Montrealer lights up TikTok while standing in line to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II

Thousands have lined up for gruelling hours to pay their last respects to Queen Elizabeth II in London, U.K., and one Montrealer is standing out among them. 

Thousands have lined up for gruelling hours to pay their last respects to Queen Elizabeth II in London, U.K., and one Montrealer is standing out among them.

Michael Henderson, 49, was filmed during a BBC livestream of the service while lining up, wearing a white T-shirt with a red maple leaf on it.

But what caught some people’s attention was the picture he was clutching in his hands.

“I had a small picture of my mom…. This is her graduation picture from Concordia University,” said Henderson, who stood in line for 10.5 hours. “The cameraman on the BBC camera decided to zoom in…. How it got to TikTok after that, by the way, is beyond me.”

Someone appears to have filmed the television screen and posted the video to the app with the caption “carrying a photo with him of the person who should have been there.”

The post has made the rounds and gartered tens of thousands of likes, with people wondering what his story is.

“I wanted to pay my respects for me but also for my broader family and for my mother,” Henderson said. “My mother was British. She always appreciated the queen, the monarchy and as anybody in the U.K. will tell you, she was everyone’s mother and grandmother in some lovely kind of way.”

His mother, Illoma Anne Carr, was born in Leeds and later immigrated to Canada, settling in Westmount, Que., where Henderson grew up.