3 Hoosiers react to Queen Elizabeth’s death: ‘This is certainly, after 70 years, the Elizabethan age’
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — People in Indianapolis are calling it the end of an age as Queen Elizabeth II died after 70 years on the throne.
“I was broken-hearted when I heard that she wasn’t doing well, and, for the palace to have made a statement, I knew that it was probably really grave because they have always been so private about health matters,” said Chelsey Wetzel, owner of Union Jack Pub.
Wetzel said when the news broke of concern about the queen’s health she knew it would not be long before the palace announced her passing.
“I think it’s just a loss of such an icon and such a stability. It’s just that through so much change in all of our lives in tumultuous things she was a constant beacon of hope in grace and dignity and just someone we could look up to for so long,” Wetzel said.
Queen Elizabeth’s reign stretched through 13 U.S. presidential administrations and 15 British prime ministers.
“During this time, the country just changed and the country as it was in 1952 is just unrecognizable to the one as it is in 2022, and I think the same could be said for the world as a whole so it’s really just a precipice in time, I think,” said Lara Kriegel, Indiana University history professor.
The queen saw the country through the Cold War, an often-turbulent political landscape and the ever-changing role of the monarchy in the United Kingdom.
“A lot of time, especially in British history, certain reigns of monarchs are referred to as ages: the Victorian Age, the Edwardian Age. This is certainly, after 70 years, the Elizabethan age. Most people have never known, never heard of another monarch in British history that they actually lived through,” said Robert Vane, a local communication specialist.
No one knows what the future will hold for the British royal family as King Charles III prepares for his coronation as the first king in 70 years.