Harriet Bunting Weld, who likes to be called "Sis," still can't believe the news that her Queen for the last 70 years is gone. She has followed her for a lifetime. "I found it very hard -- because I had been following her since she was a little girl, and when I was a little girl I used to take the pictures of she and Princess Margaret out of the paper any time they were in." 

Her aunt and uncle, who lived in England, used to send her clippings as well.  So when Princess Elizabeth of York was to be crowned Queen Elizabeth II on June 2, 1953, "Sis" just had to be there, even delaying her own wedding.  She told her young man that she would marry him, but not until she came back from the coronation.  Was he willing to accept that?  "He had to otherwise I wasn't going to marry him," Weld said.

Weld and a friend secured tickets for the coronation, and had to be in place in London by 6:00 a.m.  With their planned accommodations too far outside of the city, they slept on mattresses on the floor of a much closer suite where her mother and another friend were staying. "Well I love pomp and circumstance, and so it was exciting a to get the ticket and we got a ticket on the stalls just in front of Clarence House -- so we could see the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret and other people coming out of Clarence House the morning of the coronation," she said.

Harriet remembers the overwhelming press of the massive crowd to see Queen Elizabeth appear on the balcony after the coronation ceremony. It was such a push of people that she lost her friend in the crowd. "I had taken a bottle of champagne and the bottle of champagne was in one hand and a rug was in the other hand and I was being split in half at the end because because there were so many people."

Her connections to the crown are many.  Her memories have been sparked by watching days of TV coverage following word of the Queen's passing. After watching last Monday she said, "The trumpeter (playing God Save the King) was from the Governor General's horse guards and my father had been the Colonel of the Reserve Regiment during the war -- of the horse guards -- and he (her father) was training the troops down here in Niagara on the Lake," Harriet said.

Photos of that era line her bathroom walls. "I'm surrounded by things about the Queen and the King and I was presented one time at the races to the Queen Mother," she added.

And while volunteering at the equestrian center in Bromont, Quebec at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, where Princess Anne competed, Harriet said she was in the presence of both Prince Philip and the Queen.

So what will she remember most about Queen Elizabeth II?  Harriet said it's her elegance.  "Well I think anyone who was watching her all the time couldn't help but observe of how elegant she was and how nicely she did things and how easily -- and she put people at ease, she didn't make a big fuss about things."

But she will also remember her determination. "And the fact that she worked two days before...she was determined to meet the new Prime Minister of Great Britain, and I give her so many marks, and I'm sure she just pushed herself to make that happen."

And is she prepared to be a loyal subject of King Charles III?  "Sis" says yes.  "I'm a great admirer of his. I like the way he's always been interested in architecture, he paints," she said gesturing. "There's a picture of him, right there on the wall with my daughter and son-in-law, he's extremely interested in other people and behaves in a beautiful way and now he's got the girl that he wants with him, which is important to him."

Plans for the coronation of King Charles III are shrouded in secrecy for now, although it's expected to take place sometime in 2023. And you can bet Harriet Bunting Weld will be watching.