My Dear Tortured Lady Diana Princess of Wales
Patrick Lockyer
November 20, 2009
My dear tortured Lady Diana Princess of Wales. I wept for you all over again recently and it was completely unexpected. I had wept at the time and was deeply shocked. I was one of the first to know of your death in England due to circumstances. It was ironic that I had a conversation about you earlier that night in a line for return tickets to see Phantom of the Opera, Let me go back aways. I lived at Peterborough about an hour and a bit north of London and was deeply involved with Peterborough Road Safety. I had been Chair of the Road Safety Committee for several years and also the chair of the Peterborough Advanced Motorists. We had encouraged all drivers to strive for a higher standard and we helped them achieve that with free training. Then they would become Advanced Motorists and earn the certificate and badge. I had a newspaper column on road safety and was frequently asked to comment on driving/safety matters by radio and newspapers.
I was also a professional videographer and had filmed for King Hussein of Jordan and Lady Armstrong and was moving on up in the video world. Lady Di had been a guest at one wedding I did and a Gov.Minister at another. I had not met her but just being a Brit I was very conscious of all that was going on in her life and in the life of Prince Charles. I loved Di as a person with all her faults but then she still was faultless. Charles was a good ole guy and still is. He might have had his head turned and so did I but there is more to life and Charles has probably only truly loved the one earthy women most of his adult life. What is wrong with that? Lady Di had a completely different life. She did not have big ears for a start? She was a star and stars get tempted and Di had many lonely moments when the boys were elsewhere and it must have hurt. I know, I went from a big family group to isolation. I travelled to offset the ´occasions´ but still there were times. Di had a few on a line and you could pick from the England rugby captain and the art dealer and the car salesman and the Indian doctor and she was playing the field and having a great deal of excitement to offset the hurt and occasional loneliness.
My affiliation with Charles started at an early age as my mother brought me from Wales to sleep on the sidewalk to see the Coronation as it only happens once in your life she told me. I got lost the next day in Parliament Square as I needed the bathroom. She was not going to give up her front row place secured at great pain. As a ten year old I had to find the toilets below ground and find my way back. She told me to take in the face of Big Ben to figure it out. With a bursting bladder I found the latrine but unfortunately took a wrong turn and ended up on the other side of the square facing two sides of the famous clock. It took me over an hour to figure it all out and retrace my steps and it did not help that thousands of people were arriving and looking for vantage points and all of them much taller than me. To my mothers credit she did not scold me at all but announced that I was just in time. She made me what I am today in the way of confident toughness.
Charles was a little six year old in the coach and waved his little hand so how could I ever see him in the same light as some of the Americans here do? Anyway it is what Brits think of him that really matters. No playboy like many and certainly like Didi Fayed who had a fiancé hiding on a boat somewhere at the time. Charles does a lot for people that go unspoken of. He is a very down to earth creature with maybe a controversy or two.
Back then when Diana died I had a frequent delight to just traipse around London on foot. My partner Tracey and I would drive on a Saturday to the edge of the West End and find somewhere to park. We would then walk and walk. Inevitably we would end up at the Trocadero near Piccadilly Circus where there was lots of life. We would eat at the sidewalk Chinese all you could eat for four quid. We usually would go to Leicester Square and watch and listen to the street artists. On this occasion though we walked past the theatre showing Phantom and I suggested we take a look. We joined a line and were about thirty people back. Soon there were about fifty there. I had a conversation with a New Zealand couple about Diana and was a little critical of her morals and defensive of Charles somewhat. After a while I thought about what we were standing there for? It seemed unlikely that all these people were going to get ticket returns for such a popular show. I had actually never dreamed to have come to London to even afford to see it? I decided to go to the ticket office in the foyer and talk to someone. The ticket guy was very helpful. How far back are you he asked? No way he said when I told him about thirty people were in front of us. Maybe five or ten. I did not want to disappoint Tracey that we had waited 30 minutes for nothing although I had enjoyed the chat. Then all of a sudden a guy arrived and went to the head of the line and waving two tickets announced that they were ticket agents and had not sold these two tickets which were available at face value. I seethed that some fortunate was going to get in. Well, most of the ones up front turned their backs to him. He tried again. Then I shouted at him to come down to me. He did so and I asked the deal. He wanted cash and the price was on the ticket, 35 English pounds. We happened to have that cash with us. We did so as electrical items were often on sale nearby. Cash deals got the best bargains. I asked if the ticket guy would accompany us to the ticket office to see we gained entry and he did and we were in no problem. This really was colossal as people had waited months to see this show.
