Wow, 15 years ago today same weather too, I was 7 years old, and having fun with my father at a neighborhood block (street) party. I don't remember the ride home, but I remember waking up around 12am and finding my family watching the unfolding news of Diana's accident. I remember them telling me that she was in an accident. The mood in my house was somber everyone was shocked.
What I knew of Diana before was that she was a beautiful Princess who was friends with Mother Theresa. When she came to NY it was all over the news. The week before the accident, Extra or Access Hollywood were reporting on her vacation in the Mediterranean. To me she looked like she was having so much fun. They kept calling her Di, and I misinterpreted and thought they said she died. I asked my mother if she died and my mom replied, "No, she's fine just having some fun on vacation."
The next week she was dead. At that age I couldn't comprehend that someone who was young, vibrant, and enjoying life just a week before was now dead and lying in a box. I thought the funeral was this weird parade and I had expected the guards to stop walking, take off the flag, opened the box, and then Diana would come out and start shaking hands and hug everyone. I asked my mother why everyone was crying, and when they were going to let her out. And she said they weren't, Diana is gone and this is her funeral; people are crying because they miss her.
After watching the funeral I started to cry & cry because I realized, that I would never see this woman on the news again, smiling and hugging people. I realized that one day all those who I love and also myself would die. It was a lot for a 7 year old to handle.
I will never forget the throngs of people who lined the route to throw flowers onto the hearse as it drove Diana's casket to Althorp for burial... Diana imo had a good and meaningful life. It was not perfect and she experienced periods of happiness and immense sadness. But in the end she was living her life according to her own terms.
), we were informed about the accident. I can recall that night as if it were yesterday, along with the morning after, when my mom came into my room and told my friend and me that Princess Diana had passed on. I watched the funeral, and as much news leading up to it as time would allow. It definitely felt surreal for the first couple of days.
I still remember that awful news as if it were today.
Candle In The Wind 97 is one of my favorite Elton songs but I listen to it the least I haven't heard the song in a year. Its just too sad like Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit, beautiful song but too painful to listen to.
