Princess Diana (1961-1997)
I took a small television with me to the Lake so that I could get up in the middle of the night to watch the wedding of Diana Spencer and Prince Charles. I have always loved the pomp and circumstance of the Royals and while I admire them I do not worship them.
I remember much of what went on which led up to the divorce and when she was killed I watched much of the television coverage. I watched the outpouring of grief on behalf of people all over Great Britain and the world and thought. "This is worship of a false idol. Worship of a person and not deity. (I was into church in 1997.) It made me uncomfortable but I was also fascinated.
I remember seeing her two sons walking behind her coffin and feeling for them on the loss of their mother. For no matter what else anyone else says about Diana I believe she truly loved her boys and wanted the very best for them. She did not "fit well" into the palace structure but went on to carve her own place after the separation and divorce.
Diana's charity work is what made her most appealing to me. She worked with many charities but the two that touched me the most were her work with AIDS patients and the issue of landmines, campaigning for a worldwide ban.
She used her celebrity for good and in the end that was (and is) still the most important thing about her to me.
"She was one of the first very high profile people to be pictured touching those afflicted with AIDS this had a significant impact in changing people’s opinions and attitudes to the disease it was certainly a charity not following the protocol and tradition of the Royal family. AS Princess Diana said:
“HIV does not make people dangerous to know. You can shake their hands and give them hug heaven knows they need it"
I still admire her and I think her boys have developed into fine young men who are following in their mother's footsteps with their Charity Work.
You can read more about Diana here. She is one of the top 50 women who have changed the world.
Princess Diana Quotations:
• Being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be.
• Don't call me an icon. I'm just a mother trying to help.
• Everyone needs to be valued. Everyone has the potential to give something
back.
• I want to walk into a room, be it a hospital for the dying or a hospital for the
sick children, and feel that I am needed. I want to do, not just to be.
• I think the biggest disease the world suffers from in this day and age is the
disease of people feeling unloved. I know that I can give love for a minute, for
half an hour, for a day, for a month, but I can give. I am very happy to do that, I
want to do that.
• HIV does not make people dangerous to know, so you can shake their hands
and give them a hug : Heaven knows they need it.
• I love to hold people's hands when I visit hospitals, even though they are
shocked because they haven't experienced anything like it before, but to me it is
a normal thing to do.
Harry S Truman
John Shelby Spong Nelson Mandella Rachael Maddow Matt Damon
Jehan Sadat Jane Goodall Mohandas Gandhi
Eleanor Roosevelt Lyndon B. Johnson Michelle Obama
Helen Hayes Marion Wright Edelman Bishop Gene Robinson
Bishop Desmond Tutu Rachel Carson Helen Keller
Martin Luther King, Jr Dalai Lama Dag Hammarskjold
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