We were not as smartly dressed as some celebrating their anniversaries and such but we loved the show and right out of the blue also. The whole thing had made us later than usual walking the night streets of London back to our car. We picked up the Sunday paper on the way. There was a longish drive back to Peterborough but I was high on the show. Ironically Tracey´s sister was watching the same show on Broadway right at that time. It must have been about one o´clock when I heard on the radio about Diana. I listened avidly all along the way to Peterborough and after getting home at 2.30am I saw the actual car and the tunnel pillar and doubted any survivors. Just like after 9/11 I was glued to the TV News Channels and was one of the few in the UK to actually be awake. It was a strange feeling. Who do I know well enough to wake up? Who would be interested enough to forgive you for disturbing their Sunday lay in? We did call people and they called people and no one seemed to be upset at getting disturbed. It was a terrible loss and should not have occurred.
From a road safety point of view and as an ex military chauffeur involved with all the majesty of London life having been stationed at Regents Park Bks and having undergone special training for defensive driving and protective driving there will never be a case where another such personage will die in a traffic accident. This was Diana being Diana. Balking at the protection she would have been entitled to and getting a little excitement in her life. She had been known in London for liking to dodge the press in her little car and to resort to subterfuge and devious tactics to make appointments. With her staff and helpers she managed to have a reasonably fun existence for a royal. She also played the press and photographers when she chose to.
As a soldier stationed at Regents Park Bks I was chosen from 50 such highly trained drivers to personally drive for the Queen in a small way but I was just a young man in his twenties and I was the talk of the camp. As a civilian later I have driven in London and the Queen mother in her car has come by me. Wanting to be the talk of the town was Diana´s undoing and photos of her going out with a playboy in Paris were bound to be top rated. We all read the magazines. This romance was only five weeks old and was a bit of a sham really. I am sure that the Indian doctor was getting a message from Diana and probably a few others. It seems to be below the belt to remember that James Hewitt is the obvious father of Harry. At some time or other we will all have to accept that. Don´t go messing with a red headed riding instructor and not expect to see a definite result?
The main reason for writing this is that having been diagnosed 4th stage colon cancer in August this year and half way through chemo I get a little pooped and flop into bed during the day. I discovered a tape that my American wife had made from the local TV of the funeral of Diana. I had no idea that it was 5 hours and 40 minutes long. I watched it in pieces on one day and it did make me weep a bit. The people in the streets who were so affected and also I think a little homesickness. My wonderful London and her people. The compassion so obviously seen there against the cynical experiences and incidents reported and witnessed here in the USA.
What also touched me were the places that meant so much to me. The place where I slept right opposite Westminster Abbey and now so important at the Funeral. The gates of the Palace where I drove in at the wheel of the Queens personal baggage vehicle that was presented by the makers and was kept under wraps until HRH asked for it and I was picked from many to drive it for her. Trusted with her frocks in huge leather walk in mobile wardrobes. Oh I drove out of the gates with all the crowds and resisted shouting to them that I had the Queens stuff and was taking it to Windsor for the annual staff ´bash´. The same Parliament Square where as a top line military chauffeur we would all end up after late night events like the Lord Mayors Show having a burger at the little place we loved to meet and chat at before another exciting day began. Where to next? The Tower of London. The Bank of England. The Tate Gallery. The Queens Birthday Parade. Remembrance Day in Whitehall. Presidents Khrushchev´s visit. A great job for a young soldier driver indeed.
The tape was interesting to view as it presented an American aspect of a British event. Why no crying? Let the boys cry? Wow. How close can we get to see royal tears? They had a week to grieve in private. Leave them be. It irks me somewhat to see how much interest is placed by America on how the British should be. Will they demand the dissolution of the Monarchy seemed to be the most important topic throughout the whole tape? Any Brit knows that won´t happen anytime soon and America is a little jealous of that I suspect. Diana had consumed the media at that time and it is interesting to note just how normal things are these days in Britain without a Diana figure and even William does not attract the same obsessive attention or even his girlfriend.
It was interesting whilst watching the tape my wife recorded all that time ago that she insisted that there was a shot of the Queen with handkerchief at the mouth grieving when in fact they had found a lookalike who was openly grieving and Katie Couric states that we were watching the Queen sob. What is it about appearances that obsess the American nation anyway? What you see is very definitely not what you gets that´s for sure. In actual fact the camera people were under strict instructions not to film close ups of any of the relatives during the funeral service which was a bummer to many I am sure but still CBS supposedly got a shot of the Queen crying? You then have to imagine why the media were so denigrated at the time of Diana´s death and since.
