Princess Di, 1987
November 16, 2010
The year was 1981, late July. I was a young 13 year-old girl, utterly enchanted by the images of a Royal Wedding in the Faraway Land of England. Diana, Princess of Wales, was absolutely beautiful and the fulfillment of my imagination’s likeness of how a real Princess must look.
From the time I learned to read (my first readable word, at age 2, was “if”) I pored through books and fairy tales, from Dickens to Grimm to H.C. Anderson and beyond, as well as movies and fantasy stories on television about amazing kingdoms and royal adventures. To me, at 13, the Wedding at St. Paul’s Cathedral was no less a fairy tale than all I’d known to that point.
Like millions of others around the world, I grew up watching Princess Di, feeling joy with the arrival of each of her sons, feeling sadness with the eventual breakup of her marriage, and inspired by her parenting as well as her charity endeavors. And, of course, I was devastated by her death, which my husband and I heard about on the radio as we were driving home from our honeymoon.
I’m not much of a celebrity-watcher; in fact, I regard that kind of obsession as more than shallow. But I admit guilt (and hypocrisy, if it fits) when it comes to England’s Royal Family. As an American I am not privy to the daily goings-on other than what’s shown on the nightly news here — I’m not so obsessed that I keep surveillance on the internet — but I do have an emotional attachment that demanded exploring.
I had two boys at almost the same age that the Princess did; my first marriage ended badly; I mean, this was a lady I could relate to, as could so many other women around the world. I’m not a citizen of the U.K., yet I feel a kinship, a connection, through those lives on the other bank of the Pond.
Now young William is getting married, and I confess I had tears in my eyes when I saw that he had given his betrothed his own mother’s ring to seal their engagement. The couple made it clear that the future “Catherine, Princess of Wales” is not Princess Di, but my excitement with their impending wedding is just as strong as it was when I witnessed my first one nearly 30 years earlier. I’m looking forward to the new Fairy Tale, complete with a beautiful Princess.
Because of this family I’ve grown up with, I feel like an honorary Brit. Thank you, England!
