Queen Elizabeth II was 96 years old, and her body could no longer go on.
Even so, on September 8, 2022, from her bed at Balmoral Castle, she asked for the last red box of state documents to be brought to her. Inside was a list that only she could sign: the new names for the Order of Merit, the United Kingdom’s most exclusive honor, reserved for just 24 living people worldwide and decided solely by the monarch, without government involvement. That same day, just hours before her death, the queen signed with her own hands the names that, days later, her successor would read aloud to the world.
She also left two sealed letters: one for her son, now King Charles III, and another for her private secretary, Sir Edward Young. The contents of both remain a secret to the world to this day.
Hours later, at 15:10 on that September 8, Queen Elizabeth II passed away. Her biographer Robert Hardman summed it up this way: even on her deathbed, there was work to be done. And she had done it. 🕯️
