I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news 19 years ago about Princess Diana, on that fateful day, 31st August 1997.
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I was in Barbados looking and feeling physically awful as I watched a thyroid disorder ravage through my mind and body. The holiday was also an attempt to fix a broken relationship having found out that my then partner had had an affair.
For some reason we had left the TV on late into the night even though all channels went off air at around 11pm because they only had one or 2 channels, nothing like the 24-hour TV and news coverage that we have today.
Suddenly the TV which was in the living room leapt into life so of course I ventured in to see what was going on because I had never known there to be late night broadcasts.
They were announcing the news of the car crash. At that stage it wasn’t known if there were any casualties. I was transfixed by the TV with a sense of surrealism that this really couldn’t be happening and that she was going to be OK . . . . Later came the surreal news that Princess Diana, the People’s Princess didn’t make it.
There is a 5 hour time difference between the UK and Barbados, so anyone who might be able to substantiate such news back in London was fast asleep.
Although I had never met her, I just followed what started off as a fairytale story alongside millions of others, I felt numb, then in denial, followed by a huge sense of loss.
I felt like the world had lost a shining light; someone who was emerging as a beacon and living testimony for being able to work through and overcome the trials and tribulations of both womanhood and humanity.
It’s as though she arrived, well, was more like thrust onto the global scene and stage formless, with no real sense of personal identity or who she was.
The crown didn’t sit comfortably at first:
Her journey through life unfolded right before our very eyes. From the image of the cute little girl with the hampster . . . . .
. . . . Through to the woman who stepped up and stepped out with style, grace, and confidence in that little black dress:
I watched her #TranceForm and evolve into a woman who had a voice, a growing sense of her own identity, and clarity about how she wanted to use her influence and power.
She started taking on what some called both ‘wreck less and downright dangerous’ humanitarian missions; from the land mines to the leper slums, to hugging what were then doomed aids and HIV patients.
She stepped up and took risks:
She also stepped down and met with people face to face at their level:
Her beloved boys in their own way have continued on with some of that work and#legacy. Prince Harry has literally at times walked in his mother’s footsteps.
Diana said that she wanted to be the Queen of peoples hearts.
I believe that she achieved it.
When she died it was as though the nations heart, and hearts around the world were broken open. She almost gave people permission to open their hearts and grieve, some like they never had before. Grown men cried on the street. Strangers expressed heartfelt grief for a woman they had never met.
The scale and magnitude of the emotional outpouring was on a scale the likes of which we had never seen before:
I found myself today contemplating what I would like my living legacy to be because I know that there are many who walk this earth only to have their legacy and an appreciation of what they did or created or contributed only materialise after they have long since passed.
I know that I want to make a difference in some way, to help transform the world, and to leave it in a better state than I found it. For me it is a journey which is still unfolding . . . . .
RIP Lady Diana Spencer
Thank you for living and speaking your truth Princess Diana, and long may your legacy, kindness, compassion, humanitarian work, and impact live on.
Marilyn Devonish ♥