The sense of grief was overwhelming on the streets of Amman and throughout Jordan yesterday as testament to a much-loved monarch. The capital city is being bedecked with black in anticipation of a huge funeral for King Hussein.
However, the public manifestations also betray deep concerns about the future of this state, which has few natural resources and is vulnerable to predatory neighbours.
"It is like I have lost a member of the family," said Mr Jabir alHassan, a mourner who joined the thousands outside the clinic where King Hussein died.
"I have come down to show solidarity with my king and to show that all us Jordanians are sad at the death of our great king," said Ms Shamira Kuwar, an accounts assistant from the city of Salt. Tears streamed down her face as she spoke.
"We hope that the king's son will follow in the footsteps of his father and be a great leader for the Jordanian people," said Mr Sa'ad Hattain from Kerak in the south of the country. Asked if he was worried about the future without King Hussein, he shrugged his shoulders.
"Of course. He was a wise man among fools. I hope his son has been listening and looking at his father. The Middle East is full of fools," he said.
As the day wore on those waiting outside the hospital became more willing to discuss the limitations of their new monarch.
"He is only 37 years old. I am worried that he does not know enough about politics and I am worried that neighbouring countries will take advantage of him," one elderly man said.
As a state specially formed for one family, Jordan is unique. It is a colonial creation, invented in 1921 by the British as a home for the Hashemite family, ousted from their traditional lands surrounding the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in the Hejaz region of what is now Saudi Arabia.
King Hussein created a nation out of the disparate groups of Bedouin tribes that inhabited what is now Jordan. Later, waves of Palestinian refugees from the wars that created modern Israel swelled the population.
King Abdullah is in a good position to exploit his popularity with both these groups.
The Bedouin tribes control the army and, as a former serving general, the new king is extremely popular. Palestinians are pleased because the king's wife, Princess Rania, was born of Palestinian parents in Kuwait. They feel they have a representative in the palace.
But the new king will have great difficulty persuading Palestinians that the 1994 treaty with Israel was a good idea.
Many Jordanians have never accepted the peace agreement. Among the more radical elements of the Palestinian population the treaty is regarded as treachery.
They believe the king was naive to accept a final agreement with Israel in the absence of a settlement with the Palestinians in the occupied territories.
As it is, Jordan has peace with Israel, but the Palestinians squeezed between the two countries are as miserable and vulnerable as ever.
Although the Palestinians and Jordanians fought a bitter civil war in 1970, because King Hussein felt the PLO was attempting to control the state, some continue to believe that West Bank-based, PLO-supporting Palestinians still have designs on Jordan. The longer Israel denies them a proper homeland, the more these suspicions persist.
King Hussein had to fight wars with both Israelis and Palestinians before making peace with them.
These are only the most immediate concerns for Jordanians. Syria has been making unfriendly noises in the last year, and Iraq and Saudi Arabia have proved to be fair-weather friends on other occasions.
King Hussein's son and heir will undoubtedly have to prove his toughness in a region where swagger and machismo are demanded of leaders.