The week from Sunday 31st August 1997 until Saturday 6th September 1997 is one I will remember always. It was a week during which my colleagues and I clammered for the latest news developments relating to the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales. I normally do not buy newspapers, and this week was no exception. My news source was, and probably always will be, the internet and the television, in particular, http://www.yahoo.co.uk and the BBC.
Our mixtures of emotions was tremendous. First there were shock and disbelief; swiftly followed by outrage and anger, and still the disbelief was there. This was an event that shocked the Nation, and indeed the whole world.
For me the event of the funeral had a slight personal note, as I was one of the thousands of people who camped in The Mall to await the joyous occasion of her Wedding to HRH Prince of Wales sixteen years ago. On that occasion, I camped with my parents and younger brother for the night, to ensure that we had a good vantage point from which to see the Prince, Princess to be and the rest of the Royal Family. That wedding procession started a small tradition with my family, and it was decided on the day of that wedding, that we would also be present at any future weddings or state occasions of such importance. This pledge was taken by my mother, father, my younger brother and myself.
Situations and circumstances change, but not until after the Royal Wedding of HRH Prince Andrew to Lady Sarah Ferguson which the whole family attended again. We returned as a family to the Mall, where we once again camped at the same tree - the second tree on the right, if you look from the Buckingham Palace and of the Mall. By this time we had another member of the family, a sister who was to young to camp out with us on the pavement, and she was cared for by releatives while the rest of us returned on our small pilgrimage to our tree in the Mall.
Since the second wedding however, my father passed away, quite unexpectedly at the age of only 47. At that time, we speculated that the next occasion on which we would all meet at 'our tree' would possibly that of a Royal or State Funeral. We were right in our speculation, but we could not have foretold under what horrific circumstances, or whose funeral it would be. We did speculate, and I will only say that we summised that if the occasion turned out to be a funeral, then it might be that of one of the elder members of the Royal Family.
For myself, the pledge to carry on returning to that spot was forgotten in my initial grieving for Diana, but I was reminded of it when my mother asked if I was going to be attending the funeral. I hadn't given it any thought, such was my shock and horror at the event itself! I quickly realised that we should attend, especially in the light of our promise to my late father, to return to that spot, and continue to attend such occasions always. Unfortunately, my brother has since married, and is the proud father of a bouncing baby boy; making it extremely difficult to attend. It is quite sad that he could not attend, as I know he would have liked to, but he has a family whose welfare he has to consider first, and he also has cows to milk!
So it was decided, that my mother and I would attend the funeral; returning to our spot of two previous Royal processions. Rumours of an expected 6 Million mourners did not deter us, nor would they have if the figure bandied round had been twice that number.