A few days ago, the Kingdom in which I was born, raised, and grew up, where my children were born and raised, where my grandparents lived and died, went into mourning for the loss of our Queen. We have known nothing else for 70 years and the new ruler will have big shoes to fill - if you listen to the majority of her subjects.
If you trawl Facebook and other social media, you may get a different slant on things. Some people are determined to not be moved by the historic events unfolding.
Some people say things like this:
Quote I'd rather pay my respects to all the elderly in nursing homes forced to die alone to be honest. And all the veterans homeless on the streets that risked their lives for her. /Quote
That's all well and good - IF you go out and actually complete that promise - I don't believe even half of those that say this will go out and do that.
Others are even more disrespectful about the whole process. I shake my head and wonder where compassion went. To spout vitriol about a murderer or sex-offender is more understandable, but Queen Elizabeth - in my opinion - didn't deserve such disrespect upon her death. Her family should be afforded the basics that we as English have come to expect - the right to mourn privately for our departed loved one. The royal family are not afforded even that. The whole funeral and mourning is publicly projected onto screens across the world, for all to see.
If you look at this from the country's point of view as a whole, it's the end of an era - whether you 'liked' her or not. There are lots of countries that don't have a royal family and though it's not as easy as it was, there's the chance to go to one of those countries, learn their language, accept their culture and integrate. Or go to another royalist country, where the royal family is different.
Personally, I look forward to the new era and remain hopeful that it will be progressive and maybe less exclusive - while also knowing in the back of my mind that little will change.
Today it is the funeral for an extremely public figure who gave her private life to her country. I think she and her family deserve at least the sympathy for their loss.
The Queen is dead. Long live the King.