As a 21-year-old Queen-in-waiting in 1948, Princess Elizabeth made a promise to her people: "I declare before you that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service, and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong".
That promise epitomised the reign of Queen Elizabeth. She devoted her whole life to the people and to her Commonwealth. She was the most popular Royal of all time. Accessible, walking amongst us on Royal Tours, talking to her people and seemingly taking an interest in others' lives.
I am told I first saw the Queen as a toddler in my grandmother's arms on Waterloo Bridge in Lower Hutt on the 1953-54 Royal Tour, waving my little Union Jack as she motored past. I, of course, have no memory of that. But I did get to see the Queen again on a few occasions during subsequent tours.
Our Queen, through her compassion and inherent goodness, was a certainty during some of the most turbulent times in recent history. She was a rock through all those awful events of the late 20th and early 21st century, the Cold War, real and ongoing possibility of nuclear Armageddon, economic crises and disaster.
We would listen to her Christmas address on the radio and then, when television arrived in New Zealand, watch her Christmas message every year, a reassurance of sanity and order in our world.
Queen Elizabeth ruled with few missteps for which she was quickly forgiven by a loving audience.
Her tardiness in publicly acknowledging the death of Princes Diana, the People's Princess, is the most marked but we forgave eventually. Sadly the People's Princess, in another, happier life, could today have been Queen Diana, still probably a dearly loved Royal.
In 1952 Britain still had an Empire, fading though it was by then. Many New Zealanders who were second or third generation still referred to Britain as "Home". New Zealand was, in those days, Britain's farm, the most like Britain of all her "white colonies".
The Queen's portrait hung everywhere. Royal patronage was eagerly sought for public and private organisations. We still looked to Britain as our reason-to-be.
How things have changed. Those changes have been made with the co-operation and, indeed, at the instigation of Her Majesty. The Empire transformed into a Commonwealth of Nations, a collection of 56 countries bound by political association.
Surprisingly, apart from the United Kingdom, there are only 14 states in the Commonwealth that remain realms with the ruling monarch as the head of state, New Zealand, Australia and Canada being three.
With the passing of our Queen, this could change. There is republican sentiment in many of the realms held at bay by the popularity of Queen Elizabeth II, a benign monarch who reached across all cultures.
With the Queen's passing will that sentiment well up in some of the realms of the Commonwealth? King Charles III has big shoes to fill and at 73 years of age, when most men are comfortably settled into curmudgeonly retirement, he has a new job until either the end of his natural life or until he decides to hand over to Prince William, now Prince of Wales.
Hardly a prospect most 73-year-olds would savour.
Of course, the continual goings-on among certain other members of the Royal Family hardly endear the institution to its international public. Inherited wealth, privilege and entitlement show through with one or two, sadly.
The tabloids and magazines love all this but it detracts from the lifetime duty and memory of the Queen and her promise made in 1948 as a young 21-year-old princess facing a lifetime of duty and work.
Time will tell no doubt. Farewell Your Majesty. Rest in peace.
