Goodbye England’s Rose: 20th Anniversary of the Death of Diana

August 31, 1997.  My now ex-husband woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me.

Diana Spencer has died in a car crash in Paris.

I cried. 

Check out this video about that time and Elton John’s ‘Goodbye England’s Rose’.

You see, I am a bit of an anglophile.  Diana, the former Princess of Wales, has enchanted me since she first came into the public eye. The story was so magical to me. Really!  On the surface it was so fairy-tale-like.

As we all know now the reality was neither a fairy-tale nor magical. From all that I read and seen it was kind of sad.

And did it end with such heart-break with that car crash in a tunnel in Paris.

I remember my sadness or this woman I only knew through the media. I have since learned more about how the Royal family did not to respond right away. The Queen, holding to traditional roles, did what she thought was right. But the English public did not see it that way and wanted to the Royal family to respond. It took a few days, but Queen Elizabeth did see what the people needed and broke with protocol and responded.

There are plenty of movies, documentaries, stories and books her life and about that first week in September of 1997 when all this was happening.

It is kind of fascinating…especially if you are an anglophile.

'Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.' ~ Diana Spencer