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I suppose one can say this was my John F. Kennedy moment that my parents had. “Where were you the Day Diana died?” This became the question similar to what they were asked: “Where were you when Kennedy was shot?”
I remained transfixed to the television throughout the night. I waited to hear the familiar thud of the newspapers hitting the door outside at 6 am and quickly went to grab my New York Times and Chicago Tribune. Emblazoned across the front were the words: Diana, death, Paris, tragedy and a whole host of others I cannot recall.
So I ask now: “Where were you when Diana, Princess of Wales died?”
Sunday in Bath by Jessica Hope
Although I was only a toddler when Diana died, I do have some blurred memories of the confusion and sadness that the people around me felt at the time. Recently, I asked my mother about how she heard about Diana’s death and she recalled the events of that memorable day to me.
Waking up to the radio on a Sunday morning, my mother could hear reporters discussing the death of someone prominent in the news. It was only shortly after that they revealed Diana’s death in a car crash in Paris. My mother, who has always been a supporter of Diana’s work and the Royal family, was naturally shocked and deeply saddened. She quickly turned on the television and watched the news coming in on all of the channels.
After going to work later that morning, everyone couldn’t stop discussing what they had learned on the news in the early hours of Sunday. What my mother can clearly remember from this day is looking out of the window in her office during the afternoon and finding that the whole sky had filled with thick grey clouds and turned the darkest colour possible. Call it a sign, pathetic fallacy or simply a coincidence, but this moment has stuck with her ever since as it simply summed up the sadness everyone around her felt that day.
After returning home from work, the television channels were constant, back-to-back reporting of the events in Paris and my family didn’t stop watching the news all evening. The feelings my mother felt on that day have stuck with her since, even 17 years on, and her sadness over Diana’s death has passed onto me.
Sunday in London by Ellen Couzens
I was 13 when Diana died, only a few months older than Prince Harry. I grew up in a royalist household so was always very aware of and interested in the Royal Family. Diana was constantly in the news – I’m not sure that people who don’t remember the 1980s and 1990s in Britain can have any idea of how often Diana’s picture was in the papers and magazines and on the television. Nothing today is comparable.
So when I woke up on that grey, Sunday morning in 1997, turned on my radio and sat in bed listening, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. For a start, there was constant dreary, depressing music on my favourite pop radio station. I can hear it in my head even now. Every 15 minutes or so, it was broken by a solemn newsreader announcing that overnight, Diana had died in a car crash in Paris. I thought it was a joke. I even wondered for a few seconds how anyone could think a joke like that was funny. Then I realised it was real.
I went downstairs and into the sitting room where my parents were watching the news. In the days before we had 24-hour rolling news channels, it had to be a big event for the news to be on television constantly. I just remember feeling numb, very sad, and glued to the television, although everything had happened whilst I had been asleep and there wasn’t any new news being said.
Eventually, we, as a family decided that we should carry on with our plans for that day, which had been to go to Greenwich and take a boat trip along the Thames. I can remember now, as if it was just yesterday, being on that boat, and seeing all the flags on buildings in London at half-mast, and the Captain saying over the tannoy “Thank you to everyone for being with us on this sad, sad day.” It was eerie, the grey sky, the silence and the sadness around everyone.
Photo Credits: das_sabrinchen, Pulseman and Maxwell Hamilton via photopin cc]]>
I am 4 years older than Diana would be today, and I remember the first time I laid eyes on her when she became engaged to Prince Charles and was in People magazine in her blue engagement suit. I quickly became a Diana fan and bought everything I could get my hands on. Of course I got up early to watch the Royal Wedding and rejoiced when her two little princes were born, mourned the collapse of her marriage and hoped she would find true happiness someday. So, when I saw the news reports of the car accident in Paris and shortly thereafter that she had died, I couldn’t believe that it was even possible that such a beautiful Princess could be taken so young. I don’t know why, but it seems so often that such special people , like Diana, live short lives. To thus day I often wonder what Diana’s life would be like now if she were still here.
I remember this day as clear as it was yesterday. I was living in Burlington, Ontario and it was a Sunday morning. I was up getting ready for a sound check because I was going to be singing in the morning and while I was in the process of doing my make-up etc my Mum called from Mississauga, the first words out of her mouth were ‘what are you doing, you need to sit down’ so I did and she started crying on the other end, I asked her ‘what is wrong’ and she told me that Diana was dead, I thought this was a cruel joke and proceeded to tell her that but she told me it wasn’t. Coming from a British family we are very Royalist and staunch supporters of the Princess of Wales so immediately I looked outside and it was soooooooooo grey and rainy that I almost felt like cancelling the rehearsal/sound check but knew I had to be there so in a daze I left home and drove an hour heading to Toronto. When I got there it was once again announced about Diana’s death and once again…I started bawling. You see, not only is my family British but 2 of my closest friends were security guards at KP (Kensington Palace) and while I lived there I had an exclusive security pass to enter the Palace anytime I liked therefore I had seen Diana out of the public eye at times and she was such a warm, gentle person…..in private also so immediately after performing I was on the phone for 3 days trying to book a flight home but it was hard getting a flight because over 80,000 Canadians were flying over for the funeral. Thankfully, I managed to get a flight and I was gone….. Being front lines at the funeral was to this day the saddest, most heartbreaking experience and day of my life… :'(
I was watching a favorite program on late-night TV at home here in Atlanta, when the first reports came in at around 1:30 am local time. When I heard the early reports of the accident, I said a prayer for Diana, hoping her injuries wouldn’t be too serious. But soon afterwards there was confirmation that the doctors had been unable save her, and I felt like a member of my own family had died.
I always felt like I knew her, although of course I didn’t. I never met her nor did I ever see her with my own eyes, but she was special to me in a way I can’t put into words. I always kept myself informed as to where she was, and what was happening in her life, and hoped things would work out for her.
Later when I read that the decision had been made at Balmoral that night not to wake William and Harry, I realized that I had known about Diana’s death before her sons had been told. Our modern world with instant communication makes such things possible, but it gave me an odd feeling.
In France attending a wedding…all the French guests knew what had happened but I didn’t until my host arrived at the hotel and told me. I was so shocked and in tears and phoned home then had a difficult day with everyone of the French guests seeking to give me their condolences…in French. It was truly awful in this two bit French hotel without TV…..when I finally arrived home the whole country appeared to be seething with discontent and sorrow and fury….they got that one wrong certainly in the royal family…..I have never known such a sense of unrest.
i was at home in bed with flue Daughter phoned me at 5 30 am from Australia i cried all day but made sure i was in London on the first anniversary laid flowers at Kensington Palace gate it will stay with me forever