A foreign correspondent, a consultant, a businessman, a retired accountant and his wife stand in a line for nearly eight hours.

That is how this story begins, once I claim my spot among a growing queue of mourners coming from all corners of the United Kingdom and the world to pay their last respects to Queen Elizabeth II in England’s capital.

It ends when the five of us exit the majestic hall — each in awe, in our own individual way, of the forces of change that swirl around us.

One step into the line, a volunteer named Kofi jots down my number; a wristband later confirms I am No. 3,017 in the queue.

I look back, and the chain of people has already grown by a dozen. It will stretch for miles along the south bank of the River Thames toward Westminster Hall, where the late queen is lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday.

We were told to expect this. Long waiting times, potentially for 30 hours, in lines that could stretch more than five miles.

A single-zip backpack was all we were allowed to bring; food and drink would be tossed before entering the hall. I packed as I would for a hostile assignment: Layers and waterproofs to account for the notoriously moody weather. Protein bars and a fully charged power bank. An obscene number of pens. And good shoes.

The first challenge is finding the end of the ever-moving queue. I start from the beginning, near the Albert Embankment, and work my way through the sea of humans from all walks of life who are lined up in single file.

My fellow queuers and I assess each other silently. There is Ramakant and his wife Usha, a retired pair with a passion for mountains. Daniel, a jolly businessman from Essex, specializes in office refurbishment. There is a consultant whose identity I’ve sworn to secrecy because she was skipping work to stand in line.

In the course of our normal lives, we are unlikely to ever cross paths. But the forces of history have somehow bound us together, at least for these next few hours. Quietly, not explicitly, a sense of community has mysteriously formed between us.

We have different reasons for coming. Ramakant and Usha adored the queen. Daniel admired her dedication. For the unnamed consultant, saying goodbye to the queen was something she had to do “for myself.”