Like most people of a “certain age,” as they say, I clearly remember exactly where I was when I learned Diana, Princess of Wales, had been killed in a Paris car wreck in the early hours of Aug. 31, 1997.
A few of us had made our way to the Halifax Sheraton Casino after a going-away party for a couple of people at the television station. Walking into the hotel, we heard from a staff member that Diana had been seriously injured; within a half hour came word that she had died.
As the news spread like wildfire through the casino, a blanket of silence fell over the usually boisterous Saturday night crowd. It was sad and shocking news. Diana was, after all, a young and vibrant princess, and at the time, the most famous woman in the world.
By the next afternoon, ATV News producer Peter Hays, technical producer Greg Campbell, cameraman Paul Creelman and I were on a flight to Toronto, en route to London.
On the overnight transatlantic flight, I was seated beside CBC radio host Michael Enright, who opined, “I’m not sure what the story is but I’m sure there’s a story.”
There were, in fact, several stories that remain fresh in my memory.
The first was the sheer magnitude of the grief we encountered when we arrived in London. Tens of thousands had already gathered at Buckingham Palace, many red-eyed and sobbing. That soon grew to the hundreds of thousands who came and stayed for Diana’s funeral, many leaving flowers at St. James’s Palace -- so many flowers it looked like a soccer-field sized garden.
People came from all over the United Kingdom and well beyond to mourn.It’s that depth and sincerity of the emotion that I particularly recall. In a time before instant messaging on Twitter and Facebook, they came in person to express themselves.
Diana’s two young sons won the hearts of the world, bravely carrying on as their mother would have wanted them to do.
But there was the obvious disconnect between the people and their princess, and the royal family she had reinvigorated. It took days for the Queen and her heir to publicly recognize the loss.
It’s been 25 years. The world has not since seen such a personal outpouring for a single individual. And in the social media age, we are unlikely to see it again.
