"I stand before you today the representative of a family in grief, in a
country in mourning before a world in shock.
"We are all united not only in our
desire to pay our respects to Diana but rather in our need to do so. For
such was her extraordinary appeal that the tens of millions of people
taking part in this service all over the world via television and radio
who never actually met her, feel that they too lost someone close to them
in the early hours of Sunday morning. It is a more remarkable tribute to
Diana than I can ever hope to offer her today.
"Diana was the very essence of
compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. All over the world she was a
symbol of selfless humanity. All over the world, a standard bearer for the
rights of the truly downtrodden, a very British girl who transcended
nationality.
"Someone with a natural nobility who
was classless and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal
title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.
"Today is our chance to say thank you
for the way you brightened our lives, even though God granted you but half
a life. We will all feel cheated always that you were taken from us so
young and yet we must learn to be grateful that you came along at all.
Only now that you are gone do we truly appreciate what we are now without
and we want you to know that life without you is very, very difficult.
"We have all despaired at our loss
over the past week and only the strength of the message you gave us
through your years of giving has afforded us the strength to move forward.
"There is a temptation to rush to
canonise your memory, there is no need to do so. You stand tall enough as
a human being of unique qualities not to need to be seen as a saint.
Indeed to sanctify your memory would be to miss out on the very core of
your being, your wonderfully mischievous sense of humour with a laugh that
bent you double.
"Your joy for life transmitted where
ever you took your smile and the sparkle in those unforgettable eyes. Your
boundless energy which you could barely contain.
"But your greatest gift was your
intuition and it was a gift you used wisely. This is what underpinned all
your other wonderful attributes and if we look to analyse what it was
about you that had such a wide appeal we find it in your instinctive feel
for what was really important in all our lives.
"Without your God-given sensitivity we
would be immersed in greater ignorance at the anguish of Aids and HIV
sufferers, the plight of the homeless, the isolation of lepers, the random
destruction of landmines.
"Diana explained to me once that it
was her innermost feelings of suffering that made it possible for her to
connect with her constituency of the rejected.
"And here we come to another truth
about her. For all the status, the glamour, the applause, Diana remained
throughout a very insecure person at heart, almost childlike in her desire
to do good for others so she could release herself from deep feelings of
unworthiness of which her eating disorders were merely a symptom.
"The world sensed this part of her
character and cherished her for her vulnerability whilst admiring her for
her honesty.
"The last time I saw Diana was on July
the first, her birthday, in London when typically she was not taking time
to celebrate her special day with friends but was guest of honour at a
special charity fundraising evening. She sparkled of course, but I would
rather cherish the days I spent with her in March when she came to visit
me and my children in our home in South Africa. I am proud of the fact
apart from when she was on display meeting President Mandela we managed to
contrive to stop the ever-present paparazzi from getting a single picture
of her; that meant a lot to her.
"These were days I will always
treasure. It was as if we had been transported back to our childhood when
we spent such an enormous amount of time together; the two youngest in the
family. Fundamentally she had not changed at all from the big sister who
mothered me as a baby, fought with me at school and endured those long
train journeys between our parents' homes with me at weekends.
"It is a tribute to her
level-headedness and strength that despite the most bizarre-like life
imaginable after her childhood, she remained intact, true to herself.
"There is no doubt that she was
looking for a new direction in her life at this time. She talked endlessly
of getting away from England, mainly because of the treatment that she
received at the hands of the newspapers. I don't think she ever understood
why her genuinely good intentions were sneered at by the media, why there
appeared to be a permanent quest on their behalf to bring her down. It is
baffling.
"My own and only explanation is that
genuine goodness is threatening to those at the opposite end of the moral
spectrum.
"It is a point to remember that of all
the ironies about Diana, perhaps the greatest was this; a girl given the
name of the ancient goddess of hunting was, in the end, the most hunted
person of the modern age.
"She would want us today to pledge
ourselves to protecting her beloved boys William and Harry from a similar
fate and I do this here Diana on your behalf. We will not allow them to
suffer the anguish that used regularly to drive you to tearful despair.
"And beyond that, on behalf of your
mother and sisters, I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we
can to continue the imaginative way in which you were steering these two
exceptional young men so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty
and tradition but can sing openly as you planned.
"We fully respect the heritage into
which they have both been born and will always respect and encourage them
in their royal rôle but we, like you, recognise the need for them to
experience as many different aspects of life as possible to arm them
spiritually and emotionally for the years ahead.
"I know you would have expected
nothing less from us.
"William and Harry, we all cared
desperately for you today. We are all chewed up with the sadness at the
loss of a woman who was not even our mother. How great your suffering is,
we cannot even imagine.
"I would like to end by thanking God
for the small mercies he has shown us at this dreadful time. For taking
Diana at her most beautiful and radiant and when she had joy in her
private life. Above all we give thanks for the life of a woman I am so
proud to be able to call my sister, the unique, the complex, the
extraordinary and irreplaceable Diana whose beauty, both internal and
external, will never be extinguished from our minds."
6 September 1997 - Westminster Abbey
