North country residents share their connections with Queen Elizabeth II

CARTHAGE, New York (WWNY) – As the world mourns Queen Elizabeth’s death, north country residents reflect on their special connections with the woman who reigned for 70 years.

With a return address to Balmoral Castle in Scotland, royal mail is delivered to Carthage.

“I can only imagine the people at the post office, watching this letter going out to Buckingham Palace, and a letter coming back from Balmoral Castle,” said Joe Brosk.

It was a love of corgis that brought the queen of England and self-proclaimed “old guy living in Carthage” Brosk together.

He sent her a letter and a photo of his corgi, Murdoch, to the queen in 2014, thanking her for sharing such a personal part of her life and her love of corgis with the world.

Brosk was flabbergasted when he got a response signed by the queen’s lady-in-waiting.

“That means the queen was sitting on her throne and the lady-in-waiting beside her said, ‘Oh, look at this cute little puppy,’ and the queen looks at the picture and says, ‘Here’s what I want you to say,’ and so the lady-in-waiting fires off the letter,” said Brosk.

In Norwood, Julia Colbert has played the tenor drum for almost 20 years. After just one year of playing with the South Glengarry Pipe Band in Ontario, she played for the queen at Balmoral Castle.

Not only did she play for the queen, but she spoke with her.

“She stopped at our little group and said she was so thrilled to see so many women playing in the pipe band. We asked her why that was, and she said because in her day, women weren’t allowed to play in pipe bands,” said Colbert.

She says she remembers how gracious and kind she was speaking with a room full of 150 band members. She remembers how thrilled the queen was to learn Colbert was an American playing in a Canadian band.

“She was just thrilled to hear that our two countries were working together,” said Colbert.

Both Brosk and Colbert say they’ll cherish their interactions with the queen and were saddened to hear about the death of a woman who meant so much to the world.

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