What impact did the death of Princess Grace have on you?

[Jaya]

I thought I would start a thread to ask what impact & where you were when Princess Grace in Monaco died September14,1982, a quarter century ago.I remember being expressed &defined by the beauty, the elegance, the fashion choices,the ethos,& the correctness of the greatest Lady of Monaco.The news came to me via a brother who entered my room somberly as I was leafing through I think a Harper's Bazaar with Grace on the cover. This has never happened before or since with any other world figure.He said he was sorry to deliver the news but my idol,had succumbed to her wounds in the car accident in Monaco.
I was shocked & dumbfounded for a second really. I thought of Princess Grace and all that she had meant to me while living.How she earned my great esteem and respect.I knew it would be important to keep her and all that she stood for alive in the years to come.And I hope that in some small way I have done so in my life to make it better.Princess Grace lives in my heart forever.

 

[hibou]

I was at my parents beach house. When I first heard about the accident I was not worried because it didn't sound like she was critically injured but then when the news came that she died I was just shocked. You start to look at your own Mother and wonder how you would cope if something like that happened. I felt very sorry for Caroline, Albert and especially Stephanie. Now all these years later Stephanie still has the trauma. I hope she will now beable to move forward from this sad event.

 

[bbb]

i was working downtown dallas and had just sat down at my desk when someone called and just blurted it out and hung up, i called my mom and she turned on tv and told me it was true- we both cried.
i remember pouring over the papers for days and watching the funeral and how devasted everyone was. i only read later about the roller coaster ride of stories that were put out- she only had a broken leg, then head trauma, then they had to move her to another hospital, then the heartbreaking decision at the end. it's still hard to believe she's gone, i just saw her the other day in philadelphia story and she was beautiful and perfect, i'm so glad we still have her movies to enjoy- she'll live forever.

 

[Vera Friedel]

I was five back in 1982, so I dont remember that.
I discovered grace Kelly and the realm of Monaco around 1986 and I've been interested in them ever since.
It was the summer of 1986 and I was reading a magazine ,I remember there was an article about Caroline expecting a baby girl and the bets about the girl name. Then there were stunning pictures of grace Kelly and I asked my aunt who that beautiful woman was. She told me that she was princess Grace and sadly she passed away due to a car accident 4 years before. I was only 9 back then but I remembered that I was very sad to learn that. She seemed so lovely,caring, she was so beautiful.
As nowadays I am very sorry for her and her family, it must have been a huge trauma for Carolline, Albert and Stéphanie, especially for her.

 

[agogo]

I remember hearing about the car accident. I just thought, "oh now there will be a lot of gossip reported about the accident." The next day, my mother telephoned me at work and told me that Princess Grace had died. I ran into the restroom and sobbed. I was so upset.

 

[Jaya]

Thirty years later I can still say the void and the black hole left by the death of Princess Grace remains.This year Grace would have been eighty three and a highly relevant figure in the ever changing Monaco she ruled over. But she reigned in people's hearts by all that she represented and women did not resent her but loved her.Princess grave always had us dreamtaken by her beauty body and soul.Thirty years later she has been elevated to iconic status that she was in life as well. The paucity of a Princess Grace no longer with us is heartfelt by most who lived in the days she respired in the world.
Princess Grace is my platinum standard by which I live.
Her death impacted me this way.

 

[NGalitzine]

Grace's death had no impact on me. I didn't really know her personally so her death left no void in my life. I admired her but my life did not change when she died. I did feel sorry for her husband and children.

 

[Elly C]

I didn't really have a keen interest in Grace at the time, but had always thought she was a beautiful and elegant woman. Her appearance with Charles and Diana at Diana's first public engagement had again alerted to me to her qualities, so when I heard of her death not too long after, I felt shocked when I read about the circumstances and just very sad. I can vaguely remember seeing coverage of the accident and some of the initial interviews with "experts" commenting on Grace's health and relationships within her family. I remember thinking how awful for Rainier and family - especially Stephanie that there should be such gossip at a time of mourning. But it is the funeral that I can most remember for the beauty of the ceremony, the awful pictures of Grace in the open coffin and above all the grief of Rainier and Caroline - a truely devastated family.

 

[Mirabel]

No impact really. I suppose I was too young to know her films, although I do like them now.
But it didn't actually register when she died.

(Later I did read more about the accident due to all the murky theories about how it happened).

 

[padams2359]

I remember all of the controversy surrounding the accident. She was still a beautiful woman. Her daughters were still young, and on the wild side.

 

[scooter]

I didn't really have a keen interest in Grace at the time, but had always thought she was a beautiful and elegant woman. Her appearance with Charles and Diana at Diana's first public engagement had again alerted to me to her qualities, so when I heard of her death not too long after, I felt shocked when I read about the circumstances and just very sad. I can vaguely remember seeing coverage of the accident and some of the initial interviews with "experts" commenting on Grace's health and relationships within her family. I remember thinking how awful for Rainier and family - especially Stephanie that there should be such gossip at a time of mourning. But it is the funeral that I can most remember for the beauty of the ceremony, the awful pictures of Grace in the open coffin and above all the grief of Rainier and Caroline - a truely devastated family.

I swore I would never have a family member or loved one have an open coffin after Grace's funeral.

 

[nascarlucy]

In 1982 I was 20 years old. I heard the first reports that she'd broken her leg in the accident. They didn't say at that time that she had died. My mom and I were watching tv. You can imagine our shock a couple of hours later when we heard she had died. We wondered if we'd heard correctly.

I never really followed her. I knew who she was but that was about it.. My mom did (she was of my mom's generation) so the impact was more. Both of us felt bad for the family.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

I swore I would never have a family member or loved one have an open coffin after Grace's funeral.

