I was 12 years old. I knew who Princess Diana was but not much else. We were at my parent’s lake cabin and it was late. I came running into a room and was immediately hushed. I remember not understanding why my mother was so moved by a British Royal being killed. As I’ve grown and realized who and what Princess Di meant to the world I now understand. However, I still do not understand why my mother insisted on buying a Princess Di calander and keeping it in the wrapper (she still has it)!

First, there was an announcement on TV of the accident in Paris and the cautious statement that Diana had been badly injured. I turned on my computer and followed the BBC updates. Then, I called my best friend, a Brit, who said “She’s dead, but they just aren’t telling us yet.” I remember saying, “Oh, no, she can’t be dead. I’m sure she’s just injured.” But, sadly, my friend was right and the news confirmed it a few hours later. I watched all the coverage of her funeral and felt great concern for her sons, who seemed so vulnerable walking behind the hearse. A few days later, I was attending a meeting in Reno and took a walk along the riverfront where it passes by a small church. On the steps were bouquets of flowers with messages to Diana. I’m sure there were flowers placed on church steps all over the world, and I still think it is remarkable that one young Princess who was complex and controversial could elicit so much universal sympathy.

I was getting ready to go out that night & we heard about the car crash but she wasnt dead yet…then at the club, here in VA, they stopped the music for a moment of silence in honor or Princess Diana b/c they had just announced on the news that she had died at the hospital…I can tell you I was 25 but had watched the Royal Wedding and was really in AWE over Diana. I thought she was a very beautiful woman inside and out who got pulled into a crazy life with Charles and his Mummy but with what she went through she pulled it together and started doing good with her stardum…To this day it is still hard to believe she is dead b/c she was such a great person…She is someone if have given the chance would Love to invite to dinner.

I remember I had worked a 3-11p shift at the hospital and had just got out of bed and CNN was on the TV and it said ”DEATH OF A PRINCESS”…….truly I figured it was some princess somewhere but never crossed my mind it was Diana! I was suprized at how deeply it touched me and still does to this day—such a young woman so full of hope and life…..Part of me still cannot comprehend her loss…..

I’m named after my grandmother, Lenore. She, mother, and sisters stayed up all night playing gin (my mom and grandmother drinking gin), waiting to watch Diana marry Prince Charles. Some storybook… Anyway, my daughter was born in late July 1997. My husband and son were away somewhere. My daughter woke up hungry, and I surfed channels while she nursed. I turned to CNN and saw the announcement. I called my mother immediately. It was about 2 am. We watched the news together, long-distance, in silence. We cried over the loss of Diana and the loss of Lenore. I’ll always remember it.

I woke up that Sunday morning, made a pot of coffee, then realized I was out of milk and would have to go out to the corner store. I opened the door to my apartment and there was my New York Times, with the headline “Diana, Princess of Wales, 36, Dies in a Crash in Paris.” It was a tremendous shock to read this headline. I knew nothing of the reports during the night of her accident. Simultaneously, I remember thinking that this may be the last big piece of news I ever find out by seeing a headline in a newspaper. And so far, it has been.

I don’t remember where I was but I remember being surprised at how much her death affected me. I was almost as shocked as when Lennon was shot, this reaction on my part was a surprise to myself and those close to me. Being Canadian you grow up with a certain sense of the Royals, I wasn’t a devoted fan but a curious onlooker. I wept uncontrollably and my husband thought I was a sappy fool. When I went to Paris a few years back I made a point of going to her memorial and The Ritz… she was a gift. Her death turned the Royals world upside down forever. The monarchy ain’t what it used to be.

When I was a young married woman I got up in the middle of the night to watch television coverage of her marrying Prince Charles. In the years that followed she was interesting to me because we were very close to the same age. Then her death shocked me. It seemed, in ways, like a Greek tragedy. I don’t remember how I heard. But afterwards I remember thinking that she, like Marilyn Monroe and others, was yet another iconic figure who had been destroyed by the projections that people placed on her.

I was in Newport watching late night television, while my two young children were “asleep” with their sleepover friends. It was a mesmerizing tragedy; the aftermath took place in my face. One child came in to find me in tears. I told her that Princess Diana had probably been killed in a car accident. She comforted me and went back to tell her friends. I watched until the sun filled the room. When I awoke, I learned that she was really dead. Throughout it all, I had the sense that she had been bumped off.

I had just landed foe my layover in Portland Oregon, got in the hotel and turned on the TV and heard the news….I was certain that she would live, that some how she was such an icon she couldn’t possibly die. Needless to say, I was truly shocked and saddened to hear in a matter of moments, she indeed had passed. I’ve been to London many times and always go to see her memorial. I also feel as though there was more behind her death than has been made aware to us.

I was at the local garden center, shopping for something; I don’t remember what. The radio was on, playing music over a sound system. They broke for the news, and the story was on it. I was totally shocked, but don’t remember much else, except that I went home and told my husband. We were in London in August 1998, and walked past Kensington Palace, Diana’s home. There were many flowers and tributes stuck in the iron gate. The people didn’t forget her. I don’t think they have eleven years later. She was so lovely.

There have been many people in our history (and when I say our, I am speaking collectively ~ World wide) that have left an imprint on all our hearts and lives. Princess Dianna was and is one of those special people. There is an old an anecdote about a reporter at President Roosevelt’s funeral procession. The reporter noticed a man off to the side with tears streaming down his face, distraught and overcome with grief. The reporter walked up to him and asked if he had known Roosevelt well? The man answered: “I didn’t know him, but he knew me!” That is how I feel when it comes to Princess Dianna. When she died I was surprisingly overcome with grief. It was as if I had lost a best friend, sister, loved one. She exuded a kindness that was genuine. You could see she was “every” woman. She struggled with personal and love relationships, self esteem, family, career and life issues. She could relate to the poor African woman with HIV and no medical care as much as she could the wealthy American woman who was grappling with how to enter the work force for the time but lacked skills. She reached out to everyone regardless of class, race, ethnicity or income. It wasn’t political for her, it was personal. I remember where I was when she died, but what I remember more, was how I felt. Years late and a million tears later…..as I sit at my keyboard typing this, I remember her and I can feel myself beginning to well up. I miss her.

I was at an end of summer party at my beach club after a long weekend playing in a paddle tennis tournament. I was sitting there watching the finals and keeping an ear on Wimbledon when a friend called and said Diana had been in a life-threatening accident. Needless to say, half the people at the party were glued to the television the rest of the night and we were totally shocked and devastated to learn of her death. She was exactly my age. I stayed up all night to watch her wedding and now I had to stay up all night to watch her funeral.