03 September 1997
I read your essay on the loss of Princess Diana and was truly moved. I agree with you that in life she was there, yet seemed untouchable. But now in death, her beauty and presence haunts us with grief and sadness. She will become immortal, as you said, just like Elvis and John Lennon. Always remembered with reverence.
Her acts of humanity and humility will be forever lost. She gave to everyone, yet took so little in return. She believed in the underdog. As someone said on a TV report the other day, if she was a Roman Catholic, she would most likely be put up for Sainthood. In fact, I believe she was an Angel in a mortal body.
Janene Homann
Mah@onaustralia.com.au
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
03 September 1997
My name is Dawn. I am from Singapore. I agree wholly with what you have written. Upon learning of her death, I did feel the pain of losing her, and realized how much I respect her.
Goh Sien Hiok
g482@pacific.net.sg
********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
04 September 1997
Hi. I just wanted to comment on your essay. I was impressed with the thought you put into your essay, though I do not share your viewpoints. I think part of our differences in views come from age. I'm looking at the grief issue from a 47-year-old angle, and though I don't know how old you are, I sense that you are somewhat younger than I. When I was in my 20s, I tended to put "famous people" up on some lofty peak. I don't know when or why the change came for me, perhaps it was just wrestling with the day-to-day problems (insode ourselves and outside) that we all face. But somewhere along the way I came to see "them" as being just like me but with perhaps different experiences, but they struggle with the same issues that I do, and if they present anything different to the world, then they're deceiving us and themselves. That's why I think Princess Diana so caught our attention (be it ever so gradually) because she had the courage to present her human side, the side that we all have. When she got on TV and discussed her problems with bulimia and her marriage, that was a very human presentation. We started to see her as someone who who could be our sister, daughter or friend. Then she began getting involved in humanitarian issues -- that was very courageous, stepping outside the area where she was expected to go. That was just plain gutsy. And inher stepping outside, we saw the very real personal side of her, and I believe that is why we are so grief stricken because we saw someone who was in the limelight and who had the guts to be a real person and to reach out and extend love to other people. There are too few prominent people like that in the world, I feel.
That is why I don't feel that the British gestures of grief are hopeless. They're full of hope, actually, wanting to carry on that same idealism that they saw within Diana and that they saw lacking within the main core royalty. And I think they're sending out a message to the aristocracy, have been sending out a message for a long time, and if the aristocracy is wise, they'll listen.
Best wishes to you. Jeanette in Portland.
RONWDIX@aol.com
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
05 September 1997
Your essays truly say what so many of us feel.
Thank You, Nickolas
ncga@inetworld.net
**********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
05 September 1997
Hi I'm a 22 year old girl from Holland.
It seems I'm reading my own feelings though I would never find the right words for them. Thank you for being so openhearted with us. It helps to know that there are people who share exactly the same feelings I have. In daily life you never get any further with anyone than: "What a shame she died"; "Yeah, did you hear that story?"; "Well, I saw the Queen a minute ago..."; "I saw Charles wearing a skirt...".
I don't like people with such small minds.
They only talk about other people.
I like people who live: who acknowledge pain and sadness as well as happiness as it is all a part of life...
Keep on thinking and writing the way you do!
You can be proud of yourself for being so honest.
Greetings Angela
audionet@xs4all.nl
************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
05 September 1997
Goodbye, Diana. I didn't know how much I admired you, loved you, even, until you were gone.
Since the accident which took your life, I have been struck by your loss, by the tragedy, by the senslessness of your death. I can make no sense of it, but surely there must be a reason that makes sense to someone -- to God, I hope.
I am a 56 year old man, living in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, and I feel like I have lost a member of my family. Never before have I experienced anything close to this sense of loss, upon the death of someone I did not know personally. But somehow I feel that I do know you personally, and I feel such a sense of sorrow and loss that I felt compelled to write these thoughts to you.
God bless and keep you, Princess Di. I shall remember you and keep you in my prayers.
