The Death of Princess Diana

Death of Princess Diana, The


I remember being woken by a friend 'phoning very early on Sunday morning, 31st August 1997 to say that Princess Diana had been involved in a fatal car accident in Paris. As I went to church later that morning, the sense of shock and unreality was palpable amongst everyone. At once, we felt the need to express our sadness and held a prayer vigil, that was to last well into the following week, and opened a Book of Condolence, which was later sent to the Royal family.

In the days that followed, I had an overriding need to go to London to pay my own personal respects to one who, although I had never known, I felt I did know. So with my 1 yr old son, I took a bus into the heart of London, past Kensington Palace and the overwhelming row upon row of flowers surround the gates and interwoven into the railings, past the Commonwealth Institute, where the flags were at half mast and to Buckingham Palace. At the Palace I laid my tribute of red roses and we walked along the mall to St. James' Palace were the Princess' body lay, finally at rest. It hardly seemed possible that behind those walls she lay. The atmosphere around me as one of quiet, shock, disbelief and stillness as others stood staring at the tributes of flowers, candles and photographs. Everyone seemed united in a common purpose, needing to be together in grief and sadness as a way of coming to terms with the fact that one who had been so vibrant and alive was no more.

As long as I live, I shall always remember that day.

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