Platinum Jubilee live updates: Royals appear on palace balcony, minus Andrew, Harry and Meghan

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The flag-waving crowd that flocked to Buckingham Palace had a simple message for Queen Elizabeth II: “Thank you.”

A giant banner with those words was held aloft, an image picked up by overhead cameras and broadcast on giant screens outside the palace.

It seemed to sum up the sentiment of many.

“I’m going to get emotional,” said teacher Helen Critcher, 57, who had just watched the queen smile and wave at her subjects, which prompted many to rapturously sing “God Save the Queen” — even if some didn’t seem to know all the words to the British national anthem.

The queen has been “a constant for 70 years in a very changing and frightening world, someone who put duty above everything else,” Critcher said. “I think we just want her to know that she’s very valued.”

The queen, of course, is the queen of more than a dozen countries, including Canada.

“I just want her to know we’re grateful for the things she’s done,” said Pam Medjesi, 34, of Canada. Asked what that was, Medjesi said the queen was “a unifying voice who put politics aside.” She also noted the queen’s televised addresses during the pandemic. “During covid, she said, ‘This is difficult, we will get through it.’ And we were in Canada at the time and it resonated.”

Rushad Thomas, 32, a lobbyist from Maryland, flew in from the States to celebrate the jubilee.

“She’s been such a great queen, great monarch, and I wanted to say thank you,” he said.

Asked how an American came to embrace someone else’s queen, he said, “I feel like she is my queen.”



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