The funeral of Princess Diana: a personal account from London (09/21/97)

The funeral of Princess Diana: a personal account from London

More than 2 million people saw Princess Diana's funeral cortege on the streets of London. Tony Leliw, an occasional contributor to The Ukrainian Weekly went to Buckingham Palace on the eve of the funeral to pay his own personal tribute.

by Tony Leliw

LONDON - Swept up by Diana fever, I had to make a pilgrimage to Buckingham Palace, like thousands of others, to witness probably one of the greatest historic moments in my lifetime.

I went not because I am an ardent royalist or out of a sense of guilt that my profession may have been implicated in her untimely death, though there are searching questions that need to be answered before any definite conclusions can be reached. I was drawn like a moth to light, having an insatiable urge to share in this collective grief that was gripping the nation.

A week earlier my 2-year-old son Alexander had awakened me at 6 a.m. and, as I stumbled out of bed to get him some milk, the TV came on to reveal the news that Princess Diana had died in a tragic car accident in Paris having been pursued by a group of paparazzi on motorbike.

I never made it back to bed. The two of us, my boy and I, sat glued to the television as events unfolded, oblivious that breakfast had passed us by and that we all had a dinner engagement later that day. The world as we knew it had stopped and would never be the same.

On Monday my work colleagues were already piecing together a story about Princess Diana's last official appearance in Britain, at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow on July 21. That was going to be my newspaper's front-page lead story. "She had touched the hearts of staff and patients by laying a foundation stone for the new children's center," read the article.

Television schedules that week were sent haywire as programs appeared out of nowhere to discuss in minute detail nearly every aspect of her short and somewhat unhappy life. The whole country united behind her, and the queen had to bow to public pressure to make an unprecedented address to the country, to explain how the royal family was sharing in the nation's grief.

Having watched this all week, on the eve of Princess Diana's funeral I decided to go and share in the atmosphere of an event that had not been witnessed since the death of Sir Winston Churchill more than 30 years ago.

As I reached Trafalgar Square, I could already see hordes of people making their way up The Mall, the long street lined with trees that leads to Buckingham Palace. All of them had one word on their lips: Diana. Hundreds had already staked out their own piece of space to get a glimpse of the next day's funeral procession. Some were asleep, others were eating, listening to their portable radios and televisions.

Is was dark, around 9 p.m. - 12 hours from the moment Princess Diana's hearse would start its final journey from Kensington Palace to her family's estate in Althrop, where she would be laid to rest.

A slight drizzle began and some of those camped on the streets hid under plastic covering. Numerous banners on railings expressed heartfelt messages: "3.5 million New Zealanders will miss you deeply, Diana." Another from a group of Americans read: "America will miss you."

Nearby were messages children had pinned up on trees: "Have I told you that I love you lately? Can you hear me Diana?" and "To our sweet Princess, thank you for the love and care you showed us all." One stated simply: "Queen of Hearts."

As I walked back home I recalled President Leonid Kuchma's visit to Britain in December 1995. When he announced at a press conference that Prince Charles was coming to Kyiv, the first question from reporters was, "Will Princess Diana be coming?" It is a poignant reminder of her popularity worldwide.

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