America could certainly do with a ´Diana´ type right now to get Health Care Reform but I suspect that such a type, unless beautiful and rich would not get off the ground. A representative of the poor and afflicted and aid victims and opposed to bombs that harm children? Like the cluster bombs provided to Israel which still harm Lebanese children? No, instead America has their own Diana figure and it is a done nothing, dysfunctional family parent with some looks making millions on a book deal and taking the place of Paris Hilton. What you all see in Sarah Palin to be admired makes the world wonder and only in America will fame and infamy be much the same thing. Yes my poor tortured Lady Diana Princess of Wales will never materialize here in the US.
I was also a professional videographer and had filmed for King Hussein of Jordan and Lady Armstrong and was moving on up in the video world. Lady Di had been a guest at one wedding I did and a Gov.Minister at another. I had not met her but just being a Brit I was very conscious of all that was going on in her life and in the life of Prince Charles. I loved Di as a person with all her faults but then she still was faultless. Charles was a good ole guy and still is. He might have had his head turned and so did I but there is more to life and Charles has probably only truly loved the one earthy women most of his adult life. What is wrong with that? Lady Di had a completely different life. She did not have big ears for a start? She was a star and stars get tempted and Di had many lonely moments when the boys were elsewhere and it must have hurt. I know, I went from a big family group to isolation. I travelled to offset the ´occasions´ but still there were times. Di had a few on a line and you could pick from the England rugby captain and the art dealer and the car salesman and the Indian doctor and she was playing the field and having a great deal of excitement to offset the hurt and occasional loneliness.
My affiliation with Charles started at an early age as my mother brought me from Wales to sleep on the sidewalk to see the Coronation as it only happens once in your life she told me. I got lost the next day in Parliament Square as I needed the bathroom. She was not going to give up her front row place secured at great pain. As a ten year old I had to find the toilets below ground and find my way back. She told me to take in the face of Big Ben to figure it out. With a bursting bladder I found the latrine but unfortunately took a wrong turn and ended up on the other side of the square facing two sides of the famous clock. It took me over an hour to figure it all out and retrace my steps and it did not help that thousands of people were arriving and looking for vantage points and all of them much taller than me. To my mothers credit she did not scold me at all but announced that I was just in time. She made me what I am today in the way of confident toughness.
Charles was a little six year old in the coach and waved his little hand so how could I ever see him in the same light as some of the Americans here do? Anyway it is what Brits think of him that really matters. No playboy like many and certainly like Didi Fayed who had a fiancé hiding on a boat somewhere at the time. Charles does a lot for people that go unspoken of. He is a very down to earth creature with maybe a controversy or two.
Back then when Diana died I had a frequent delight to just traipse around London on foot. My partner Tracey and I would drive on a Saturday to the edge of the West End and find somewhere to park. We would then walk and walk. Inevitably we would end up at the Trocadero near Piccadilly Circus where there was lots of life. We would eat at the sidewalk Chinese all you could eat for four quid. We usually would go to Leicester Square and watch and listen to the street artists. On this occasion though we walked past the theatre showing Phantom and I suggested we take a look. We joined a line and were about thirty people back. Soon there were about fifty there. I had a conversation with a New Zealand couple about Diana and was a little critical of her morals and defensive of Charles somewhat. After a while I thought about what we were standing there for? It seemed unlikely that all these people were going to get ticket returns for such a popular show. I had actually never dreamed to have come to London to even afford to see it? I decided to go to the ticket office in the foyer and talk to someone. The ticket guy was very helpful. How far back are you he asked? No way he said when I told him about thirty people were in front of us. Maybe five or ten. I did not want to disappoint Tracey that we had waited 30 minutes for nothing although I had enjoyed the chat. Then all of a sudden a guy arrived and went to the head of the line and waving two tickets announced that they were ticket agents and had not sold these two tickets which were available at face value. I seethed that some fortunate was going to get in. Well, most of the ones up front turned their backs to him. He tried again. Then I shouted at him to come down to me. He did so and I asked the deal. He wanted cash and the price was on the ticket, 35 English pounds. We happened to have that cash with us. We did so as electrical items were often on sale nearby. Cash deals got the best bargains. I asked if the ticket guy would accompany us to the ticket office to see we gained entry and he did and we were in no problem. This really was colossal as people had waited months to see this show.
We were not as smartly dressed as some celebrating their anniversaries and such but we loved the show and right out of the blue also. The whole thing had made us later than usual walking the night streets of London back to our car. We picked up the Sunday paper on the way. There was a longish drive back to Peterborough but I was high on the show. Ironically Tracey´s sister was watching the same show on Broadway right at that time. It must have been about one o´clock when I heard on the radio about Diana. I listened avidly all along the way to Peterborough and after getting home at 2.30am I saw the actual car and the tunnel pillar and doubted any survivors. Just like after 9/11 I was glued to the TV News Channels and was one of the few in the UK to actually be awake. It was a strange feeling. Who do I know well enough to wake up? Who would be interested enough to forgive you for disturbing their Sunday lay in? We did call people and they called people and no one seemed to be upset at getting disturbed. It was a terrible loss and should not have occurred.
