Yesterday was the 27th Anniversary of the death of Princess Diana

Millie22

It's one of those occasions when you remember where you were when you heard the news.

Such a sad day 😢

I have no idea what I was doing on that day or where I saw or heard the news.
The only event where I do remember exactly who told me and where I was at the time was the awful events of the twin towers in N Y.

I learnt about this, after noon, I was reading and did not have the television on. My ex husband told me when he bought my son back home from a sleepover.

I remember it being a Sunday I think? Just had 2 of my DC then who were 3 and 5 .... they were bouncing round the room whilst I was trying to watch the tv

TBH, I didn't understand then and still don't why so many people were so deeply affected and glued to TV and radio all day.
Yes, of course it was tragic that people in the prime of life should die in that way and maybe I'm heartless but so many reactions seemed completely OTT. And all those millions of flowers, wrapped in cellophane and left to wither outside her home and by town halls and war memorials. That just struck me as plain weird.🤷‍♀️
I remember turning on the radio while I got breakfast and the local radio was playing sombre music (can't remember what, exactly). Then there was a news bulletin and I realised why the music but I became enormously irritated by late afternoon when virtually all the radio stations suspended normal programming and even the news was about nothing else.

My DH told me when I got up.
One of those, you remember where you were moments.

I remember being shocked all day.

You go to bed and all is fine.
You wake up and she was gone.

31st August is my husband’s birthday. We were woken up by our young son aged 8 telling us the sad news. I took son a few days later to Kensington Palace. An unbelievable experience. The flowers were almost as tall as him. We took many photos. My husband was a chauffeur and remembered stopping at the traffic light in Kensington High Street next to her and she flashed him a smile.

Yes it was a Sunday. I never put 📺 on that morning and found out at church

There are certain key moments when you remember where you were at that time, as fancythat says - for me that is when JFK was shot, the first moon landing, the death of Princess Diana, the Twin Towers.

I agree Sparklefizz

I was in the temple complex at Karnak when I heard.

It was before the ubiquity of mobile phones, and I remember thinking how like "the olden days" it was when all we could glean for a long time were rumours from a far-off country.
When we got back to the boat, I couldn't find an English-speaking news channel, so did my best with German.

I was sad that someone who had appeared to be getting her life together had died so young but I didn't join in the national orgy of grief, although I did pull into a motorway service station and got out and stood outside during the one minute silence in the funeral.

We had just come back from a lovely holiday in Ireland, marred by all our luggage being stolen just before we went to the airport. DH was outraged at having to pay for the damage to our hire car!
I was up early, and couldn’t understand the dirges on the radio, until the news.
(Putting on my tin hat). Although dreadfully sad, I feel PH should have put it all to rest now.

The people of our country share an unusual relationship with the royal family. I imagine there’s a phd somewhere exploring all the reasons but threads on gransnet confirm how significant the RF continues to be, even to republicans. Diana’s age and relative inexperience alongside her growing beauty as she matured and her ability to engage with people were part of her appeal.
She clearly struggled, and died such a sad unnecessary death, so young.

I can recall where I was when I heard the news about JFK. I liked him too and was very shocked. Also the twin towers. I was in work for both occasions although different cities and different occupations.

Fancy hearing in the Temple of Karnak! It was near 30 degrees at 9 in the morning last time I was there.

My DH who worked in the media received an early call from his boss. From what I could overhear I knew he was being asked to go into work. When he got off the phone I said "this had better be important"...

I was in bed (Sunday morning) and when I switched the radio on the programmes were all wrong. It was a while before I found out why. I was very shocked. Then my son rang from London at 8 am, also very shocked. When I spoke to my father later he had barely noticed.

One son went along to look at the flowers a couple of times. After a bit he said it had just got silly. Other son was dealing with his weeping girlfriend. They all went to stand in the streets at her funeral, and said the silence, from thousands of people, was extraordinary.

On the Saturday the 30th, we had been to a wedding, so got home late and went straight to bed. We heard about the tragedy the next morning when our house phone rang and it was our neighbour. saying 'put the tv on, Diana has died'- tbh we weren't sure to whom he was referring as we didnt know a Diana. All soon became terribly clear, of course.

The bride, whose wedding we had attended, told me later that when she and her new husband went down to breakfast on the morning of the 31st, they of course were blissfully happy and chatting away as they entered the hotel dining room and couldn't understand why it was full of people yet so quiet...they did go on honeymoon later that day but she felt it was wrong to be doing so.

I was 38 then, not much older than Diana, and couldn't believe how things had gone so horribly wrong for her and of course we now know that had she gone home when she intended to, and not stayed an extra day, history might have told a different story

An associated vivid memory for me, was a piece in one of the tabloids that same morning - by some female journalist - obviously the paper had gone to press before the news broke - nastily slagging off Diana.

I thought, OMG, how on earth must that woman be feeling now?
Not that I felt sorry for her! But I was imagining a ton of hate mail arriving, and (unless she changed her nom de plume) her very likely being out of a job.

The press were critical of the holidaying with Al Fayed and family

I think it’s a type of Stockholm syndrome Iamsixtyfour,they fleece the public. But mainly the English polpulation seem to almost worship them….I find it bewildering as a republican.I always thought Diana was a manipulative woman right from the start ,she courted the media and then complained about it .I wasn,t moved when she died,why would I even give it more than a passing though,I didn’t know her or her family.My own father was orphaned at a young age ,he,despite much harsher circumstances made a good life and was a great Dad..
Mind you I also find the idea of a religion being started by an adulterer and murderer Henry V111,now it’s led by an adulterer and that seems to be OK too.

It’s a very strange world some of you inhabit!

I’m English and don’t worship the Royal family, quite the opposite m. I think their popularity is over estimated tbh. Surely there must be some statistics somewhere?

That's not true paddyann. I don't know anyone who worships the Royals. Many people give them little or no attention. The media tends to hype up their popularity.

weirdly I was mucking out horses which is exactly what I was doing on the day President Kennedy died. I am old.

I know nobody who worships the royals.

paddyann54
You must know some very weird people if you know they worship the RF, and making it a sweeping statement is really funny.
If I talked about Scots worshipping their arrangement of fishy MPs, I’d be equally inaccurate.

It was the day after my parents' Golden Wedding anniversary!

Always tragic when a young person dies suddenly, or dies,

I never understood the craze for Princess Diana - no-one could have been a less suitable partner for Prince Charles!