LONDON DIARY: Reflections from the queue to mourn the queen

LONDON (AP) — A international correspondent, a advisor, a businessman, a retired accountant and his spouse stand in a line for practically eight hours.

That’s how this story begins, as soon as I declare my spot amongst a rising queue of mourners coming from all corners of the UK and the world to pay their final respects to Queen Elizabeth II in England’s capital.

It ends when the 5 of us exit the majestic corridor — every in awe, in our personal particular person method, of the forces of change that swirl round us.

One step into the road, a volunteer named Kofi jots down my quantity; a wristband later confirms I’m No. 3,017 within the queue.

I look again, and the chain of individuals has already grown by a dozen. It’s going to stretch for miles alongside the south financial institution of the River Thames towards Westminster Corridor, the place the late queen is mendacity in state forward of her funeral on Monday.

We had been instructed to count on this. Lengthy ready occasions, doubtlessly for 30 hours, in strains that would stretch greater than 5 miles.

A single-zip backpack was all we had been allowed to deliver; food and drinks could be tossed earlier than coming into the corridor. I packed as I’d for a hostile project: Layers and waterproofs to account for the notoriously moody climate. Protein bars and a completely charged energy financial institution. An obscene variety of pens. And good footwear.

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The primary problem is discovering the top of the ever-moving queue. I begin from the start, close to the Albert Embankment, and work my method by the ocean of people from all walks of life who’re lined up in single file.

My fellow queuers and I assess one another silently. There’s Ramakant and his spouse Usha, a retired pair with a ardour for mountains. Daniel, a jolly businessman from Essex, focuses on workplace refurbishment. There’s a advisor whose id I’ve sworn to secrecy as a result of she was skipping work to face in line.

In the middle of our regular lives, we’re unlikely to ever cross paths. However the forces of historical past have someway certain us collectively, not less than for these subsequent few hours. Quietly, not explicitly, a way of neighborhood has mysteriously fashioned between us.

We’ve got totally different causes for coming. Ramakant and Usha adored the queen. Daniel admired her dedication. For the unnamed advisor, saying goodbye to the queen was one thing she needed to do “for myself.”

Me? I used to be curious. Dying has been on my thoughts these days.

Per week prior, I had been in southern Iraq to witness hundreds of pilgrims make their technique to the holy metropolis of Karbala to mark the Shiite spiritual observance of Arbaeen — a 40-day mourning interval to commemorate the demise of Imam Hussein, Prophet Mohammed’s grandson.

I watched an countless procession of pious Iraqis recreate scenes from seventh-century Islam beneath the scorching 105-degree (40 levels Celsius) solar. Males rode camels in Hejazi regalia and black-clad youth waved spiritual flags. Meals stalls that dotted the various miles to the shrine gave out rice and beans.

Now I’m witness to a dramatically totally different queue of mourners, there to mark the passing of a monarch whose 70-year reign encompassed the top of an empire. Not like within the parched terrain of Iraq, individuals listed here are fearful it could rain.

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The queue, noticed: Readers engrossed in thick novels. Teams of pals chatting and sharing massive bottles of champagne. A lady working towards tai chi.

“This can be a once-in-a-lifetime expertise,” Ramakant says.

Usha marvels at how Elizabeth labored up till hours earlier than she died, dealing with the transition of energy from Boris Johnson to Liz Truss two days earlier than her demise.

“Think about all of the issues she has carried out behind the scenes, within the background, none of us know something about,” she says.

They’ll’t imagine Elizabeth is lifeless, regardless of the actual fact they knew she couldn’t dwell without end. “Did you discover her fingertips?” Daniel says of Elizabeth’s final look two days earlier than her demise. “They had been see-through nearly, weren’t they?”

We’re silent, listening to the mild soundtrack of the Thames.

It’s a very good factor, he provides, that she died quickly after Prince Philip, her husband of 74 years. It had been the identical together with his dad and mom; they died inside two weeks of one another. “It’s the most effective demise, actually.”

The advisor geese to keep away from a TV crew. Later she scrolls social media, hoping to not discover herself on worldwide information broadcasts. A colleague calls, and he or she tells them she is simply “getting lunch.”

I ask: Why not simply inform them you might be right here?

“It’s simply a kind of issues I need to do for myself, and never have to elucidate.” ___

Abruptly, the road is shifting. The queen’s coffin has arrived within the Corridor.

All the things that follows is the epitome of order. The road snakes rapidly across the financial institution, right down to the embankment, the place we watch boats cruise by. Earlier than us, within the late-afternoon solar, the gothic advanced of Westminster glimmers.

Ramakant was an accountant and has spent his retirement years touring the world together with his spouse. From Niagara Falls to Mt. Kilimanjaro, they’ve been all over the place. “The important thing,” says Usha, “is to not wait till tomorrow.”

“You is likely to be lifeless,” Ramakant says. To our left is the Nationwide COVID Memorial Wall, with one coronary heart for every life lived and misplaced.

The advisor has to make use of the lavatory, however the line is now shifting quickly. So we share our location together with her and, moments later, wave once we are many yards forward and are reunited.

On the remaining stretch, we eye the safety test simply earlier than the corridor entrance. We’re shocked by how briskly the road has moved. A lady behind me complains to the volunteers who come to remove drinks: “I’ve acquired 30 hours’ value of alcohol in right here!”

Ramakant is stopped from taking off his footwear earlier than the X-ray. “This isn’t like Gatwick!” jokes one policeman, invoking the title of certainly one of London’s airports.

Contained in the corridor, all falls silent and nonetheless. We glance up on the lofty wood-beam ceilings. We glance down, and there it’s — the queen’s coffin on a raised platform, surrounded by honor guards. On prime, the imperial state crown glitters with its 3,000 diamonds.

The road divides in two, and every of us is given three seconds to pay final respects. A person in a tartan and strolling stick salutes. An aged lady rises from her wheelchair and makes the signal of the cross. Daniel will get on one knee. Ramakant and Usha bow their heads. Then it’s my flip. Outdoors, the solar is setting.

“We in all probability would by no means have met if it weren’t for this,” Daniel says afterward. Everybody exchanges numbers. “Even in demise, she’s nonetheless doing her work.”

Complete time elapsed: Simply over 7½ hours.

Ramakant turns to me. “So,” he says. “What is going to you write about us?”

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Samya Kullab, Iraq correspondent for The Related Press, is on project in London masking the demise of Queen Elizabeth II. Observe her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/samya_kullab