From a road safety point of view and as an ex military chauffeur involved with all the majesty of London life having been stationed at Regents Park Bks and having undergone special training for defensive driving and protective driving there will never be a case where another such personage will die in a traffic accident. This was Diana being Diana. Balking at the protection she would have been entitled to and getting a little excitement in her life. She had been known in London for liking to dodge the press in her little car and to resort to subterfuge and devious tactics to make appointments. With her staff and helpers she managed to have a reasonably fun existence for a royal. She also played the press and photographers when she chose to.
As a soldier stationed at Regents Park Bks I was chosen from 50 such highly trained drivers to personally drive for the Queen in a small way but I was just a young man in his twenties and I was the talk of the camp. As a civilian later I have driven in London and the Queen mother in her car has come by me. Wanting to be the talk of the town was Diana´s undoing and photos of her going out with a playboy in Paris were bound to be top rated. We all read the magazines. This romance was only five weeks old and was a bit of a sham really. I am sure that the Indian doctor was getting a message from Diana and probably a few others. It seems to be below the belt to remember that James Hewitt is the obvious father of Harry. At some time or other we will all have to accept that. Don´t go messing with a red headed riding instructor and not expect to see a definite result?
The main reason for writing this is that having been diagnosed 4th stage colon cancer in August this year and half way through chemo I get a little pooped and flop into bed during the day. I discovered a tape that my American wife had made from the local TV of the funeral of Diana. I had no idea that it was 5 hours and 40 minutes long. I watched it in pieces on one day and it did make me weep a bit. The people in the streets who were so affected and also I think a little homesickness. My wonderful London and her people. The compassion so obviously seen there against the cynical experiences and incidents reported and witnessed here in the USA.
What also touched me were the places that meant so much to me. The place where I slept right opposite Westminster Abbey and now so important at the Funeral. The gates of the Palace where I drove in at the wheel of the Queens personal baggage vehicle that was presented by the makers and was kept under wraps until HRH asked for it and I was picked from many to drive it for her. Trusted with her frocks in huge leather walk in mobile wardrobes. Oh I drove out of the gates with all the crowds and resisted shouting to them that I had the Queens stuff and was taking it to Windsor for the annual staff ´bash´. The same Parliament Square where as a top line military chauffeur we would all end up after late night events like the Lord Mayors Show having a burger at the little place we loved to meet and chat at before another exciting day began. Where to next? The Tower of London. The Bank of England. The Tate Gallery. The Queens Birthday Parade. Remembrance Day in Whitehall. Presidents Khrushchev´s visit. A great job for a young soldier driver indeed.
The tape was interesting to view as it presented an American aspect of a British event. Why no crying? Let the boys cry? Wow. How close can we get to see royal tears? They had a week to grieve in private. Leave them be. It irks me somewhat to see how much interest is placed by America on how the British should be. Will they demand the dissolution of the Monarchy seemed to be the most important topic throughout the whole tape? Any Brit knows that won´t happen anytime soon and America is a little jealous of that I suspect. Diana had consumed the media at that time and it is interesting to note just how normal things are these days in Britain without a Diana figure and even William does not attract the same obsessive attention or even his girlfriend.
It was interesting whilst watching the tape my wife recorded all that time ago that she insisted that there was a shot of the Queen with handkerchief at the mouth grieving when in fact they had found a lookalike who was openly grieving and Katie Couric states that we were watching the Queen sob. What is it about appearances that obsess the American nation anyway? What you see is very definitely not what you gets that´s for sure. In actual fact the camera people were under strict instructions not to film close ups of any of the relatives during the funeral service which was a bummer to many I am sure but still CBS supposedly got a shot of the Queen crying? You then have to imagine why the media were so denigrated at the time of Diana´s death and since.
America could certainly do with a ´Diana´ type right now to get Health Care Reform but I suspect that such a type, unless beautiful and rich would not get off the ground. A representative of the poor and afflicted and aid victims and opposed to bombs that harm children? Like the cluster bombs provided to Israel which still harm Lebanese children? No, instead America has their own Diana figure and it is a done nothing, dysfunctional family parent with some looks making millions on a book deal and taking the place of Paris Hilton. What you all see in Sarah Palin to be admired makes the world wonder and only in America will fame and infamy be much the same thing. Yes my poor tortured Lady Diana Princess of Wales will never materialize here in the US.
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