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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.
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