Quote:
Originally posted by wiglet
Personal experience coming up here.
I went up to Kensington Palace to sign the Book of Condolence there. I queued up for about four hours if I remember rightly after a train/tube and long walk to get there. The tube station nearest was closed and I had no idea how to get to Kensington Palace so in the end I walked from Hyde Park with what seemed like hundreds of other 'mourners'. It wasn't just one or two so doesn't that just show you the impact this singular woman had on the general public back then? We all walked along the same route with our bunches of flowers or some cases wreathes, passing past Buck House and Harrods like a macabre funeral procession without the coffin. 
I can't remember why I felt so strongly about going up to London? I would say it was mostly because I felt Diana was an icon and no matter how you feel about her, there will never be another like her and I wanted to pay my respects to her. I had gone up to London as a child to see the fireworks when she and Charles had become engaged and so I felt I had been part of her life already. It seemed almost like she was a member of my family and signing the book was like a memorial service.
Up in Kensington Gardens there were little shrines around the ltrees with people either praying with lit candles or crying. Seeing the mass of flowers was truely amazing and I will never forget that scene. I had seen the flowers at Buck Palace however most of them had been moved by then. The sea of flowers at Kensington Palace showed that there were many many people in this country (who could reach London at least) who wanted to show something? Was it affection, admiration or pity? Who knows what those emotions were! It was a sureal day and the images of which I will hold in head till the day I die myself.
Checkmate, when I was up in London that day it was almost as though myself and the other strangers I met were mourning not for Diana but for every person we had lost from our lives. Because prominant people in the public eye like Blair for instance were seen with a tear in their eye, it was accepted that it was OK to grieve for everyone no matter who you were. So everyone grieved in their own way for those they had lost including Diana. Checkmate, you need to do your own grieving and accept that DIana did die that day. Tragically sad but true.
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I feel for you Wiglet and I understand how easy it is to get caught up with all those people in London mourning the tragic loss of Diana - Princess of Wales. It is terrible when someone loses their lives in a horrible car crash - through no fault of their own. I also think it is equally terrible when a 12 year old boy from Portsmouth - trips up over a loose paving stone and goes flying into a brick wall - hits his head in sadly the wrong spot and dies instantly. That is equally as bad, as both are tragic - agreed? I absolutely agree with that and anyone who thinks that the death of the Princess is any more or any less than the example I have given, can only be described as deluded. Sorry if that offends some people, but it is reality. I do agree that it is understandable for someone to walk around Harrods or Buckingham Palace or anywhere else where mourners are hanging around and flowers are lying there on the ground or against the Harrods building. I won't deny that.
If you felt the need to wait for four hours to sign a book of condolence, then that is your own choice and I respect your own feelings on the matter - but to me, she is nothing more than an ordinary person, who just happened to be wealthy and the daughter of a wealthy family who also had an Earl as a brother. Prince Charles doesn't go for [poor folk] - you know. But the people of Britain and many many abroad really felt like you did - [each to their own], of course.
When Tony Blair shed a tear, many people believed that he really cared for her, and the people watching that also believed that. I agree that it could be real. But it could also be Crocodile tears, or just like yourself - [getting caught up in the emotion of it all]. That is a weakness that many of us fall victim to. I am certainly no different, but I certainly don't think any less of someone else dying in tragic circumstances - who is less famous or not famous at all. I remember my mother telling me when I was 12 years old - that it was terrible and a friend of hers was also making a special trip to London. At that time, it never meant too much to me and today, I feel the same. Sorry if that doesn't seem right? But I have heard other terrible stories of people losing their lives, which hurts me a lot more. The whole Diana accident and everything else has been blown out of proportion. I hate these - [further investigations over what happened on that day of the accident] and who's to blame and who's not to blame, it happened -
let sleeping dogs lie, eh?