The silence was palpable when the imperial state crown was removed from the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II and placed on the altar of St. George’s Chapel — the first time in 70 years the dazzling symbol of Britain’s monarchy was separated from the sovereign.
My assignment covering a nation in mourning came down to parsing what those fleeting seconds has meant to this society, from the upper echelons of British nobility down to newly arrived migrants hoping to carve out a better life in a new country.
