The last witness of an era is leaving. Lady Pamela Hicks, the confidante of Queen Elizabeth II, has died at 97 and was sent off with a ceremony just as her daughter requested - quiet, with no speeches, no sermon.

Her story is the story of the twentieth century packed into a single life. Born in a hotel room in Barcelona, the daughter of Louis Mountbatten - the last viceroy of India - she was among the first to learn that Princess Elizabeth had fallen in love with her cousin, Prince Philip. She later became her lady-in-waiting and confidante throughout the entire reign. When a monarch hides her true feelings behind protocol for decades, such people are the only ones who know what life behind the crown really looked like.

Her father, Lord Mountbatten, was killed by the IRA in 1979 - a tragedy that, according to those close to her, she forgave long before her own death. That forgiveness says more about character than any title. She married the celebrated decorator David Hicks in 1960 and had three children.

The funeral was held at the Church of St. Bartholomew in Oxfordshire. King Charles III and the Prince and Princess of Wales were absent - they were at the Trooping the Colour ceremony that day. Here lies the small, quiet irony of the monarchy: even at the funeral of the woman who served the crown her whole life, protocol and ceremony won out. Her daughter India recounted that her mother had left an envelope with a single page - a few words about how much she loved them, and one request: no speeches, no sermon.

The coffin was made of willow wicker, in the English tradition of the 19th century. Modest, natural, without splendor - the very opposite of the world she moved in. Sometimes the last gesture says everything: a woman who stood beside the greatest splendor in the world her whole life, in the end asked to leave as quietly as possible.