Peta Credlin: It’s hard to imagine a world without Queen Elizabeth II

As the shock and numbness of the Queen’s death gives way to more mundane concerns, I hope that we will cherish the memory of this wonderful woman who gave all of her life to others.

It’s fitting that so many of the tributes to our much-loved late Queen recalled her 21st birthday broadcast – “My whole life, be it long or short, will be devoted to your service” and to that of the “great imperial family to which we all belong”.

Much has changed, indeed society is almost unrecognisable from the post-war world she knew when she ascended the throne, but every day of her life, to the very last, she was true to that pledge.

When the news started to seep out on Thursday evening that she was unwell and that word “comfortable” was used – which, anyone who has lost a loved one knows, spells the beginning of the end – the emotions started to flow.

Then came reports her family were by her side and our worst fears were confirmed.

The Queen on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations last June. Picture: AFP.

Even the announcement of her death didn’t seem easy to grasp, despite her great age, because it’s hard to imagine a world without her constant presence.

It’s no wonder that millions of us here in Australia, and billions the world over, feel bereft now that she is gone.

It’s hard to imagine we will ever see her like again.

Duty until the end – Liz Truss, whom she swore-into office on her penultimate day on Earth, was her 15th British prime minister. She had 16 Australian prime ministers and had met 14 US presidents.

She was the embodiment of history, a symbol of continuity and stability in a constantly changing and often chaotic world.

Through it all, she exemplified the wartime motto: Keep calm and carry on – like the Auxiliary Territorial Service volunteer that she became as a second subaltern in March 1945.

Through triumphs and disasters – global, national and personal.

The Queen at the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW showgrounds in Moore Park in 1954.

And so often, she had just the right message, such as “grief is the price we pay for love” after 9/11; “we will meet again as friends” in the depths of the pandemic; the most-apt “recollections may vary” in response to claims of racial slights; and the beautiful words after the Queen Mother’s death which serve equally well now: “I hope that sadness will blend with a wider sense of thanksgiving, not just for her life but for the times in which she lived.”

She never forgot that she was Queen of Australia and Head of the Commonwealth, as well as the monarch of Great Britain.

Her first visit here was epic by any standards. In 1954, she visited 57 Australian towns and cities in 58 days as part of a six-month global tour in which she travelled 43,000 miles, made 157 speeches, had to endure 276 speeches by local dignitaries, and is thought to have been introduced to 13,000 people. Three quarters of our then population of under 10 million were thought to have caught at least a glimpse of her.

She left us with this message: “The Crown is a human link … an allegiance of love and respect and never of compulsion.”

In her 15 subsequent trips, she displayed again and again her affectionate regard for this country, which she said, for those “who seek wider scope for their talents and resources … may well seem the Promised Land”.

Only a pessimist, she declared in the presence of our then-PM Robert Menzies, “would set bounds to its future”.

At one level, she was immensely privileged, yet she never took any of that for granted. Indeed, those closest to her say she was at her happiest with her beloved dogs at her feet or striding out across open fields in clothes of a countrywoman.

Fate determined her life would belong to others after the abdication of her uncle and she gave us her life wholeheartedly.

As the shock and numbness of her passing inevitably gives way to more mundane concerns, I hope that we will cherish the memory of this wonderful woman and continue to set before ourselves her example.

In a world that’s full of self-important people and often obsesses over trivia, she was wonderfully grounded and focused on the things that really matter.

In a world inclined to panic over imagined catastrophes, her view – inspired by Christian faith – invariably was that “this too shall pass”.

And in a world that rarely counts its blessings, let’s take a moment to give thanks that she lived in our time and that we, ourselves, lived in her Elizabethan age.

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