I just sat ther dumbfounded looking at the car. All I remember are these dark, murky scenes of cars and ambulances and being in a state of shock. My friend R called and said, "did you hear?" I said, "yes I'm watching" and she said, matter-of-factly, unequivocally, as if she were saying 'George W Bush is a moron',"She's dead. They're just not telling us until they tell the family.".
Sure enough, it was late, maybe 1 am EDT when they announced that she was dead. Just now, a chill went up my spine, just like it did that night.
The next few days were a big blur of watching every moment of activity from a spooked Prince Charles going to retrieve her body to the OTT funeral. All of it foreshadowing the bobbing buoy and spooked Ted Kennedy going to retrieve the bodies less than a year away.
Before Princess Di's funeral, we heard that Elton John would be singing. My sisters Trish and Suzanne asked me what I thought he'd sing. First I said something like "Love Lies Bleeding in My Hand" and then, whooping with derisive laughter, I said "I know, ha ha ha, 'Candle in the Wind".
It was months later, at Christmas, that I ran into Dave in Central Park and we finally became great friends. The following September, we went to Paris for a few days on vacation. We dressed up like Di and Dodi on their last day. I had on a white button down and khakis, Dave had the same ensemble, adding a blue blazer. We went to the Ritz and walked down the halls and retraced their last steps, even going out the back revolving door. I am still shocked that no one saw us and kicked us out. We went outside and took a series of pictures of us in costume standing in front of the Ritz. Months later, when I finally had film of the trip developed (we're talking 1998) the pictures of Dave and I dressed as Dodi and Di did not come out.
I am sadder now about her death than I was then. Maybe all the retrospectives and the books are biased, but seeing her on film you experience her beauty like it's the first time and you feel the waste of a young, promising woman's life more viscerally than you did when it was just the series finale of The Princess Diana show. #
