Every
person is unique and no-one’s life is a mirror of someone else’s.
Princess Diana lived, loved, laughed and died... just as all of us will. Yet
some lives are painted on a larger canvas than others.
Perhaps each one who mourns for Diana sees something reflecting their own personal lives. She passed by and very few remained untouched. Perhaps some were moved to anger at the media hype but there were often words of truth in what she said as she gradually changed from fairytale princess into an individual in her own right. Perhaps the media loved her for her prettiness, her glamour, her clothes or simply because she was a Royal for so long.
I was no fan of hers at the beginning but, gradually in a world where there are few Mother Teresas (and when we know that you and I could never be like her) I used to look at the pictures of Lady Diana and become familiar with the changes in her life.
As I watched and read of her secret despair and of the frantic covering up to maintain the status quo, a chord stirred in me. No-one speaks of family trauma and only doctors, befrienders and counsellors move on that wavelength. Shh... why was Diana talking from her inner wound? It was just not done and it was unacceptable from someone at her level.
Her level? Born into the aristocracy, she who mothered her young brother and always loved children took a post as a Nanny. Nanny? By our standards, that is little better than a servant. Yet when she married the heir to the British throne, she invited her former employers and kept up her friendship with them. Disturbing isn’t it, to us who speak English and employ servants and yes, nannies (though we call them ‘ayahs’!)
Yet as Diana, perhaps from a deep psychological need to justify herself, began to share with the world her marital problems, I became more interested in this now beautiful and soignee woman who now appeared so vulnerable.
As she went through the trauma of her divorce and the battle for her children, I watched her as the modern fairtytale collapsed on the rocks of modern pressures. Infidelity, loneliness, the desperate efforts to fit the norm (a happy home ideally with a husband, wife and two children) ... what is new or strange about what happened to Diana, Princess of Wales?
She must have suffered (not even her greatest critic can deny that!), yet through her suffering she learned to speak out and to share. Perhaps it is there that so many others began to respond to what she was trying to say.
Can we who have reached mature years say that we have known no sorrow? We may not have had eating disorders or attempted suicide, yet who are we to judge what we may have done in similar circumstances?
There was only one Diana, Princess of Wales, yet each one of us so far away and never having known her, can yet spare a thought and a tear for a human being who was not afraid to cry out for help (and to give it) in a harsh and lonely world, where true caring and sharing are only among a privileged few.
LONDON-First there was the shock, followed by tributes, tons of flowers and a million cards of condolence.And now, in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, comes the money.
Donations are pouring in at a dizzying pace for Diana’s various charities in a phenomenon that follows an astonishing outpouring of love and affection that saw up to 2 million people bid her farewell as she was buried at her family estate in the village of Great Brington.
Since Tuesday, when her lawyers, reacting to popular demand, set up the Princess of Wales Memorial Fund to cope with pressure from people wanting to send money, funds have cascaded at a rate of more than $250,000 a day.
They come in sacks of mail containing children’s contributions from their pocket money - a few coins attached to handmade cards - to a $4.8 million company cheque from an anonymous corporate donor. And that is just for starters.
Big donors digging into their pockets include the singer and friend of Diana’s, Elton John, who has announced he will donate all the proceeds from the new version of the song he performed at her funeral in Westminster Abbey, "Candle in the Wind," to her charities.
On Monday, Michael Cole, a spokesman for the Harrods department store, said its owner, Mohamad Al Fayed, had pledged a total of at least $15 million in donations to hospitals that were part of Diana’s charitable work, including the construction of a new children’s facility. Mr. Al Fayed is the father of the princess’s friend Dodi al Fayed, who died with her in a car crash in Paris.
Elton John sang "Candle in the Wind," which was originally written about Marilyn Monroe, at Diana’s funeral service to a worldwide audience estimated in the tens of millions. He has said he will donate to the Princess Fund all proceeds from what the music industry predicts to be the biggest-selling single of all time when it is released. Conservative estimates suggest initial sales of $16 million but possibly much more.
"There has been a huge volume of donations," said Kate Knightley Day, an executive at the law firm handling the fund. "And the amounts vary widely."
Ms. Day said the momentum was such that she would give a briefing to the press every morning this week.
The princess was patron of about 100 charities until her divorce, when she announced she would restrict her public activities to the six categories. But with so much money coming in, a representative for the law firm said that the scope might be broadened.
Pledges and cheques were arriving at the rate of $11,200 an hour for a daily average of $268, 800, fund administrators said.
Sacks of checks are arriving at Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace, Diana’s official residence, as fast as the Royal Mail can deliver them. Most of the donors have given anonymously.
Mr. Al Fayed said he had set aside $8 million for the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, which Diana had been a patron of for some time, frequently visiting children there discreetly.
