Losing a Princess As she lay in bed on August 30th, Darlene Sheets never imagined she would receive the news that was about to come. “I had fallen asleep for a couple of hours after showering that night and turned on the television around 1:15 on the morning of August 31st. “, Sheets remembers. It was then when the news was released. The top story: Princess Diana Killed in Horrific Car Accident filled the media. While coming back from a late night dinner and a night out with then boyfriend, Emad Mohammed al-Fayed, Princess Diana’s driver was racing to escape paparazzi.
I believe that there was a car coming from the other direction when they began to enter the tunnel and that is when the driver veered to miss having a collision”, Sheets recalls. The car was traveling at a very high speed when it collided with a concrete wall and ultimately bounced into a support pillar. As help arrived and ambulances made their way through, anyone could see that the outcome was not going to be good. The car was totaled and hood had been bent almost in half. As sirens blared and lights flashed, bodies were taken from the scene and the injured body guard was rushed to the hospital.
The impact of the crash caused massive damage to not only the car, but the families of the victims. The driver of the deadly crash was Henri Paul, who was killed instantly along with Fayed. As for the Princess, she was uncovered from the horribly folded up car in a bent over position where she was rescued and taken to a nearby hospital and announced dead around 4:00 am on the morning of August 31. Princess Diana and Prince Charles had been divorced for about a year, but had been separated for five years when the crash occurred.
Their sons William and Harry were just 15 and 12 at the time of the accident. News reached Buckingham Palace five hours later. Although Prince Charles and his sons were not there, the news was sent by a phone call to their summer home in Scotland. The Prince revealed the news to their sons and the devastated families began grieving. The Queen later gave a short speech saying they were all in disbelief and shocked that something like that had happened. Sheets says “The world itself was shocked and the news rocked our world”, and “I thought the death of a Princess like Diana just couldn’t be true”.
Sheets explained that Diana had been someone young women could look up to, that she was a good role model and a guide for a good future of the next female generation. The princess of Wales reached out to the less fortunate and helped all she could. Her work with charities and the land mines around the world were a huge help to different countries and their people. During her time here on earth, Princess Diana did many good deeds for not only her country, but for the world. One major influence was her trips to South Africa and the charity work she put in.
Diana was very charismatic. This, combined with her devotion to helping others, made her one of the most sought after figures in Britain. The princess was a patron and president of many organizations throughout her lifetime. Some of these include the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children that is located in London and a cancer treatment facility called the Royal Marsden Hospital. When it came to helping those less fortunate Diana was a patron for many organizations. Her patronages included Centerpoint, which helped with the caring for homeless individuals and families.
Diana’s biggest contribution had to have been her involvement with AIDS sufferers. Princess Di put in much time with patients suffering from the AIDS disease. Diana once said “HIV does not make people dangerous to know. You can shake their hands and give them hug heaven knows they need it” (biographyonline. com). The princess was well known for many things other than the her generous doings. “People loved her for the way she dressed, her wonderful hairstyles, her personality towards her supporters, and how she loved people in general”, Sheets said.
With the princess helping out so many people, her death brought a great deal of emotional distress on not only her country, but the entire world. Princess Diana touched a number of lives in the world and some say they felt as though they knew her even without having met Diana. “Her personality and her way with people could make you feel like you had had many conversations with her, so when she died it felt as though you lost a good friend”, Sheets added. In the days after her death, it was as though a darkness had come over Britain.
While people still brought flowers and their support, mourning set in quickly. No one could believe one of the world’s most caring and sought after persons could be gone. “She was always the one dressed with nice clothing, an impeccable smile, and a great hairstyle” says Sheets. The public could describe the princess in many ways, but when the media tried making those comments negative people stood up against them. Princess Diana helped others rise up from dark times in their lives, not fall down. So, why was the media overly concerned with portraying her to be this way?
Money and greed are the answers to this question. Even the negativity made money, therefore paparazzi had to make it happen. Sheets commented on this by stating, “People act as if they are blinded by the wealth such things, that are not even truly worth it, bring to them”. This sense of greed and money hunger is what could have contributed to the death of the princess and the others. If the paparazzi would not have cracked down so hard to get that one shot of Fayed and the princess, their car may not have been traveling at the speed it was.
Conspiracies have come about in hat actually caused the death of princess Diana and others. Some believe that the paparazzi were paid to chase the car until it got to a high enough speed to crash, others say that the driver appeared to be under the influence, and most say it was just an accident. At the scene of the crash, the meddling paparazzi was taken away in hand-cuffs and were sat down for questioning. One of the motorcycle drivers, Stephane Darmon, made a statement to police saying, “He expected the paparazzi to help the passengers of the vehicle but was shocked when they started taking photographs”.
Other witnesses recall seeing paparazzi on top of the car, taking photographs of the scene instead of helping those inside. Sheets tells, “To this day I do believe the paparazzi had some contribution to the death of those three. It is unbelievable to me that all of them were not punished for invading the couple’s privacy and pushing the driver to do such a thing”. There were ten suspect paparazzi members total that were under investigation for things such as gross negligence, manslaughter, and invading the privacy of the couple, Diana and Fayed.
All the suspects that were interviewed claimed to not be close enough to the Mercedes to see what happened directly before the crash or had not been close enough to have any effect on how the crash occurred. There were many losses during that dark night that still haunts many people of the public. The death of Henri Paul is the loss of a person who will never get to see the world as it is today. As for Fayed, his loss is one of a nice man that could have given his country a good future, and for his family they lost a loved one whom they can never get back. Lastly, the princess of Wales.
From her style, to her charities, to family, and to the people who loved her without knowing her, Princess Di was a remarkable woman who had much to and was willing to give to anyone she met. Grief and sadness still lie in the public when her name is brought up. The question still remains on who caused the accident and why it had to happen. Sheets explained how still to this day she will think about the accident and how the paparazzi could have led to it. Her gracious ways, her style, and the way she presented herself made an enormous impact on females all around.
She represented the way a woman should carry herself, the way she should act properly, and how one should handle negativity. Diana was a loving mother who left this world loving her boys significantly. She was a leader, a daughter, and most of all a mother of her two boys who we can see her in today. She was one to look up to, and a beautiful one at that. Diana, princess of Wales, will be always be remembered not only for her fame, but for the great person she was, for all she contributed and for all she helped. The loss of Diana was the loss of a true Princess.
