The queen and her people

And so the day nears when Queen Elizabeth II will be sent off with a funeral unlike any the world has seen since, well, King George VI died in 1952, triggering her ascent to the throne for the next seven decades.

That London-stopping event happens Monday, Sept. 19. In the meantime, tens of thousands of Brits will get the chance at a more personal farewell to their queen as her body lies in state at Westminster Hall. 

I'm Marco della Cava, onetime London bureau correspondent for Paste BN, and watching those stirring moments as the queen's coffin was marched across town Wednesday instantly brought back memories of the throngs of Londoners who materialized in the streets after Princess Diana's sudden death in 1997.

Our continuing coverage of this extraordinary event includes details on the coffin's procession through London, complete with a somber royal family, many dressed in military regalia, trailing behind. We learned that a choir sang Psalm 139 as the queen's body entered the fabled hall, and that the horses pulling the raised black platform on which the queen's body rested, known as a catafalque, were trained to not be startled by selfie-snapping mourners or tossed flowers.

With the queen's body now lying in state, her subjects will have three more days to pay their respects around the clock. And the condolences continue to come in from throughout the world, with President Joe Biden, who met with the queen at Windsor Castle last year, placing a call to King Charles III ahead of the procession, expressing both his sorrow over the loss of the queen as well as his hopes that the two nations would "continue a close relationship." We've got a roundup of a range of tributes from the queen's family here. 

- Marco