As the day of the funeral neared, thousands of people camped overnight along the route of the procession.

YOU arrived in central London shortly after 5am and the streets were buzzing with police, army officers and security guards. Near the abbey pavements were nearly impossible to navigate – people were sleeping rough on the streets, on wall ledges, and under trees not to miss out.

Rebecca Baker and her 12-year-old daughter, Flello, camped in tent in an alcove near the abbey and managed to get a few hours’ sleep.

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“It wasn’t too bad,” Rebecca said. “We wanted to do it to say goodbye to the queen.”

Andrea Ragsdell and her partner, Rob Childs, slept in a single sleeping bag.

“It was quite a noisy night,” Andrea said. “But there were hundreds of Portaloos around the corner and we had McDonald’s for dinner.”

Her funeral has been called a once-in-a-lifetime event and the enormity of it is unlikely to be experienced again. Her passing has triggered global grief on an unprecedented level.

“Collective grief has nothing to do with whether we knew the person,” grief specialist David Kessler says.

“That person was part of our lives without ever meeting them. Iconic figures like Queen Elizabeth become the backdrop to our lives and they also connect us to ourselves. We remember not just their milestones but how their milestones connected to ours.

“The queen dying is not only the end of her life, but it reflects our own passages through life.”

And on 19 September 2022 the body of the woman who had been that constant backdrop for seven decades was finally reunited with the people she so loved: her mother, her father, her sister – but most importantly Prince Philip, her “strength and stay” and the only man she ever loved.

As the funeral service came to an end the sounds of God Save the King rang out through those outside the church.

And when the coffin left on the gun carriage, followed by Charles and the royal family, a ripple went through the crowd: this was the last glimpse they would have of the woman who had been part of their lives for decades.

It was a moment of immense emotion and history, the scale of which will never be witnessed again.

A FAMILY IN MOURNING

The queen was always known to be stoic, rarely showing emotion in public. And her family tried to emulate that – but not quite with the same success.