Today's task was one of remembrance, specifically that of Princess Diana. I turned off all the music and noise and just stood in my living room and remembered Di.
This was one of those "Where were you" moments. I actually remember this pretty vividly. I was 14 at the time and was staying over at my grandmother's house, as I did a lot. I had spent the Saturday watching TV late into the hours. Most likely it was a mix of TV Land and Saturday Night Live. I was sitting in the dark, only the TV for light and a news bulletin broke in saying that she had died with her boyfriend in a car accident. I had a general knowledge of her but that was about it. I must say in all honesty it didn't mean anything to me. I thought it weird to be watching the news live. It's not often you get that real time news, especially back in 1997.
So, I remembered her today, close to the anniversary of the date. She died on August 31st, 2007 right after midnight.
That is all,
Newt
Saturday, August 29, 2009
TBWCYL Day 241 - Quiet Moment
Posted by Trinity at 9:32 PM
Labels: Life Changing Adventures
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7 Ripples in the pond:
Despite being highly cynical of the praise heaped upon her, and that she didn’t deserve the saint-like status she gained, I do remember. I had just woken up and turned on the radio on Sunday morning and heard the news.
For the record, the accident happened just after midnight Paris time, but she didn’t die in the accident: her death wasn’t reported by the hospital until 5:30 (4:30 London time). This would still have been Saturday night in the US, of course.
I'm not a big fan of the royal family and other than feeling very sorry for her two boys and vaguely sad that somebody that young had been killed, her death left me unaffected. By the time they had her funeral I was heartily sick of the whole matter. I think people are becoming disaster/tragedy junkies and it makes me a bit queasy.
I found out through my Grandmother (staunch royalist) who phoned me at 6am on the Sunday morning especially to tell me. Not only did I get rudely awoken at a ridiculous hour, I then had to endure a very long lecture from her when she realised that I didn't really give two hoots :P
97. I was 15. Actually we weren't a TV family, I mean I watched Match of the Day, and maybe the occasional bit of news, but that was it. I came down the following morning to find my parents glued to the TV. It was the first time I was shocked by world events. Well, apart from Iraq I think.
I was heading to England for a wedding the day after Diana died. I was amazed at the amount of flowers left by her home, the notes tied to the tress, the people just standing about hugging each other in shock.
I had forgotton the date. I remember the event well, but had forgotten about the actual date. Cheers to Di.
:-)
Kate, since your g-ma is a royalist, how did she feel about Diana? I know there was quite a bit of controversy that she wasn't royal herself, so I'm interested to know. Most Americans, myself included, don't quite get the whole king/queen/prince/princess thing. It may have something to do with all of that tea we dropped in the Boston harbor....
I can't remember precisely where I was, (I was rather youngish.), but I can remember that suddenly her name was all I seemed to hear everytime we turned on the television. And I can remember standing in line with my mom at the super-market wondering why the same lady was on every magazine...
That's about all I got.
Addy’s Daddy: Most Brits don’t understand the monarchy, and most are not interested. While there are die-hard monarchists who would throw themselves off tall buildings for the Queen, the actual workings of the monarchy are very much in the background.
The media, particularly the tabloids, ‘made’ Diana. Obviously there was some interest, if the tabloids hadn’t whipped things up, things wouldn’t have developed to the embarrassing proportions they did.
As for her death and the ridiculous hype that surrounded it and her funeral, most people – certainly everyone I knew – were like Girl Interrupted: they were fed up with the way the media seemed incapable of reporting anything else for days afterwards. As you observed, she wasn’t even technically a member of the monarchy; she was more akin to a celebrity. I would guess that at least 80% of the population were heartily glad when things subsided.
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