Tom Grace
tjgrace@worldnet.att.net
************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
06 September 1997
I loved your words and I loved Princess Diana now we must become a part of her and go on with our lives as she would have wanted.
Jack Kotrba
kotrba@lkdllink.net
************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
06 September 1997
I am a 13 year old young woman. I am deeply moved at Princess Diana's life, and how she spent it in the flash of a million cameras. This is a marvelous page. I just finished watching her funeral knowing almost nothing about the Princess of Wales. Now in these few couple of days, all these tributes and remembrances of her short and "hunted" life. She truly is the People's Princess and the Queen of Hearts and her legend will never be forgotten.
Crystal Miller
Crys@jps.net
************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
06 September 1997
I too, just as you, don't understand. It's early Saturday morning, and watching the ceremony, I don't understand why my cheeks are so wet, and why a box of tissues is now half empty. Perhaps we all feel empty.
I saw her once -- actually a dozen times over several days -- when she and Charles were at the Orient Hotel in Bankok. I was within a very few feet of her numerous times as they came and went to function after function. She would look into the very small crowd, and once, her eyes met mine, but only for a moment.
Yet that doesn't explain a thing. She was a phenomenom, and as such, our feelings may always remain unexplainable.
Your site, as a tribute to a phenomenal Lady, is very nice. And let me say that I am extremely impressed with you; so few people today can write a coherent sentence, much less compose an essay that exudes such feeling. Thank you.
Terry Taylor
terry@ttaylor.com
************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
06 September 1997
Thanks for a moving and thoughtful essay. I too have been dumbfounded by my own grief for this stranger to me. I heard another person comment about how, when a neighbor died whom he had known and been acquainted with, he had felt less sadness than when he had heard of Diana's death. He was bewildered and confused. You have put it so well when you wrote:
"We looked at her for so long, but we never saw her. And now that we have lost her, we realize we never really had her at all."
But it seems to me that our inexplicable grief is because we did see her, and we connected to her in visceral, deeply human ways, only we didn't realize it until she died. We have been connecting to her since we have known her, and now these connections have all been simultaneously broken, and we feel adrift, vulnerable, and wounded. When she was introduced to the world as a beautiful, shy twenty-year-old, she was every person's fairy tale and we connected -- if not to her, to the yearning to believe in the possibility of living "happily ever after." We wanted that for her and for ourselves. We connected, too, when we realized that anyone with a brain would know that a twenty-year-old is clueless and naive, and could not possibly have forseen what life would be like married to a stiff and retentive egoist. We all understood that she couldn't have easily found happiness, yet she couldn't have ever seen that. For similar reasons we all have in our own lives, we connected.
We connected when we saw her spirit to break out of the oppressive, burdonsome royal yoke and reach out to all the people in every walk of life--and not as a scripted PR campaign, but heart ot heart, for we ourselves have felt the rage and impotence of witnessing unbearable outrage on our TV screens and yearned with our hearts to be able to help. We connected when we saw her naked human suffering and weaknesses. She was subject to the same emotional and mental trials as we are, and she wished to end the pain of unmet needs and unfulfilled dreams. We were touched to learn of the severity of her private struggles, which she bore with grace, for we all bear our own private tragedies. As she pulled herself up by her own bootstraps with poise, courage, grace and always charity, and as she bore the burden of divorce, losing her title, royal pressure concerning her maintainance, parenting and conduct, and endless harassment by the paparazzi, we connected again. And, of course, we connected when we saw the mature, complete woman rise above her struggles, choose to love and give, and finally to find hope with a new love as she embraced adulthood and its paradoxes. To recognize, in one single "we interrupt this broadcast" instant, that this heroine of humanity and symbol of silent triumph would be robbed of her final success and final reward, was blunt trauma to the soul. We cry for her, but we also cry for ourselves and for each other because our hope and optimism is shaken, and we fear that our dreams, too, may never come true. I cry because I am awestruck and overcome by the images of thousands and thousands of saddened and shaken people, each with his or her own life archtypified by this gentle Princess. My heart fills with understanding, humility, and a newly-discovered connection to people of every kind. Diana's life, and death, is beyond poetry... beyond metaphor... beyond prayer. Perhaps, if we "realize we never really had her at all," we may yet be able to really "have" each other before it is too late. How can we possibly not try for God's sake.
