In Littleton, a weekly tea gathering becomes a contemplation of Queen Elizabeth's legacy
LITTLETON, Colo. — Inside a small business on Littleton’s Main Street, a table is covered with pots of tea, cups, and various plates filled with pastries, cakes and muffins. A group of British women have been gathering here weekly for the last decade to sip and spill the tea, literally and figuratively.
“We love a cup of tea,” said Sylvia Lambe with a laugh. She’s from the United Kingdom and has lived in Colorado for five years. “There are different types of food here that we have that are traditionally British, and [this is] a time for us to get together to remember where we came from.”
For the Sept. 9 gathering, though, around 30 women from the group used their weekly visit to commemorate — and contemplate — the life and legacy of the late Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away a day prior at age 96.
“Today I would say is a community therapy session. It’s feels therapeutic. My friends who are living here in Denver, we have a common experience and it’s important that we remember we’re away from home, and that we have family back in the U.K., but we miss them and understand what they’re going through,” said Lambe.
Lambe said she has conflicting feelings about Queen Elizabeth II. She feels a connection to the queen and a sense of patriotism — along with so many other people from the United Kingdom — but as a British-born Black woman, Lambe says she must also consider what the monarchy has represented to so many people of color across the world.
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“I’m Black and I’m British, and [Queen Elizabeth II] was the head of the commonwealth. The commonwealth was born out of colonization,” Lambe said, explaining that her parents emigrated from Ghana and Barbados (both former British colonies) to the U.K. before she was born.
"[The commonwealth] was an empire that oppressed my parents and my forefathers and so I’m conflicted on that level, but at the same time, there is humanity. This is a woman who — it was like she was part of my family and part of a wider family of the U.K.”
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Queen Elizabeth was on the throne for 70 years. Lambe said she can’t help but feel respect for the longest-serving monarch in British history. Elizabeth's reign was the second-longest of any monarch in history (Louis XIV ruled for 72 years, starting when he was 4 years old) and the longest reign for a female head of state.
“To me it’s something that you find with people who are on their way out and in the twilight of their years," Lambe said. "They want to hold on to certain milestones until they feel they can let go. She was going make it to the platinum jubilee. She was going to make it this week to usher in the next prime minister, and I think at that point she was like ‘I’m done, drop the mic.’”
Brian Willie is the content production manager at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can contact him at brianwillie@rmpbs.org.
Dana Knowles is a multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS and can be reached at danaknowles@rmpbs.org.