Death of Comtesse Alix de Lannoy: August 26, 2012

[kathia_sophia]

my heart is broken by this news.;_;
it was expected that Stephanie would lose either of them while young because they're old, but i never thought it would be this soon and close to the wedding.

[Marika86]

Luxembourg royal wedding: Stephanie de Lannoy's mother passes away two months before the wedding - hellomagazine.com

It's a really sad news! I'm so sorry for Stephanie!

[EIIR]

The absence of a parent is always keenly felt at weddings. What should be a happy family day will now not be entirely as it should be. My condolences to de Lannoy family.

[Daria_S]

What sad and terrible news. My heart goes out to Stephanie and her family.

[Frelinghighness]

This is a shock. It goes to show that you never know, posters were predicting the father of the bride's demise and now this.
I don't know how she can go on with her wedding less than 2 months away.

[tommy100]

It's such sad news for Stephanie and her family.
I'm sure it would be somewhat tricky to change the date now but at least it will give Staphanie something to do and look forward to. In my experience there's nothing worse than, after the death of a loved one, going back to normal and not having much too do. Im sure her husband to be and his family will do all they can to support her.

[rominet09]

It is longer to recover from a sudden death like this... you are quite unprepared... two months are nothing.

[marta19pl]

Billed-Bladet - Sorg før kongeligt bryllup i Luxembourg

[Rayarena]

Oh My God! What a tragedy! The odd thing is that we all thought that her father who is fragile and in his nineties was the one who was going to die so, but it was the other way around. Gee, I hope that her father makes it to the wedding. I know that often when one older spouse goes, the other one is not far behind. Understanding how fragile the Count is, I hope that his wife's death is not too debilitating to his constitution. Poor Stephanie. This is not going to be such a happy wedding.

[jonc93]

How unfortunate, my sympathies to the family. Here I thought that her father might not make it to the wedding but it happened to be her mother. Lets hope her father stays strong and lasts to the wedding as its not uncommon for elderly couples to pass away close to each other.

[casualfan]

How terrible! My thoughts go to her and her family in this awful time.

[Moonmaiden23]

Originally Posted by rominet09

It is longer to recover from a sudden death like this... you are quite unprepared... two months are nothing.

How right you are. I lost my mother in Jan 2010, and I STILL miss her so intensely at times I want to curl up in a ball...yesterday I was driving around doing errands and began to sob uncontrollably. The loss of one's mother leaves an almost primitive aching grief that is impossible to describe to someone who has not experienced it. She was exactly the same age as Countess Alix.

My heart aches for Stephanie and her entire family, and Guillaume too, because he has had time to become close to his future in-laws. Thank God Stephanie has him right now. If they were a "normal" couple they could go off somewhere and have a quiet little ceremony....but of course that is not possible.

The stress of trying to prepare for a Royal Wedding in less than 8 weeks while grieving the sudden death of a parent has to be unimaginable.

[4Pam]

Poor Stephanie! Very tragic news. My condolences to her family.

[COUNTESS]

It is tragic news, but you go on. I lost my first husband and my father 1 month apart to the day. They both died, suddenly. My mother and I went on. You have to, if you believe that life goes on. The wedding should be joyful, because weddings are a beginning and joyful. Her mother would have wanted it that way.

[Moonmaiden23]

COUNTESS, I am sorry for your double loss in such a short space of time...you and your family must have been left reeling!

The late Countess Alix was by all accounts a woman of deep and profound faith. She belonged to at least one Catholic lay organization devoted to social justice and the poor.

I agree that she would probably want her youngest daughter to forge ahead with her wedding plans, definitely.

[Mariel]

This may change the type of clothing worn at the wedding meetings other than the religious ceremony. The colors at least. And it will make it not appropriate to have the narrator for television who we have heard would be doing this, a couturier. Stephanie and her family probably have plenty of clothes in the right colors for a mourning period, so it should not be a problem unless people are too concerned with style. I hope to hear no comments about her style at the pre-wedding gala or at the civil ceremony. The religious wedding--well, she will have a white dress and that's will elicit comments. And of course the other participants will need to be in subdued colors, such as Maria Teresa and all the countesses and princesses.

[COUNTESS]

It is their wedding. They can mourn at other times, but the wedding is a celebration of life. Color of clothes is ridiculous. You mourn in your heart, not in your dress. That has all gone out of the style. They should look back on their wedding with joy, as her mother would want, not some dreadful event. It is weeks away. Thirty days, at best, for colors and, certainly, not for a wedding.

[Moonmaiden23]

Originally Posted by Frelinghighness

This is a shock. It goes to show that you never know, posters were predicting the father of the bride's demise and now this.
I don't know how she can go on with her wedding less than 2 months away.

She seems a poised and dignified young woman, and I suspect she will carry on brilliantly. But it won't make it any less painful.

What a way to begin her life as a Royal consort-talk about baptism by fire!

If I was a bride-to-be and made a list of the five worst things that could happen in the runup to the wedding, the sudden death of my mother would be at the very top of the list.

[claypoint2]

My heartfelt condolences to Countess Stéphanie, to her father, and to her siblings. My prayers are - and will remain - with with them over the coming weeks.

Originally Posted by Mariel1

The religious wedding--well, she will have a white dress and that's will elicit comments.

In addition to being the liturgical color for celebrations of Holy Matrimony, white is the liturgical color of the Resurrection, and every Christian funeral is a reminder and a statement of belief in the Resurrection. Therefore white can be appropriately worn at most Christian funerals (even if many people don't know this and opt for black instead). For example, Queen Fabiola of the Belgians, a fervent Roman Catholic, was dressed entirely in white at the funeral of her beloved husband King Baudouin.

Not that that's the reason that Stéphanie will wear a white dress at her wedding... She will wear white because she is getting married. But white happens to be a perfectly appropriate color for Holy Matrimony and for a Christian who mourns and yet proclaims the Resurrection. So, if anyone were to "make comments" because Stéphanie is wearing a white dress, not only would they be showing a significant amount of pettiness and mean-spiritidness - they would also be wrong.

[Meraude]

Originally Posted by Mariel1

This may change the type of clothing worn at the wedding meetings other than the religious ceremony. The colors at least. And it will make it not appropriate to have the narrator for television who we have heard would be doing this, a couturier. Stephanie and her family probably have plenty of clothes in the right colors for a mourning period, so it should not be a problem unless people are too concerned with style. I hope to hear no comments about her style at the pre-wedding gala or at the civil ceremony. The religious wedding--well, she will have a white dress and that's will elicit comments. And of course the other participants will need to be in subdued colors, such as Maria Teresa and all the countesses and princesses.

I don't know what etiquette rules there is in Belgium and Luxembourg when it comes to wearing mourning dress/colours at a wedding, but in Sweden proper etiquette says that "wedding breaks mourning" and thus it would be wrong to wear mourning colours at a wedding. As for mourning colours, white was the colour of deepest mourning for European queens for a long time and queen Fabiola of Belgium did wear a white dress at her husband's funeral, and queen Elizabeth, the queen mother, had a white wardrobe at a state visit to France after her mother's death in 1938. Mourning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I wouldn't be surprised if there will not be a pre-wedding gala dinner, as it's not a necessary part of a wedding, and that there will only be a civil and religious ceremony.