(WXYZ) — As tributes for Britain's longest-serving monarch continue to pour in, residents of Windsor are feeling the loss of the queen.
Queen Elizabeth II visited Canada 22 times during her reign.
"I was in elementary school. We all had to march down and walk about a mile down to the main road where she was going to be passing after arriving to Windsor airport," Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkins recalls.
Queen Elizabeth II reigned for 70 years making her “the queen” for not just Dilkins, but the generations before and after him.
She had been leading the British commonwealth since just after World War II.
"To be honest I thought she was never going to die. I thought she was almost immortal," one woman said.
The world’s relationship to the British monarchy and its history of colonialism is complicated.
"The queen represented to a lot of people here an outdated system. A system people were trying to get away from."
But most Canadians 7 Action News spoke with are feeling great sadness in the loss of an icon.
"It's very sad. People in Australia are portraying the same feelings," Jenny Nolan, a visitor of Windsor said.
The queen’s image is all over Canada including at Queen Elizabeth II's sunken gardens in Windsor.
Nolan remembers seeing her majesty in person at Buckingham palace.
"She came in the car right beside me with a couple corgis in the back and I was really amazed at how little she was in real life,” she recalls.
A little woman with so much influence and such a lasting legacy.
In Windsor, Mayor Dilkins tells 7 Action News that the city has planned a vigil in honor of the queen.
