Of all the different kinds of tears - tears of grief, tears of joy, tears of relief, tears of laughter, crocodile tears - perhaps the strangest shed are those on the occasion of the death of a celebrity. The most striking example of this phenomenon is the national outpouring of grief unleashed by the death of Princess Diana. Tears seem to come more easily when the deceased dies young, but truly anyone who has accompanied a significant part of our lives can provoke those tears that are none the less sincere for being facile and superficial.
But suppose you want to provoke this kind of tears when no-one suitable has died, what to do? May I recommend turning to YouTube and selecting a title such as "Those who have left us", "Celebrities who died in 2012 part 1" and so on. I can guarantee your eyes will be wet in next to no time.
But suppose you want to provoke this kind of tears when no-one suitable has died, what to do? May I recommend turning to YouTube and selecting a title such as "Those who have left us", "Celebrities who died in 2012 part 1" and so on. I can guarantee your eyes will be wet in next to no time.
There have been so many years now (is it 16) since Princess Diana died - and such a total, rather unkind reversal of what the press then did and now do have to say on the subject - that it's hard to remember exactly how I felt during that week.
ReplyDeleteYes, I did realise at the time that it was all rather over the top and to grieve deeply for someone I never met was hardly seemly. But what I know I was grieving for at the time was the pity of it all. A very young, motherless and impressionable girl reared on the works of Barbara Cartland had had her marriage to a much older man set up by their respective scheming grandparents - who knew full well he was in love with his mistress and thus unlikely to relinguish her. As indeed he didn't. How on earth could the young Diana Spencer have understood about the medieval ideas of the Royal Family on arranged marriages solely for dynastic purposes?
So - there was that. And though that didn't make me cry or leave flowers outside palaces it did make me very sad indeed. As did what was her entirely predictable future life.
And - OK - being extremely beautiful and still so young tugged at heartstrings. If others were moved to "facile" tears I for one understood them. It was the bureaucracy within the palaces (and "friends of Prince Charles") who rubbished her. And who seem to have won the day.
Still anonymous, when her engagement to Prince Charles was announced, she was a nursery school teacher in St Georges Square SW1 (near my day job).
ReplyDeleteEvery morning there would be photographers who essentially chased her from one side of the square to the other until she could access the nursery. They did that presumably because of the insatiable (I would say prurient) interest in that woman's life by many of those who purchased many of the then down market newspapers.
I felt sorry for her then and annoyed at the way she was treated; age at the time I think hardly nineteen. A local (Pimlico) curry house still has her photo of that time in its window.
My own view is that she was like most of us, pretty flawed but she became increasingly brave in her public life.
May she RIP