Britain's preparations for this funeral have kept the Queen very prominently in the news and thoughts of the world in the 10 days since her death.
In Britain, the outpouring of popular affection for the Queen has seen people waiting in lines day and night to pay their final respects. Ten days was not enough time to admit all who wanted to join the queue.
The pictures of the line, stretching along the south bank of the Thames from Tower Bridge to Westminster, will long remain in the memory of everyone alive today, as will the grand, dignified and moving ceremony we watched via worldwide television and video links overnight.
The attendance of heads of state, leaders and representatives of so many countries in Westminster Abbey attests to the worldwide interest and respect the Queen has preserved for the British monarchy in a post-imperial era.
As commentators have noted, Britain is no longer the most powerful or prosperous country in the world but its Queen was unexcelled in global esteem.
And now suddenly she has gone. Really gone. The crowds will disperse, the flags will come down and the news is returning to normal. Life goes on as it always does but does not seem quite the same.
Even the uncertainty we expected to eventuate at the Queen's death is perhaps not as certain as it seemed before the event. It feels quite possible today that the future of the monarchy may be stronger for the demonstration of popular affection on the scale we have just seen, and not just in the United Kingdom.
For the first time, the countries of the Commonwealth that retain the monarchy are being called "realm countries". That was not a term many of us had heard before but it feels comfortable.
We ceased recognising ourselves as a "dominion" of Great Britain early in the Queen's reign. A "realm country" better describes us.
Our usually light-hearted "Sideswipe" column yesterday featured a crude little memorial someone had placed outside the Auckland Town Hall. It was just a chair draped with a sheet bearing a frame with a picture of the late Queen blue-tacked crookedly on the front.
It's a sight that should cause civic leaders a twinge of guilt.
Auckland has no well-known monument to Elizabeth II, no public place that would have been a natural focus for people to offer floral and other tributes.
Perhaps it is not too late to erect something to mark the passing of our longest-serving, unfailingly gracious, and forever memorable, Queen.
