On August 31, 1997, 18 years ago today, Diana, Princess of Wales, passed away in the early morning hours. Do you remember where you were when you heard the news? Sophia and I were in Florida, Vic was on deployment in South America and when the phone rang very late at night,I thought it was just another instance where he hadn't paid attention to the difference in time zones. It was my friend Denise in California, however, calling to ask if I'd heard the news. The first time we met, years ago, Denise and I found that we had a common interest in the British Royal Family and we had kept in touch over the years, always talking about the Royals, Diana in particular. I turned on the television and pretty much stayed glued to it all week as there were countless programs about her life and the worldwide reaction to her death.
This is how I will always remember her, a loving, doting mother, lavishing her sons with all the love that had been missing in her young life and sadly, in her adult life as well. She became the People's Princess, but she was first and foremost, William and Harry's mother. She was right when she said in her Panorama interview that there had been three people in her marriage but the one who should never have been there was Diana herself. Of course, if there hadn't been Charles and Diana, there wouldn't have been William and Harry.
I don't begrudge Charles and Camilla the happiness they found. They should have been together from the beginning. She's done a lot to soften him up and make him more in touch with the people, and she has risen above the people's animosity and become an integral part of the Royal Family.
I remember being woken by a noise, I am not sure what it was. I had been to a party and had come home late so I really wanted some sleep. However, I was really thirsty and made my way down stairs for a drink of water. On a whim I decided to switch on the TV. In those days we only had 5 channels. BBC News was on and a big breaking news story that Princess Dianna had been in an accident in Paris. Roughly 5 or 10 minutes later the news broke that she had died. I ran up stairs and woke everyone in the house up. I put on the TV in my parents room. To be honest I was never really a big fan of Princess Dianna but she did do a lot of good work and I would never have wished her dead. I was so shocked that a member of the royal family could die that way. x
ReplyDeleteWe were in the Seattle visiting friends with K, who was just a month old. The headline came over his new pager...and we thought it was a technical glitch with the software. I just remember standing in their living room, holding K and being quite sure it was a nasty rumor.
ReplyDeleteLovely post, Pamela. Ashley woke me up, the day after a close friend's wedding, with the news that Princess Diana was dead. I even remember the words he used 'Diana and Al-Dodi are dead'. He was never very good with names!
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