With four words, Liz Truss, who as British prime minister, has been in office for only two days, is entrusted with the most difficult of tasks, marking the end of the second Elizabethan era.
Her remark - made at the conclusion of a brief speech marking the passing of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday - was startling not only because only Britons beyond seventy can remember ever hearing the phrase in public before.
It also marked the end of an era in which the queen became a global icon of leadership, despite - or perhaps because - she was not a politician. In many ways, her influence was simply based on the fact that she was there year after year, decade after decade - always.
And now she is gone.
During her 70-year reign, wars, crises, tragedies and political scandals, pandemics and recessions came and went.
She ascended a throne that wavered under the tremors of a crumbling empire. She died with the kingdom she held together, which threatened to splinter as she disappeared into Scotland, where enthusiasm for independence is growing.
Elizabeth presided - aloof, dutiful, but ever-present - over a turbulent age of women's liberation, growing gay rights, deindustrialization, and immigration that changed the face of her country. From the Cold War to the Civil War in Northern Ireland, Britain's entry into and acrimonious exit from the European Union, and the confusing convulsions of a globalized economy, the queen remained unmoved - a final link to the national mythology of heroes forged during the Great War II.
From the days of black-and-white television to color television, to the Internet age, to the ubiquitous mobile devices used by mourners to take selfies outside Buckingham Palace after her death, the Queen was a constant presence.
Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, John F. Kennedy, Mao Zedong, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Pope John Paul II - all reigned and went down in history during the Queen's long reign.
Almost everything in the world has changed beyond recognition since the day in 1952 when she learned in Kenya that her father George VI was dead and she was queen. But Elizabeth, stoic and formal, was always there and always the same.
Her death, quiet and somehow sudden, even though she was 96 years old, has removed that bastion of permanence and firmness - just at a time when Britain and the world seem more disoriented and volatile than they have in decades.
King Charles III inherits a nation divided, economically on the ropes, and bracing for a terrible winter as high energy prices and inflation caused by the new Cold War confrontation with Russia over Ukraine take a heavy toll. A second superpower conflict with China is brewing. And the extreme heat that scorched Britain last summer during the Queen's Platinum Jubilee heralds a climate catastrophe that could be particularly dangerous for the island nation.
Charles, who - like President Joe Biden in a slightly different context - has waited most of his life to assume his role as head of state, faces the impossible task of quickly restoring the leadership and stability his mother provided for seven decades. After the long years of waiting, he has often seemed unfulfilled, and the bitter failure of his marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales, his sometimes pointed political pattern, and his slightly quirky character mean that he is not yet as popular as the queen.
For nearly three-quarters of a century, Elizabeth was the monarchy - earning reverence and respect even from a minority of subjects who viewed the divine right of kings and queens as an absurd anachronism and the broken marriages and misadventures of the queen's children and royal retainers as a retrograde symbol of a modern nation. Most Britons never knew the monarchy without them.
A sudden wave of republicanism seems unlikely, but the new king and his heir apparent, Prince William, the new Duke of Cornwall, will have to reshape the institution for the 21st century if it is to thrive or at least survive - probably in a slimmed-down form.
Abroad, the queen's passing could have equally consequential implications.
After a period of reflection, Commonwealth countries where she was head of state, such as Canada and Australia, whose young populations have diversified far beyond British ancestry, may wonder if it's finally time to cut the last ties to the homeland.
And Britain's post-Brexit quest for a role as a mid-sized world power will have to continue without its most valuable foreign asset - a ruler who was the world's most famous woman and whose absence most people on the planet could not remember. In a sense, she was part of everyone's life - a figure recognized and remembered for generations on a continuum that has now ended.
A worldwide wave of mourning
In Britain, the Queen's absence will be distressing. Her head is on almost every coin and stamp. People who have turned 100 have received a telegram from their monarch. On Christmas Day, after the turkey and holiday feast, people will settle down for the traditional royal broadcast, and a new king will appear.
Reactions to her death underscored her reach.
A moment of silence was observed at the US Open and the lights on the Eiffel Tower went out. Presidents, prime ministers, and monarchs sent messages of condolence ahead of the state funeral in London, which is sure to be the highest-profile gathering of heads of state and government in decades.
The many expressions of sympathy were a testament to the longevity that made her a global figure. Elizabeth's paramount role in politics and her decades-long presence in the world meant she could transcend party lines and connect with successive generations and governments of different party affiliations. When anyone outside Britain spoke of "the queen," no one asked "which queen?"
