Ten Years On

Today is a very special and sad day. Ten years ago, Princess Diana perished in a car crash. In the days and weeks leading up to this day, we have heard many versions of what happened that day, from conspiracy to supposed theory. Maybe the stories are true, and maybe not.

One thing is for sure. We probably all remember where we were when we heard the news of her death.

I do. Hence my post.

We were on our sailboat, in one of the nearby bays, rafted with friends. It was a lazy sort of day. People were rising, getting breakfast ready. I had just started to awaken, and was lazing in the V-berth. I heard My Sweetie talking to our friends. I heard the word 'Diana'.

My mind reeled with the possibilties of the news. Maybe she and Dodi were engaged. Maybe she and Dodi had eloped. Maybe there was some other reason for them to be in the news.

There was.

Now, anyone who knows me well, knows that I am a Royalty fan, and was especially a huge Princess Diana fan, pretty much from the first time I saw her. I was smitten, and that has not changed to this day.

My Sweetie came in to see me, and he had an odd expression on his face. I looked at him, and asked what was wrong. He hesitated at first, I guess not really knowing what to say. Then he told me that Princess Diana had died in a car crash.

From that moment on, I experienced all of the emotions that have been described in the media. Shock. Disbelief. Denial. Sadness. Never ending tears.

The following week was tortuous. The carpet of flowers at Kensington Palace. Details of the crash. Her funeral plans. Contraversy surrounded the Royal family's behaviour.

But I remember the tears. Tears that would continue well past the day of her funeral.

There is no logical explanation for us to feel this way. She was not a member of our family. Not a close friend. Not a dear neighbour.

But, in a way, she was all of these. She related to the common person, the sick, the poor, the helpless, sometimes by a simple touch, or a smile. She was the gift, which would bring the Royals into the current world.

I often wonder what her life would have been like if she had lived. We know that she was trying to be less in the spotlight, and was searching for a more reclusive life. Would she have remarried? Would she have, one day, seen her HRH restored?

We'll never know anything about that. But we may know other information, once the inquests continue.

Maybe it was indeed a 'crash', and not an 'accident'. Maybe there was something else.

Whatever.

Rest in Peace, Sweet Princess. You are still causing the world to pause and take note that you were an important part of our lives.