DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — Social studies teacher, Chris Sorrell, and his group from Carroll High School were on a school trip in the United Kingdom when they ended up in the right place at the right time.

They thought they were stopping at Windsor Castle before heading to mass on Easter Sunday 2017.

“We were, through a series of unlikely events, accidentally admitted through a particular gate because someone believed we were there for the service, whatever that meant,” Sorrell recalled.

Little did they know they were about to be just several feet from Queen Elizabeth II.

“Then a Bentley pulled forward, and the Queen stepped out and went in to her Easter service,” Sorrell said.

Sorrell said it was just his group of about 20 students, teachers, and parents, along with paparazzi. They were able to listen to the Easter service from the lawn of Windsor, and pray and sing along with the Queen and her family just on the other side of the chapel.

“Then at the end of the service, about an hour, we had a wonderful time in the sunshine, enjoying the Queen’s Service. She came back out. She waved at us. I think she knew there wasn’t supposed to be anybody on her lawn that day,” Sorrell said.

Sorrell still cannot believe their luck that day; it was a chance encounter everyone hopes to make when they travel across the pond.

“‘Maybe you’ll meet the Queen,’ is what people kind of send you off with when you’re on the way to London, and we were that million to one shot where yeah we did see the queen,” Sorrell said.

As people around the world mourn the death of Queen Elizabeth, Sorrell will hold on to these memories a little tighter.

“It was a sad day, but she certainly lived a full life. And we were lucky enough to have our moment with perhaps the most famous and recognizable person of the 20th century,” Sorrell said.