The airing of the Princess Diana tapes on North American television last week* [March 2004] was so emotional an experience that it brought back memories of her death. It even showed her visit to Canada in 1986 and she actually came to the town I live in and I went to the park to see her and be in the audience for her walkabout. Then she and Charles got into their limousine and left. The flower specialists planted a rose garden dedicated to her which is absolutely beautiful. It was soon after leaving my town that she went to Vancouver and had the fainting spell that she talked about in the tapes.

Just after Princess Diana's funeral on September 6, 1997, the owner of a magazine I'd been subscribing to for years wrote a scathing and cruel editorial about her that disgusted me so much that I immediately cancelled my subscription. Then I sent in the following letter-to-the-editor which I wrote on September 10, 1997. I'm sharing it with Orwell Today readers because it still expresses the way I feel today, except for the good things I said about Prince Charles:

Dear Editor,

If the truth were to be told about the death of Princess Diana it would read like a Shakespearean tragedy. The feeling for Diana goes deeper than the sum of all her parts. And it is way beyond the skill or the motivation of the writers of mainstream journalism or producers of movies and documentaries. This story belongs on centre stage at the London Globe Theatre written by someone capable of putting it there.

The pictures of Diana that I am used to seeing are of her dressed and adorned beautifully whilst she goes about her duties conducting herself in a princessly manner. I've heard about the personal problems and the tabloid long-shots but they don't alter my image of her. To me she was a Perfect Princess, just as Charles is a Perfect Prince and William and Harry are Perfect Princes. I'm awed by the pomp and the ceremony and love to see everything done up right.

Contrast that to the image of Diana in a coffin pulled on a gun gurney followed by a procession including her two children and hundreds of people whose causes she had genuinely served. Which picture do you prefer? If that isn't enough to break your heart and make you cry then what will?

I am happy to focus on the beauty and good that Princess Diana contributed to the world and cast aside the aspersions. You don't have to be perfect to earn heroine status. That is earned by reaching the soul. Just think back to Terry Fox and remember the emotions he inspired. It went beyond his cause or his feat. It was something about him in his own right.

My desire to overlook any faults of Diana does not extend to a desire to overlook the sordid details of her death. I don't believe that the driver was a drunken pill popper. Nor do I believe that she was being chased by paparazzi. I, like Hamlet before me, am melancholy and in despair in my belief that something is rotten in the state of Denmark. I wish England's greatest writer were here now to make into a play the life of Princess Diana. He would accurately memorialize the times and the events and put into words what most of us are incapable of expressing let alone understanding.

Goodnight Sweet Princess.

~ Jackie Jura
September 10, 1997

THE SPIRIT OF PRINCESS DIANA

Excerpt from latest Diana book ('The Way We Were' by Paul Burrell). ABC News, Oct 2, 2006

Reader says Diana manipulated the press and lost princess status when she divorced the prince

Diana touches hearts, 9 years on ("there needs to be a statue or something for 'England's Rose, Queen of Hearts'") & Princess Diana dies in Paris car crash. CNN/BBC, Aug 31, 1997 - 2006

Diana's driver's blood test faked (he wouldn't be able to stand up) & Diana evidence sealed 100 years (available to close relatives only). DNA/ContactMusic, Oct 21, 2005. Go to GOODNIGHT SWEET PRINCESS & 4.Destruction & CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Charles doesn't regret admitting adultery (but says the world is run by some very nasty, powerful people). Telegraph, Sep 3, 2005

Diana's death marked 8 years on BBC, Aug 31, 2005 & Princess Diana dies in Paris crash, August 31, 1997

DIANA BETRAYED BY SO MANY

Reader is trying to find the essay or letter Diana's Mother wrote shortly after her death

USA TV airs Princess Diana tapes (the first of a series being aired on NBC). BBC, Mar 5, 2004

DIANA: THE SECRET TAPES. Daily Mirror, Mar 6, 2004
(Tapes Princess Diana made six years before her death were played on American TV. They were a fraction of the seven hours she recorded for Andrew Morton, who used them for his bestseller Diana: My True Story...Her friend Dr James Colthurst, who acted as go-between, told NBC Diana was so eager to make the tapes she would snatch the written questions from him rather than let him read them out)

Go to VISITING PRINCESS'S PLACES

"There are powers at work in this country about which we have no knowledge" ~ the Queen of England. London Mirror, Nov 6, 2002

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (Hamlet explaining that all is not as it appears in the death of his father, the King)

'THEY WILL TRY TO KILL ME' (wrote Diana in letter to butler). Daily Mirror, Oct 20, 2003

DIANA FEARED BEING WATCHED (and Diana WAS being watched)

PEOPLES' PRINCESS & PRINCESS'S PEOPLE