Editor’s note: This column was originally published on Sept. 3, 1997.
Diana’s garden . . .
Dateline: Kensington Park —Green pods still hang from the Hickory and Hawthorne trees in this quiet park.
So do the handwritten “Diana” poems clothespinned to the twigs.
So do the flowers encased in foil jutting from their branches.
It’s the smell of candle wax, the scent of fragrant tuberoses, the click, click, click of baby carriages, and the silence of sadness that surrounds the palace where Diana once lived.
All day long they come. And all night long they wait to honor their fallen princess.
They rarely cry. They seldom weep. But their grief is profound.
The hegira to Kensington, Buckingham and St. James’s palaces, where her body rests out of sight, never seems to end.
I walked through it Tuesday. The press of grief sucks your breath away momentarily. And then it’s over. But not for Diana. As one note pinioned on a palace gate said:
“Your candle blew out long before your legend ever did.”
Postcards from London . . .
Greetings:
Prince Charles wept. He shed tears of grief Monday as he walked across the moors around Balmoral Castle.
So said Richard Kay, a reporter who was a great friend of Princess Di’s. Charles reportedly stayed up late the night before drinking gin martinis and calling friends into the wee hours of the morning.
A macabre note . . .
It’s so sad. Charles reportedly was visibly shaken and wept when an electric fan blew a strand of Diana’s hair at the hospital in Paris when they collected her body.
The Camilla corner . . .
The other woman in Prince Charles’ life, Camilla Parker Bowles, who has been out of sight, has talked to Prince Charles on the phone since Diana was killed. But she has not met him since the accident.
The big rumor . . .
Diana and her beau Dodi Fayed were off to a secret engagement party the night they were killed, according to the latest buzz swirling around the late couple.
It’s an excuse the paparazzi are using for stalking her. (I doubt that Diana would have worn a pair of jeans to her engagement party.)
The Fayed factor . . .
Mohamed Al Fayed, Dodi’s father, wept at his son’s Muslim funeral and said that he believed Di and Dodi were now united in paradise. He planned to dedicate Window No. 20 at Harrod’s to the pair. (The last time this window was dedicated to a special event was the death of Winston Churchill.)
The mum factor . . .
The royal family has remained mum since Diana’s death. Some members of the British public feel their silence is outrageous.
The mum factor II . . .
Close friends of Diana’s are hoping her mother, Frances Shand-Kydd, remains very active in her grandsons’ lives. The boys, William and Harry, were Di’s legacy. “Diana’s mother is very much like her. Very affectionate and caring,” said Richard Branson, head of Virgin Airways. (Diana’s mother left the family when Di was young. But they had since reconciled.)
Son sighting . . .
Prince Harry was seen Tuesday walking with his dad on the grounds around Balmoral and sitting with his dog on his lap. Prince William was nowhere in view.
A nanny note . . .
Tiggy Legge-Bourke, the former nanny Princess Di loved to hate, was summoned to Balmoral to spend time with Di’s boys.
The Scotsman saga . . .
The British public was in an uproar Tuesday when the respectable Scotsman newspaper reprinted a reworked front page picture originally published in a German paper. Why? It was a picture showing the attempts made to free the victims from the wrecked car. The Scotsman claimed no bodies could be seen. The public retorted that Diana’s sons would be upset. At last peek, all the newspapers had sold out very quickly.
