The Queen of Drama and Intrigue leaves us today.

Anna Nicole Smith’s service and burial ceremony is set to take place in the Bahamas in the grandest of fashions. With a guest list of 300 people, it is said to be a private, but lavish affair bathed in pink, Anna’s favorite color. Country singer Joe Nichols will be performing “I’ll Wait For You” and “On The Wings Of A Dove” as requested by her partner and lawyer, Howard K. Stern. The ceremony is said to be closed casket, which in light of the length of time since her death, is a good thing. Sadly, this means we won’t be able to see the pink dress designed by Pol Atteu and his partner Patrik Simpson, close friends of Anna, who have designed several dresses for the former Playboy model and Trimspa spokesperson.

Pink flowers, pink dress - or - in other words, a hot pink mess of tackiness, just the way Anna would have wanted it.

The coordinator for the ceremony allowed each of Anna’s closest of kin to invite 100 guests to celebrate the life of one of the more colorful celebrities in modern history. Determining that guest list lay on the shoulders of the now famous trifecta, which includes, Virgie Arthur, Anna’s estranged mother, Larry Birkhead, Anna’s most recent and prominent lover and heir apparent to Anna’s baby Dannielynn, and last, but certainly not least, Anna’s confidant, lawyer, Svengali, pimp and supreme glommer on, Howard K. Stern.

Here is a timeline of today’s events:

A timeline of the events:

5:25 a.m.: The motorcade arrives at the Broward County Medical Examiner’s office. Local law enforcement will escort the hearse containing Ms. Smith’s casket to the Miami International Airport, where it will be flown by private plane to The Bahamas. Media may line up on either side of the street to pay their respects as the hearse passes.

9:00 a.m.: Private plane arrives at Million-Air Airport in Nassau. Customs will be cleared and the casket will be transferred to a hearse. Motorcade transports Ms. Smith’s casket to Mount Horeb Church in Nassau.

10:10 a.m.: Richard C. Milstein, Guardian ad litem, makes a statement to the media at Mount Horeb Church.

10:30 a.m.: Church service begins.

11:30 a.m.: The family leaves the church for a private graveside service.

11:45 a.m.: Graveside service begins.

The controversy surrounding the death of Anna Nicole at age 39 has only deepened the gap between the public persona and the private person that was Vickie Lynn Hogan. The stories of multiple lovers, moral misconduct, drug addiction and paternity battles have created a barrier that prevents us from seeing the good in Anna Nicole. And yes, there were many good things about her. She, like most of us, was a complex creature. So in honor of Anna Nicole I would like to present a list of the warm and kind things about Anna that we might have forgotten.

Anna loved her son Daniel more than anyone or anything. Her last will and testament stood as an example of her love as she left everything to him. Which, in the end, may be a large sum of money. Despite being surrounded by every manner of leech and most likely, not in a state fitting to make appropriate decisions, she managed to never allow her final wishes to be undone. Most certainly to the chagrin of all those who wanted Anna’s money. Sadly, neither Anna nor Daniel were ever given the opportunity to enjoy those fruits, despite the bizarre nature of the labor. With Anna’s son Daniel, dying at age 20, just three short days after his sister Dannielynn was born, it was evident that her happiness would be short and bitter-sweet.

I also believe that in some twisted and tacky way, Anna’s tattoos of Dannielynn and Daniel were in her mind a way to bring these two souls she cared about so deeply, together in some eternal way. She said she wanted to have Daniel with her at all times after he died, and this was her perception of eternal togetherness. It might not be how you or I would have chosen to honor our children, but there is no denying that Anna loved her children. The most beautiful pictures I have seen of Anna are of those her with her children. She was not a saint, in fact, she was clearly damaged. But she was also not without merit - and that merit was her undying love for her kids. Noble, in whatever bizarre form it took.

A true testament to how you lived your life, is how your passing touched others. Many people loved Anna and she brought out a very nurturing, tender side in even the toughest of people. Anna’s bodyguard Moe, a registered paramedic and friends talks about Anna’s final minutes:

“You know, it was kind of sad that, you know, Anna, I mean although I feel like I’m her brother, that I treated her like a brother that she didn’t really have any real family member in there during that time, I was in the actual E.R. room when they was pushing her with drugs and trying to revive her with CPR and all of that. And the doctor came to me and told me that [I] was the only family, I guess, she had around that did I want them to stop. My first thought was, I believe she needed a — some type of priest or a chaplain. I asked for the chaplain of the hospital to come. And it took about 15, 20 minutes, the chaplain wasn’t there, so I just asked them could I lay down — lean down and say a prayer, so, you know, I said — I gave her — I’m no priest, but I gave her what I thought were her last, you know, last rite and I prayed for her. And then, you know, told them to just let her go be with her son.”

The most endearing sentiment came from the least likely source, Larry Birkhead. Despite being ensconced in a paternity battle that had no reasonable end in sight, it was clear to me and many others, that Mr. Birkhead had tremendous feelings of care and concern for Anna Nicole, his estranged lover and most likely the mother of his child. This is how Birkhead said goodbye to Anna at the morgue:

Birkhead became the most emotional when he described saying his final goodbye while viewing Smith’s body in a Florida morgue last week.“There was something she made me say every night before she went to sleep,” Birkhead said, tears spilling down his cheeks. “I said, ‘Good night my sweet Anna baby.’ That’s what she wanted me to say to her every night before she went to sleep.”

And what remains as Anna Nicole’s final legacy, is her daughter, Dannielynn, and if Larry Birkhead has his way, she will know the true depth of Anna’s character:

“I just want her to know all of the good stuff. I want her to know that she was a great person,” Birkhead said. “She was a loving person. She loved kids.”

So what will happen to Dannielynn Hope Smith? There are rumors that Larry Birkhead and Howard Stern are in negotiations that will determine the child’s fate. If rumors are true, Larry would get custody of Dannielynn and Howard would remain executor of Anna’s estate.Which seems fitting, as Anna’s money was all that Howard wanted and Anna’s baby is all that Larry wanted.

And what do I want? To live in a world where we can appreciate a character like Anna Nicole Smith for what she was; an accidental comedian, a vivacious celebrity and possibly one of the most misunderstood public figures of our time. And maybe, just maybe - to hear the faint chiming of bells as one more angel earns their wings.