewell to the queen — Long Island mourns Britain's Elizabeth II

Elizabeth Schmid of Huntington always found it difficult to envision her native United Kingdom without Queen Elizabeth II on the throne.

And with good reason. Queen Elizabeth II, who died Thursday at age 96, was the country's longest-serving monarch, reigning for seven decades, beginning two years after Schmid's birth.

“She has been there all our lives,” said Schmid, 72, who was born and raised in England. "[We] sort of thought she was indestructible and would last forever.”

Schmid said she heard of the queen's death while at a town beach Thursday afternoon with her daughter, who is visiting from England. She recalled an uncommonly relatable queen — someone who assumed her role after Britain emerged from World War II, battered but triumphant.

A queen who, by the time of her coronation in 1952, defined the nation’s determination to recover, to “keep calm and carry on,” Schmid said. “She was admired for her restraint and in many ways for not seeming overexcited and flappable.”

Pillar of stability

Across Long Island, British expats like Schmid, business owners, religious leaders and everyday citizens mourned the queen as a pillar of stability and decency through decades of social, economic, religious and racial unrest.

“I remember her coming through the town I was born,” said Peter Burnside, 86, chief and secretary of the Mineola nonprofit Long Island Scottish Clan MacDuff, who grew up in Ayrshire, Scotland. “We had nothing but the deepest respect for her as queen. She’s been, whether you like royalty or not … the ideal mentor for her family.”

Barbara Hendrie, originally of Bellport, recalled the day in 2010 when the queen pinned a medal on her during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace. At the time, Hendrie was a senior civil service officer in the British government's Department for International Development.

“I remember her dignity and the sense of being in awe of someone who devoted their life to service, and kept faith with that in a consummately professional way," said Hendrie, who serves as director for the North America office of the United Nations Environment Programme. "The symbolic responsibility she carried on her shoulders was immense but she never let it show. She was unfailingly courteous and managed to stay on her feet for several hours on end.”

Simon Doubleday, a Hofstra University history professor who grew up in Bath, England, said one hallmark of Elizabeth’s reign was the stability she provided her nation during a turbulent period of a shrinking British Empire, 15 prime ministers and the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union.

“She has been queen for a tremendously long period of time," Doubleday said. "That period has witnessed tremendous change. That’s really the key thing. When she came to the throne … Britain was just emerging from the second World War. The normal story is we won the war. The reality is we came out of the war economically fragile.”

Doubleday sees difficult days ahead for the queen’s eldest son and successor, now King Charles III.

“He doesn’t have his mother’s charisma. He doesn’t have her popular touch," he said. "She was good at dealing with a wide array of people. I don’t think he is. He doesn’t have the kind of affection among the British public that she does.”

Critical role model

Queen Elizabeth visited New York three times during her 70-year tenure, although she does not appear to have set foot on Long Island.

She first visited in 1957 with her husband Prince Philip, who died in 2021 at age 99, taking in the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty. The queen would return in 1976 for the nation's bicentennial celebration, stopping for lunch at the Waldorf Astoria, tea at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights and tying up traffic on Lexington Avenue as she wandered the aisles at Bloomingdale's. She would return to the city one final time in July 2010, addressing the United Nations, placing a wreath at Ground Zero and opening a garden dedicated to British citizens who died on 9/11.

With Elizabeth's death, said Bishop Lawrence Provenzano, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, the world has lost a critical role model.

It's “the passing of an individual who for more than 70 years represented an expression of loyalty, grace, service, that was exemplary to Anglicans worldwide,” Provenzano said.

The Episcopal Church in the United States is part of the Anglican Communion but operates independently of it, he said. The queen — or king — appoints the head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop of Canterbury. The Anglican Communion is the second-largest body of Christians in the world, with 85 million followers.

Provenzano attended a church conference in England this summer that brought together 650 Anglican bishops.

“We were all aware of the fact that when the next … conference happens she would no longer be the queen,” he said.

The Rev. Phil Macaulay, an Episcopal priest from England who is visiting the Diocese of Long Island for several weeks, said the queen’s death was a blow on several levels — the loss of a head of state, a beloved “grandmotherly” figure, and “someone that represents such constancy” in a world of turmoil.

“Her death feels like a marker to delineate the rapid change we’ve seen over the previous decades,” he said.

Expected, but 'still a shock'

Long Island business owners with British roots — far from home in a country without a sense of a monarchy's meaning — struggled to absorb news of the queen's passing.

"She's had a huge impact," said Antonio Trozzo, originally of Berkshire, England and the owner of Kensington Pies of East Meadow, which makes British pork pies and pastries. "She was loved by everyone around the world and a lot of people came to the U.K. to visit to see her; to see her palaces, which brought in a lot of tourism and a lot of wealth for the country."

Simon Joseph, who runs Across the Pond in Port Washington, which imports smoked salmon from London, said friends and family in Britain were calling all afternoon, reminiscing and consoling one another.

"As an American, it's very hard to understand what effects the monarchy has on the British public," said Joseph, who is originally from London. "You have a prime minister, but it's the queen that has ruled the whole of my life."

Glenn Treacher, whose family owns Robinson’s Tea Room, a British-inspired restaurant in Stony Brook, said while Brits knew this day was coming, the news hit hard just the same.

"It was expected but it's still a shock," said Treacher, who was born in Wales. "The queen was pretty well loved by everyone. So it's a sad day."

Barbara Miller, a native of the U.K. who lives in Port Washington, said she was heartbroken.

“I admired her terribly and I’m very, very sad that she’s gone,” Miller said. “It’s horrible. It’s sad.”