SCRANTON, Pa. — As people all over the world join in mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II, a Scranton resident shared her experiences with the monarch.
Ro Hume grew up in Australia, a constitutional monarchy that viewed the Queen of England as its symbolic leader.
Hume said that as a child, she dreamed of becoming a royal princess and that feeling only intensified when she saw the queen for the first time.
"The queen was like a fixed point in a moving world," Hume said.
Hume has lived in Scranton for the past decade, but she grew up in Australia, admiring Queen Elizabeth II. She was let out of her kindergarten class for the queen's first visit to her country.
"We grabbed our little British flags, and we lined the road. I can close my eyes and still see the open car coming past with this dream princess waving to us," Hume recalled.
It wouldn't be the last time Hume would see Queen Elizabeth. Her father, a World War II hero, served as an honorary escort to the queen during her visits to Australia. Hume was there as the queen opened the Sydney Opera House in 1973.
"My father, at that stage, was in the state government, and we had seats on the steps of the opera house as she walked down the steps, probably as close as I am to you, and officially declared the opera house open."
Hume says she will never forget Queen Elizabeth's grace and her ability to address commoners and world leaders with equal respect. The void she leaves behind, she says, can never be filled.
"This is a very sad day. It's sad for all of us. It's sad for those of us who can remember the death of the previous king because, somehow or other, our mortality is extraordinarily vivid. For those who have known no one but the queen on the Throne of England, it's like a prophet is going to be knocked out," she said.
"I heard one of my British friends refer to her as 'everyone's granny,' and whenever a granny passes, the world is a little bit less," Hume said.
Hume says the queen has been a fixture in her life and in the lives of all citizens of Australia, the country where she grew up. The weight of her loss is just setting in.
"Not only is she leaving a nation of grieving subjects, her people, she's leaving a grieving family. She's leaving three sons and a daughter, grandchildren, great-grandchildren. Having lost my mother at the same age, 96, you're never ready."
The world she leaves, Hume says, is far different from the one she entered 70 years ago, and her death could bring further change.
"It will require and adjustment from everybody in Britain, in the Commonwealth, in Australia. The affection that we had for Queen Elizabeth may not transfer completely to a new King Charles."
Now, Queen Elizabeth's family is left to shoulder the load left by her majesty's passing.
"Her family, particularly her four children, are going to feel not only their personal loss, but they will have to carry as well the grief of their nation. "