Dawna Friesen reflects on the Queen Elizabeth II era as the world bids farewell

Global National Chief Anchor Dawna Friesen reflects on Queen Elizabeth II's death and legacy the day after her state funeral.

It is the day after a right royal send-off for an incomparable queen, and it feels like something in London is missing.

Sept. 8, the day Queen Elizabeth II died, marked the end of the second Elizabethan era.

Her state funeral on Monday, so rich in pageantry, beauty, ceremony and soaring music, made it all final, especially as the Imperial State Crown she wore at her coronation was removed from the top of her coffin along with the orb and the sceptre. Her sovereignty over, the world watched her coffin sink gently into the royal vault at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.

The manner of her farewell matched the grace and gentle tone of her long reign. All the more remarkable, she was a woman who was not born to be queen, but who through a series of unexpected family events, became queen. Through her strength of character, she forged her way as a young woman in a world dominated by men in positions of power. Who else alive today could command the flood of love and respect she was shown this past week and stir so much collective depth of feeling?

The crowds are gone now and the multitude of floral tributes are being cleared away. Life is going on, which is precisely what the queen would have expected. She was about evolution, not revolution. This was a woman who was crowned when Winston Churchill was prime minister. She grew up in a city and a country where the past is everywhere and she was expected to keep the connection to history alive, yet make the monarchy “modern” and “relevant.”

After all, the royal story is not just fodder for Netflix, it’s a huge draw for tourism and pumps hundreds of millions of pounds into the U.K. economy every year.

The idea of inherited titles and waiting for your mother to die so you can take over her job seems not only a bit odd to those of us outside royal circles, but out of place in modern times. And there is no question a whole host of people do not feel a deep connection to the monarchy.