One thing has become clear to me. All of us who read this thread and Ms. Whalan's article are now more informed as to what Child Bereavement UK is and what it does and what it is there for.
Nice Nofret stated in a previous post "It is their royal duty to care for the sick and destitute and bereaved people in their country - in no other context anyone asked them to be destitute and sick and bereaved themselves. Where is the difference? You do NOT have to know a specific tragedy by own experience to be compassionate and feeling." I'd like to amend that a bit and state that is very well could have been that William and Kate and Harry as part time royals could have very well opted out for "safe" patronages such as "The Tesco Trust for Organic Foods" or "The National Zoo Fund for the protection of the spotted field mouse". These three royals chose what patronages they stand behind and patronages by the royals are issues that we don't commonly hear of in day to day life. Homelessness, support for our wounded warriors, HIV in children in Lesotho (did anyone really know Lesotho existed even before Harry's involvement in Sentabale? I didnt.) Since their marriage, Kate hand picked out the issues of addiction, children's hosptice and fittingly to tag along with it, child bereavement along with interests in art and scouting. Although these royals do keep up on their patronages and work behind the scenes with the organizers, their main focus is to create public
awareness of what these patronages are doing and bump up donations so the folks that actually do the work have the means which to do it with. An example is how quickly the EACH bracelets sold out because Kate wore one.
The fact that Kate visited with William while pregnant to me was not some big kind of a faux pas. Just because she is royal and maybe has privileges and opportunities that most of us don't, it doesn't guarantee that at some time in her life, what other parents and children are going through won't be her in the future. I'm sure that William and Harry never expected to lose their mother at such a young age and I feel that perhaps because they did, they can feel empathy for what other people are going through losing family members close to them. When we lose someone close to us, its often the case that we feel alone in our grief but with awareness that there are charities and patronages such as EACH and Child Bereavement gets the word out there that no one has to be alone during troubled times.
Personally I applaud these young royals for their choices in what they support and work for and through watching their involvement over the years, I don't see any indication that there is any reason to believe it is for self gratification or for publicity reasons. Awareness is something they can call attention to. Older folks tend to buy things "sponsored" by people they know and recognize such as Alex Trebek (Jeopardy game show) and Henry Winkler (cool Fonz). Sports fans listen to Michael Jordan and football stars. Children growing up learn from Barney and Big Bird. We all seem to pay more attention to something if someone we recognize is drawing attention to it.
These are my views and how I see it. I don't expect everyone under the sun to see it my way. I do think that the article written by Ms. Whalan was in poor taste but that's just me.
Gracie: I will not ignore you. I need my daily dose of giraffeness and do admire them for the ability to stick their neck out every once in a while.
