Just for the memories- where were you / what were you doing when you heard Diana had died?

[MarchionessVonSausage]

The thread about Earl Spencer's book made me think of this.

I'm Australian, the news came through early on a weekend morning, a Sunday I think. I was 22 and driving to pick up a girlfriend who'd had a disastrous night and ended at some random guy's house in the city. When she got in the car she was exhausted and still half pissed. I told her the news and she passed out. I took her home to bed.

She called me later saying "I dreamt Princess Diana died" and I told her to turn on the tv. Ah, memories of youth.

Sitting in the doorway on the floor of my dad’s office looking at something… I don’t remember what. My mum shouted it up the stairs.

I was probably watching the same film with my parents as a teenager, fewer to choose from back then. There was an announcement that she'd been in a car accident and was in hospital. We kept watching until they announced she'd died.

I’d had a lift into central London from my flatmate to pick up my car, which I’d left the night before and as we drove home we were both at traffic lights and he wound down his window to shout the news. We got back home and put the tv on. Still remember Blair wringing his hands.

I got up very early and put the tv on - a news presenter was wearing a black tie and looked somber. He was talking about a car accident but hadn’t mentioned anyone’s name - it took a few (long) minutes to find out who had died.
I was completely floored and very upset, went to wake up H who was shocked too.

In our flat, woke up to the news. The radio was playing gentle music. Took us a while to work out what had happened.

I was round a friends house. Then I went home and the football on tv was cancelled. My dad was complaining and asked what was going on and didn't believe me when it said it was because Princess Diana has died.

We were stripping old floorboards in the new house we'd just moved into. My mum called and told me and I was so shocked. We put the radio on and I just remember sitting on the stairs in room with the floorboards, listening to the coverage for what seemed like hours.

I was on holiday in Greece. A Greek guy told us but we didn't understand at first when he said "Lahdi Dee is dead" (?) I watched the funeral in a quiet beach bar and cried lots (didn't expect to) with the proprietress patting my shoulder sympathetically.

I was visiting my mother with my 6 week old daughter.

Early in the morning she came into our bedroom exclaiming “Fifth: something dreadful has happened”. She was often a bit of a drama queen so I anticipated a minor problem, but obviously on that occasion she was justified.

She had heard the news on the radio so we immediately turned on the television and watched as things unfolded.

I’ve found out it was Borsalino that night.

I woke up to the news on my radio alarm clock. I got up, went downstairs and switched the TV on. Ten minutes later my friend called round. Neither of us could believe it.

We were loading up our car at dawn to go do a car boot sale. The atmosphere there was awful as everybody was so sad and shocked by the news. We (XH) and I had been on honeymoon in Paris just a few weeks before it happened.

I was a self employed florist and frantically trying to complete a wedding order in my kitchen in Bethnal Green. I then had to deliver the whole shabang to Tottenham Ct Rd. My daughter had phoned to tell me the news, as I was so busy I didn’t get to process it until later that day. But I do remember saying ‘murdered more like, they don’t die in car incidents’!

I’d got up at around 7am on the Sunday morning to make up a bottle for our 6 month old son. I switched on the radio in the kitchen and the reporter said something about the press killing their golden goose, no name was mentioned and sombre music was then played. This intrigued me as I was expecting the usual radio format so I went into the living room and switched on the TV.

I remember we took the baby for a walk in the afternoon, just into the town centre. It was a drizzly grey day and there was no one around.

I was 10 days away from having my youngest DD

I turned on my radio next to the bed & couldn't understand why there was solemn classical music playing, I thought my radio had returned itself, then the 9.00 news came on & I found out she had died, I immediately put the television on & shouted downstairs to tell my mum. All I could think about was how sad for her boys & how the Royal Family would take over their lives.

I worked in retail and had an early shift. The news of her death ran through the store and I was completely blindsided by how the staff and customers felt. I went home and my ex and daughter were sat reading. I said that Princess Di was dead and neither looked up or said anything.

I was in my 20s living in Italy. We’d had quite a night & were walking back to the flat in the early hours. A news vendor stand was just setting up & the news boards were saying that Diana was dead. We asked him & he showed us the Italian newspapers.
At that time my Mum was a news journalist & it made perfect sense to me, in my drunken state, to call her in the early hours & ask if she knew anything. I’d woken her up so she’d not heard anything & was generally quite grumpy with me as it was her day off.
She was called about half an hour later to be told that Diana had died & would she be able to come into work? She was already awake so she went into work & worked pretty solidly until after the funeral.
Meanwhile I’d crashed out in bed but woke up mid-afternoon & switched the tv on to see the world’s reaction.

The next time I talked to Mum was to call her when she was at work in the newsroom on the day of the funeral to tell her I loved her after seeing Harry’s wreath on top of the coffin.

In bed at home
radio alarm went off and it was playing dreary music, sleepily wondering if id put radio 3 on by mistake and drifting in and out of sleep ( im not good on the mornings!) Then they announced Diana had died but I thought did i dream that?? Was such a shock quite surreal , but having said that in the nicest possible way i wasnt devastated . I didnt know her and it had no baring on my life. The hysteria thst followed was OTT imo. But it was shocking and of course very sad.

We were clearing up after hosting friends for dinner. Switched on Radio 4 at 01.45 to hear the chimes of Big Ben. It was the start of Britain Today on the World Service/R4. The presenter said the Princess of Wales had been seriously injured in a car crash in Paris. I remember thinking - trust they've got their facts right, if not they'll be hauled over the coals.
One of my first thoughts was - she was 36, exactly the same age as Marilyn. We'll always remember her as young and lovely. Clearly Elton had the same thought process...
That whole week was mystifying. It really didn't feel like the Britain I'd grown up in. So much public weeping and wailing, so very many bunches of flowers at every public building. Vividly recall one late night current affairs programme hypothesising that it could be a total turning point for the monarchy. Not a royalist so would have been quite happy if it had been. Yet still on they go.
Tried to avoid the funeral by going for a long run but it was on all day so no avoiding.

Very very weird time.

We had friends staying over on our sofabed, so I had got ready for work without disturbing them in the living room or seeing the TV.
I had the new Oasis album on in the car, so no radio.
Arrived at work, clueless. I thought my colleagues were joking so got back in the car and put the radio on.
It was a very surreal day.
On my way home it rained so hard the traffic almost halted. When I got in, DH and I watched the coverage as she was brought back to RAF Northolt.
The week before her death felt ominous in hindsight, like an ever increasing amount of sensationalist coverage and people- well, the media, following her every move. Bizarre times.

You had a TV in a car?!

This and the World Trade Center are the only two big events I saw (on TV) as they were happening. I'd been out and was watching something forgettable to wind down when there was a news flash about the crash. I switched over to a news channel and followed the whole thing until she died.

I'm not a royalist, though I did kind of like her, and didn't join the national mourning or anything. It did feel surreal - at the time I put that down to being drunk and tired, but watching 9/11 was a similar feeling and I was definitely sober then! Like a glitch in the matrix.

Sleeping on the sofa bed at my boyfriend's mum's house. His sister called in tears telling me to wake everyone up and I thought something terrible had happened on her way home.

When she said Diana had died in a car accident I told her I was going back to sleep. Before I fell asleep I wondered how long it would take before a conspiracy theory formed. The answer was: by lunchtime.🙄

Sunday morning. I had been out clubbing Saturday night, and in the early hours of the morning switched on the TV and nothing was playing except an image of a flag - the royal standard? Not sure, but it was odd and unusual and then at some point an announcement that she had died.