Other celebrities are joining the bandwagon, including the former Beatle Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones and Sting, who will be among 10 rock stars to perform a tribute album to Diana, according to Richard Branson, the close friend of the princess who built his fortune on the Virgin record label. The album will be released before Christmas, he said.
A Web site has also been set up on the Internet to allow people to make credit card donations. Telephone donations can be made with international credit card by calling (0990) 66 44 22 in Britain (drop the initial zero if calling from overseas).
- IHT
Flowers and flowers everywhere Thousands and thousands of people On the road cry They wait from morning Till night to see Diana’s funeral People come From all over the world To show their love and respect to her Who was lovely not by looks alone Was Diana loved that much? I never thought But when Diana’s brother spoke And her friend sang, "Goodbye, you’re a candle in the wind" I could not control my emotions Is love that strong? Yes it is, Diana has shown to the world Love has no bounds Of country, caste or creed Let us all join our hands We all should be as beautiful as Diana was from within her heart We should do service to humanity As a tribute to Diana Who was loved so much By each one of us
PARIS-Princess
Diana and Dodi al Fayed together picked out the diamond ring he gave her hours
before they died, the jeweller who sold them the ring said last week.
Alberto Repossi said in a telephone interview that the couple went to the Monaco branch of his store unexpectedly about 10 days before the accident, which would make it Aug. 19 or 20. The couple were vacationing on the Riviera.
They spent only about four or five minutes in the store, Mr. Repossi said, because they already knew which ring they wanted.
They had seen it in a Repossi advertisement in the September edition of a high-fashion magazine. Neither Diana nor Mr. al Fayed said anything in the store about becoming engaged, Mr. Repossi said, contrary to initial press reports about the ring.
But the theme of the advertisement for the ring was marriage, and the ring was designed as an engagement ring.
‘’Tell me yes!’’ was the headline on the advertisement, which featured only the one ring in a large picture. "A little yes for the most beautiful day of your life. It was worth waiting for!’’
Mr. Repossi said he had designed the ring, contrary to press reports that Mr. al Fayed designed it. It had been in the store since May and was the top of a line of engagement jewellery modelled after the ‘’cocktail rings’’ of the 1930s he said.
The picture shows an emerald-cut diamond surrounded by four triangle-shaped diamonds atop a thick band encrusted with smaller diamonds.
Mr. Repossi declined to say how many carats the principal diamond weighed or to specify the price, which press reports have put at more than $200,000.
After an alteration in size, the ring was picked up by Mr. al Fayed at the Paris store in the Place Vendome, the same square as the Ritz Hotel, about 6 pm. on Aug. 30, the day of the fatal car crash.
"He said he loved it and he was certain the princess would love it as well," Mr. Repossi said.
He declined to say whether he had sold other pieces of jewellery to Mr. al Fayed or Diana.
Michael Cole, a spokesman for Mohamed al Fayed, Dodi al Fayed’s father, said last week that the pair exchanged gifts: a silver plaque with a love poem inscribed on it from him to her, a gold cigar clipper from her to him with a gold tag inscribed "With love from Diana" and a pair of cuff links that had belonged to her father.
Mr. Repossi said the existence of the ring only came to light because his insurance policy required him to file a claim within 24 hours for losses and, despite the nature of the tragedy, he felt he had to since he had not been paid.
"Someone at Lloyd’s must have told the press, " Mr. Repossi said, referring to the insurance company. ‘’I would never have spoken of the ring if it had not already been revealed.
"My pain does not permit me to rejoice in the publicity."
The News of the World. Britain’s highest circulating tabloid claimed on the fateful Sunday of Princess Diana’s death that troubled Prince William would today demand that his mother Princess Diana dump her playboy lover, Harrods heir Dodi al Fayed.
The report billed as a Royal Exclusive said.
The 15-year-old Prince is deeply unhappy about the affair and has been worrying ever since he returned from the South of France holiday where the Royal romance began.
He plans to confront Diana when they are re-united at Kensington Palace after her latest jet-set break with the Egyptian multi-milionaire.
"William is horrified at speculation that her new relationship is so intense it may end in marriage," confided a family friend.
"He doesn’t think Mr. Fayed is good for his mother. William can’t help it, he just doesn’t like the man. And he certainly doesn’t want him as a stand-in dad." The Prince’s unease started the moment last month’s holiday with Diana, Dodi and Harrods boss Mohamed al Fayed started in St. Tropez. "Suddenly, a group of people he barely knew were acting like a sort of substitute family.
"He now feels that he was taking part in a kind of test to see how he’d react to the Fayed family." "Prince William knows publicity would surround anyone his mother met," admitted a friend. But somehow Mr. Fayed’s details seem to be a lot gaudier than most.
It is understood that Prince Charles avoids talking with his sons about the romance so he can’t be accused of trying to influence them.
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