It was awful, wasn't it?

There was no "impact" on my personal life when the Princess died...as others have stated I did not know her, and she was part of my mother's generation.

But I do remember being shocked and saddened that her beautiful and elegant presence was suddenly gone from the world, and I almost couldn't bear to look at photos or video of her grieving family...it was just so painful that I felt like was intruding on their sorrow.

Strange as it may seem, I wish I had a recording of the Requiem Mass. I remember that it was hauntingly beautiful.

 

[FanofMonaco]

The music by Steven Barber ( a Philadelphia composer), that is played at alot of state funerals, is the most hauntingly beautiful piece of music I have ever heard.It was especially touching at Grace's funeral.

 

[agogo]

The music by Steven Barber ( a Philadelphia composer), that is played at alot of state funerals, is the most hauntingly beautiful piece of music I have ever heard.It was especially touching at Grace's funeral.

Every time I hear that piece of music I think about Grace's funeral.

In 1982 I was 20 years old. I heard the first reports that she'd broken her leg in the accident. They didn't say at that time that she had died. My mom and I were watching tv. You can imagine our shock a couple of hours later when we heard she had died. We wondered if we'd heard correctly.

I never really followed her. I knew who she was but that was about it.. My mom did (she was of my mom's generation) so the impact was more. Both of us felt bad for the family.

One of Grace's nieces gave a TV interview and she said that some of the Kelly family learned of Grace's death from a TV broadcast. This niece said that she saw a picture of Grace on her TV with the years 1929-1982 under her aunt's picture. What a horrible way to learn of a loved one's death.

 

[fandesacs2003]

Today is 30 years of the day of her accident, and tomorrow 30 years she left...
I remember very well these days. I heard in the french radio that Princesse Grace has an accident with Stephanie, but at this stage the truth was hidden and the journalist joked about. He said, do not worry, both mum and daughter are OK and already back home!!
And the day after, .... suddenly they announced that she passed away, that Stephanie was badly injured in hospital. The shock I felt was terrible. Pcs Grace was an icon of beauty, but also a strong icon of sense of duty and responsibility! A fairy tale person, which seemed "untouchable". And suddenly, she dissapeared at her 52y!!
Since this moment, it was a "ballet" of controversial information and gossips, about the cause of the accident, cause of deathe, Stephanie, etc etc, we all know....
And the day of the funeral came. I followed it full coverage in TV, and remember crying and crying all along...This image of destroyed Rainier, Caroline's face tumescent from tears, and Albert, a mask of pain, will never let me. I'm sure, If I saw again the funeral, I would cry again.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

I remember very well the headline from Sept 13th 1982 in the Los Angeles newspaper that said " LUCKY GRACE SURVIVES CRASH OFF CLIFF WITH A BROKEN LEG" or something similar, and then the very next day the announcement from the Palais Princier announcing that Her Most Serene Highness the Princess Grace had died from her injuries and "May the Lord Have Mercy".

I sat there stunned for several minutes, wondering how a (seeming) healthy woman could die from a broken leg.

 

[Valerie Rose]

Thirty years later I can still say the void and the black hole left by the death of Princess Grace remains.This year Grace would have been eighty three and a highly relevant figure in the ever changing Monaco she ruled over. But she reigned in people's hearts by all that she represented and women did not resent her but loved her.Princess grave always had us dreamtaken by her beauty body and soul.Thirty years later she has been elevated to iconic status that she was in life as well. The paucity of a Princess Grace no longer with us is heartfelt by most who lived in the days she respired in the world.
Princess Grace is my platinum standard by which I live.
Her death impacted me this way.

The above post is an excellent and heartfelt summing-up. I remember hearing the news and, with the other young ladies [we were aged 20 - 30 then] in the office in which we worked, being stunned, and very sad for Princess Grace's family.
And, as BBB says above, thank goodness we have her likeness preserved in movies: a lady of consummate elegance always.

 

[An Ard Ri]

Ireland declared 3 days of national mourning following the news of the death of the Princess.I can recall watching the funeral in my grandparents house,I was only eight years old but remember everyone was silent,not a word was spoken during the televised Funeral Mass.Ofcourse I had no idea at the time who had died,I just knew it was someone beloved and admired.My mother told me most people she knew were simply stunned at the death of Princess Grace.


ABC News - Sept. 14, 1982 Grace Kelly Dies - YouTube

 

[XeniaCasaraghi]

I remember very well the headline from Sept 13th 1982 in the Los Angeles newspaper that said " LUCKY GRACE SURVIVES CRASH OFF CLIFF WITH A BROKEN LEG" or something similar, and then the very next day the announcement from the Palais Princier announcing that Her Most Serene Highness the Princess Grace had died from her injuries and "May the Lord Have Mercy".

I sat there stunned for several minutes, wondering how a (seeming) healthy woman could die from a broken leg.

I wasn't alive when Grace died, but that headline reminds me of the rumors floating around when Michael Jackson died. One moment he's in a coma the next the headline is he's dead. Makes me wish there would be no comment on news until an official statement came from the people who actually know.
Why were some of you so affected by there being an open casket? I've only seen glimpses of the pix of her funeral but from what I can remember she looked serene and like she was just sleeping.

 

[An Ard Ri]

I was reading that the local residents of Newport in County Mayo left flowers at the nearby Kelly ancestral home following the news of the death of the Princess,all flags in the village were lowered to half mast.Locals also sent wreaths made from wild flowers which were picked at Drimurla (the ancestral home of the Kelly family) and sent them to Monaco for the funeral.

 

[Blue_]

I wasn't born yet, but I wished I knew her...
I read a lot about her and saw a lot of videos and she seems so sweet, so kind...