For me it began with the fishing and mirror thingy.
My family is originally from Aberystwyth, Wales and I have family on both sides of the pond. So I went there on vacation three times and spent the day with my great uncle who had retired as the mayor of Aberystwyth. In his front room I started to sit down on the couch and he said, "Oh no, please sit in this chair." It was just a normal looking yellow chair and after I did he pointed at a picture on the wall and started smiling. It was of a young Prince Charles sitting in the same chair. So I look around the room and all the pictures are of Prince Charles and my uncle John Caleb. He was very proud of this as you can imagine.
He explained that in 1969, Prince Charles came and lived with him for a couple of months while he went to the University of Wales to learn the Welsh culture and language. This was a run up to his coronation later that year to be crowned the Prince of Wales.
So my uncle talked about him quite a bit. Explaining what type of person he was as he could see I was interested. In the end he did say some negative things about him, but I sort of just chuckled at them.
Once back in the states I traveled a lot and my family would always send me clippings about Prince Charles. Then my sister sent me pictures of him and his new girlfriend and clippings which included the story of her using the mirror which I found very amusing. Eventually I dropped ol' Charles and began following her, especially after they got married.
Growing up in Missouri and watching movies and tv including Disney every weekend, I developed a vision of what a princess would look like, and how she would act. So years later, after they were married, it dawned on me that she WAS a real princess. Beautiful, radiant, elegant, hundreds of words to describe her. I was fascinated.
It all changed again of course with the 'interviews' and the 'book' etc., but it was the understanding of how she really took to people and they to her as well. She cared, she was human, she held little babies, and children with limbs missing from landmines, aids patients, the elderly, the lepers, and the dying. Here is someone that is rare in my life and I'm not ashamed one bit to say that I admired her and yes, I was attracted to her in every way. Most men were.
I then ignored the yellow trash papers and their ridiculous made up stories so as to sucker people in to buy their trash. I knew of her mistakes, and of her childish side as she was young, and I was embarrassed for her as she reacted poorly in some cases. She was human though and that made her down to earth and that is why I really sympathized with her.
When she passed away my family and I were devastated and my mother and sister adored her and they cried for days over her tragic death. Here is a lady, a princess that we have never met, so it is a strange thing to feel passionate with grief, and very hard to explain. Its real though and so I just accept and go on.
If God had to choose one person to send back down for a life unfinished, I would hope it would be the 'Last English Rose'.