New Yorkers keeping Queen Elizabeth in their thoughts after news of her health

NEW YORK — The news of Queen Elizabeth’s health is sending shockwave not just through England but also through New York City, where Americans and Britons alike share fond memories of her visits over the years. 

As CBS2’s Tim McNicholas reported, it’s a solemn day at Tea & Sympathy in Greenwich Village. The British restaurant and shop is where royal enthusiasts often go to celebrate major events, like the queen’s platinum jubilee earlier this summer. 

Customers and staff alike are clinging to the hope that her majesty’s health improves. After all, she’s been a fixture for decades. 

Queen Elizabeth last visited New York City in 2010, when she addressed the United Nations and laid a wreath in memory of 9/11 victims at the Ground Zero site. 

Tea & Sympathy co-owner Sean Kavanagh-Dowsett said he fondly recalls catching an in-person glimpse of the queen during that visit and feeling, “extra British.” Today, he’s feeling extra sad. 

“Really sad. Desperately hoping she’s going to be OK. She’s been such a fantastic monarch, leader of the country, inspiration,” he told McNicholas. “I think more than any of the royals, since she really displays a concept of noblesse oblige. With a position, goes the responsibility.”

Her majesty also visited New York in 1957. In another visit in 1975, she even went shopping at Bloomingdales. 

So generations of New Yorkers with fond memories of those visits are keeping the queen in their thoughts. 

Tim McNicholas

Tim McNicholas is a Morning Insider reporter for CBS2 Chicago.