寒冷-vasto
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
wherever 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 1, 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