Eulogy to Princess Diana by Earl Charles Spencer
I
stand before you today the representative of a family
in grief, in a country in mourning before a world in
shock. We are all united not only in our desire to
pay our respects to Diana but rather in our need to
do so. For such was her extraordinary appeal that the
tens of millions of people taking part in this
service all over the world via television and radio
who never actually met her, feel that they too lost
someone close to them in the early hours of Sunday
morning. It is a more remarkable tribute to Diana
than I can ever hope to offer her today.
"No Need for Royal
Title"
Diana was the very essence of
compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. All over
the world she was a symbol of selfless humanity. All
over the world, a standard bearer for the rights of
the truly downtrodden, a very British girl who
transcended nationality. Someone with a natural
nobility who was classless and who proved in the last
year that she needed no royal title to continue to
generate her particular brand of magic.
Today is our chance to say thank you
for the way you brightened our lives, even though God
granted you but half a life. We will all feel cheated
always that you were taken from us so young and yet
we must learn to be grateful that you came along at
all. Only now that you are gone do we truly
appreciate what we are now without and we want you to
know that life without you is very, very difficult.
We have all despaired at our loss
over the past week and only the strength of the
message you gave us through your years of giving has
afforded us the strength to move forward.
"Great Gift of
Intuition"
There is a temptation to rush to
canonise your memory, there is no need to do so. You
stand tall enough as a human being of unique
qualities not to need to be seen as a saint. Indeed
to sanctify your memory would be to miss out on the
very core of your being, your wonderfully mischievous
sense of humour with a laugh that bent you double.
Your joy for life transmitted where
ever you took your smile and the sparkle in those
unforgettable eyes. Your boundless energy which you
could barely contain.
But your greatest gift was your
intuition and it was a gift you used wisely. This is
what underpinned all your other wonderful attributes
and if we look to analyse what it was about you that
had such a wide appeal we find it in your instinctive
feel for what was really important in all our lives.
Without your God-given sensitivity we
would be immersed in greater ignorance at the anguish
of Aids and HIV sufferers, the plight of the
homeless, the isolation of lepers, the random
destruction of landmines.
"Innermost Feelings of
Suffering"
Diana explained to me once that it
was her innermost feelings of suffering that made it
possible for her to connect with her constituency of
the rejected.
And here we come to another truth
about her. For all the status, the glamour, the
applause, Diana remained throughout a very insecure
person at heart, almost childlike in her desire to do
good for others so she could release herself from
deep feelings of unworthiness of which her eating
disorders were merely a symptom.
The world sensed this part of her
character and cherished her for her vulnerability
whilst admiring her for her honesty.
The last time I saw Diana was on July
1, her birthday in London, when typically she was not
taking time to celebrate her special day with friends
but was guest of honour at a special charity
fundraising evening. She sparkled of course, but I
would rather cherish the days I spent with her in
March when she came to visit me and my children in
our home in South Africa. I am proud of the fact
apart from when she was on display meeting President
Mandela we managed to contrive to stop the
ever-present paparazzi from getting a single picture
of her - that meant a lot to her.
These were days I will always
treasure. It was as if we had been transported back
to our childhood when we spent such an enormous
amount of time together - the two youngest in the
family.
Fundamentally she had not changed at
all from the big sister who mothered me as a baby,
fought with me at school and endured those long train
journeys between our parents' homes with me at
weekends.
It is a tribute to her
level-headedness and strength that despite the most
bizarre-like life imaginable after her childhood, she
remained intact, true to herself.
"Diana's Goodness
Threatened the Media"
There is no doubt that she was
looking for a new direction in her life at this time.
She talked endlessly of getting away from England,
mainly because of the treatment that she received at
the hands of the newspapers. I don't think she ever
understood why her genuinely good intentions were
sneered at by the media, why there appeared to be a
permanent quest on their behalf to bring her down. It
is baffling.
My own and only explanation is that
genuine goodness is threatening to those at the
opposite end of the moral spectrum. It is a point to
remember that of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps
the greatest was this - a girl given the name of the
ancient goddess of hunting was, in the end, the most
hunted person of the modern age.
She would want us today to pledge
ourselves to protecting her beloved boys William and
Harry from a similar fate and I do this here Diana on
your behalf. We will not allow them to suffer the
anguish that used regularly to drive you to tearful
despair.
"Blood Family Will Protect
Sons"
And beyond that, on behalf of your
mother and sisters, I pledge that we, your blood
family, will do all we can to continue the
imaginative way in which you were steering these two
exceptional young men so that their souls are not
simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing
openly as you planned.
We fully respect the heritage into
which they have both been born and will always
respect and encourage them in their royal role but
we, like you, recognise the need for them to
experience as many different aspects of life as
possible to arm them spiritually and emotionally for
the years ahead. I know you would have expected
nothing less from us.
William and Harry, we all cared
desperately for you today. We are all chewed up with
the sadness at the loss of a woman who was not even
our mother. How great your suffering is, we cannot
even imagine.
I would like to end by thanking God
for the small mercies he has shown us at this
dreadful time. For taking Diana at her most beautiful
and radiant and when she had joy in her private life.
Above all we give thanks for the life of a woman I am
so proud to be able to call my sister, the unique,
the complex, the extraordinary and irreplaceable
Diana whose beauty, both internal and external, will
never be extinguished from our minds.
--- CHARLES, EARL SPENCER
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