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Last Thursday I flew into Singapore for a conference. As I turned on the TV in my hotel room, the news was discussing concern over the queen’s health. I felt anxious but reassured that she was said to be comfortable. Tired after the long journey I soon fell asleep. In the middle of the night a friend sent a text which just said `so sad.’ My heart sank at the news and I couldn’t get back to sleep. The organisers of the conference had spent months planning for everyone’s visit and I was grateful for their welcome and hospitality. But all I really wanted to do was fly back home to Scotland, to find some solace in being near Balmoral where the queen had died. I was thousands of miles away and there was no-one here, no community with whom I could share this sudden pain. As the day went on I felt overcome with sadness, realising that grief can be as inexplicable as love. But gradually my hosts began to share their own reflections on the queen’s reign, her elegance, popularity, her duty to her country and the affection in which she was held all around the world. They wanted to light a candle in her memory and several began to reminisce about their own recent loss. And as we talked, I realised that death doesn’t have to make us feel completely powerless, that in sharing and remembering with others, even with people I had only just met, I could find healing and even moments of joy. And this sharing has been on display in thousands of cards and flowers, in the long queues of people on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile yesterday to the even longer queues which will form in London in the coming days – people feel that they knew the queen and simply want to pay their respects. I know that when I return home, things will feel different even though the daily routine of life will quite rightly go on as before. People have their own struggles and pain just now. The Islamic emphasis on life’s beauty and cruelty, its transitory nature, is still an encouragement to live and move forward, do good, find meaning and purpose in the gift of life. So much history, tradition and ceremony still awaits us over the next few days. As the nation looks forward to the new reign of King Charles III, alongside the prayer for his good health lies the hope that he too in the words of Maya Angelou will be like the `soul who brings us together again and again.’