But not every nation wanted her. After all, her office is an enduring symbol of empire and colonial oppression. A number of states have deposed her as head of state, including Barbados last year. Although the queen rarely slips up, her excessive commitment to duty and the stilted conventions and repressed emotions that surround the crown may have damaged her family and her nation.
For example, it was impossible for the queen's sister, the late Princess Margaret, to marry her lover, Group Captain Peter Townsend because he was divorced and the monarch was also head of the Church of England.
The queen's apparent indifference to Diana's death in 1997 led her to misjudge the mood of her subjects and to be coaxed into a televised address.
The queen's death could trigger a new review of Britain's complicated constitutional arrangements and political system, beyond a possible new push for an independence referendum north of the border.
Britain may be a far fairer society than it was at the time of the 1953 coronation, but the royal family still props up a class system that some Britons find oppressive. The gun carriages and cavalrymen in the ceremonial dress that will be seen at her funeral cannot hide the fact that Britain is a faded military and diplomatic power.
Yet Elizabeth was beloved by millions in her country and abroad.
Her high-level political skills were marked by the tedium of endless foreign travel, the banal small talk of official visits home, and the stifling protocol of state dinners. And she was respected not just because she was famous - she is certainly the most photographed woman in human history - or simply because she stayed in office longer than anyone else.
The queen was constitutionally prohibited from engaging in partisan politics, but she was nonetheless an exceptional politician.
Nicholas Dungan, associate professor at Sciences Po in Paris and CEO of CogitoPraxis, a business and leadership consultancy, said Elizabeth embodied the highest elements of disciplined, professional leadership.
"You don't need political power to be a leader. You don't need hard power to be a leader. You need personal power to be a leader," Dungan said, defining the essential qualities of a leader as self-control, integrity, and vision, all of which he said the queen displayed. "Her gift may be the inspiration she gives us for the future, as well as the service she gave us during her lifetime," he said.
In her younger years, representing Britain abroad, Elizabeth brought glitz and glamor. Later, as a great historical figure, she radiated experience and wisdom. That's why even the most powerful men in the world - U.S. presidents - seemed a bit overwhelmed when they met her.
"As we were just beginning to navigate life as president and first lady, she welcomed us with open arms and extraordinary generosity," former President Barack Obama said Thursday, adding that he and his wife Michelle were impressed by the queen's "legacy of tireless, dignified public service."
Former President Donald Trump was also impressed when he met the queen at Windsor Castle in 2018.
"What a great and beautiful lady she was - there was no one like her!" said Trump in a statement Thursday.
Many Americans remember the queen for her steadfast and swift response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when the U.S. national anthem was played at the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and she comforted traumatized British allies by saying, "Grief is the price we pay for love."
A skillful leader
Elizabeth's political acumen was evident in two episodes toward the end of her reign. In 2011, she became the first British monarch to travel to Ireland since independence - an extremely delicate trip given the historic hostility expressed by her position and the sectarian battles between Unionists and Republicans in Northern Ireland. However, her visit was a great success, repenting for the excesses of the British colonial power and helping to reduce mistrust between London and Dublin.
In another gesture of reconciliation, the queen a year later shook hands with Martin McGuinness, a former leader of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the Troubles in Northern Ireland who became deputy first minister after a peace deal. The IRA had murdered the queen's beloved cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten - a father figure to the new king - with a bomb aboard his boat in 1979.
A decade later, the queen taught another lesson in leadership during the pandemic. She mourned, masked and alone, at the funeral of her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Her willingness to share the loneliness of her people at a time when gatherings were restricted contrasted with the drinking bouts and parties behind closed doors at 10 Downing Street that set off a chain of events that led to the fall of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
In a special message from Windsor Castle, the queen promised her subjects, isolated at home, in April 2020, amid the deepest misery of the Covid-19 emergency, that normal times would return. "We will meet again," she said. She poignantly echoed the wartime lyrics of the soldier's love Vera Lynn, recalling the role of the royal family in maintaining national morale during the Great War II, when she was still a young princess while encouraging a new generation of Britons to succeed in their own finest hour.
Britain is now in a prolonged period of national mourning, and her admirers around the world are getting used to the strange feeling of living in a world where the Queen is no longer there. Of course, English kings and queens have lived and died for a thousand years. Charles is not the first monarch to wrestle with a difficult legacy to follow.
Courtiers, in an age-old tradition, sought to ease that transition and emphasize what supporters see as the monarchy's strongest attribute - a sense of continuity and stability that elected politicians can not provide - with the simple obituary posted on the gates of Buckingham Palace Thursday night.
"The Queen passed away peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon," the black-bordered notice read.
"The King and Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and return to London tomorrow.