Stay well and be happy.
Timmy
platonet@prodigy.net
************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
07 September 1997
You, dearest Diana shall live forever in the memories of so many people that love and admire you for all your simplicity and joy in life's adventures. Our prayers remain with you and for your children. Rest in peace. God bless you.
Christina Yoshino
YOSHINO@ite.net
*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
07 September 1997
A beautiful and appropriate funeral.
Everybody in Holland watched TV. Streets were deserted.
There are more people who felt the same.
Greetings Angela
audionet@xs4all.nl
*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
09 September 1997
Your article was absolutely beautiful! Although I have never had the opportunity to be in Princess Diana's company I have to say that the news of her death was extremely sad and truly unbearable. I cannot explain my sadness because even though she is no longer with us and her funeral has passed I think of her often. She was definitely a wonderful, wonderful person with grace, charm and ROYALTY. I can only hope that her wishes are and do become reality. I feel deeply for Princes William and Harry and the burden the burden the press and society will expect of them both.
Furthermore... what's wrong with the QUEEN??!!! Why don't they get rid of the monarchy... who needs it. Let these people live normal, loving and respectful lives.
Just my thoughts!!!
With Deepest Respect!
Carole Pochini
carole.pochini@Sun.COM
*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
10 September 1997
I am 37 years old and a hopeless romantic. I was just totally awestruck by Diana at first sight! My daughter keeps asking me "why do I feel the loss so much?" I guess because she was like the fairy tale princess to me. I just pray she is resting peacefully now. I hope this does not come across as being morbid, but as someone who loved that "image," I guess I need to see what she was wearing at the burial. I am just so awestruck by her! I loved everything she did for all her charities, but I also loved the glamor in her, and I hope they dressed her as she should have been.
Vicki Sturm
beazer@net-link.net
*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
14 September 1997
I think you did a remarkable job here... I'm a little different from you, I was a 13 year old boy when Diana and Charles were engaged, and I began a collection of magazines and newspapers regarding her. That collection is long gone, but the interest in her led to an interest in Royalty, which led to an interest in History that enriches my life to this day. On the evening of August 30, I heard my roommate say that the Princess had been in an accident. First reaction... surprise, I turned on the TV and saw the car... next reaction...dread, I sat down and watched, suspecting the outcome, but hoping I was wrong. Well, I wasn't. I heard she was dead, and for some reason called my older sister. She had been witness to my teenage obsession with Diana, she was awoken by my call, I started to tell her the news and broke down in tears, me, a 30 year old man, and my sister was a sympathetic support. I now have a new collection of magazines and newspapers on Diana... death notices and commemorative issues... I never met her, but I have a real sense of loss. Thanks for having this page.
Paul
Pavlos2@aol.com
*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
18 September 1997
You put into words all that I felt. I couldn't say it any better, your poem was just right.
I am British, now living in the States, thank you for your tribute.
veronica@gte.net
*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
20 September 1997
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the passing of Lady Diana. Like you, I, too, did not realize that she meant anything to me until the day of her death. I cannot say that I am grief stricken, but certainly saddened by the loss of someone with so noble a soul, the only nobility that counts for anything.
With your permission, I would like to add a link to your page from my own homepage: www.norvan.com/wassil
Sincerely, Mike Wassil
amwassil@bigfoot.com
Like a mountain breeze
lifting cedar boughs,
Like an ocean swell
tossing the Point Grey Light,
Like cumulus clouds
on a summer day,
Like rumbling of
faraway thunder,
I pass.
The boughs settle,
the light stills,
the sky clears and
the silence returns.
I pass
and leave no trace.
Last updated 25 September 1997 3:15 p.m. EST
