Princess Diana is no longer with us, yet her legacy will live on.
Despite the fact that she died over 20 years ago, the Princess of Wales continues to motivate people throughout the world. Even now, we hear stories of her enduring generosity and uncommon empathy, and we are convinced of why she was dubbed “The People’s Princess.”
Diana was well-known for the fact that no territory was too far away, no barrier too high to cross in the sake of assisting others. On the night of her 22nd death anniversary, we reflect on one of the many instances she demonstrated she was simply too wonderful for this world.
Diana went on a humanitarian tour to Bosnia just a few weeks before her terrible death on August 31, 1997, as part of her campaign to spread the word about landmines.
Diana was accompanied on the journey by Ken Rutherford and Jerry White, which turned out to be her last of its sort.
In 2017, over 20 years after her death, the couple recalled their journey for an HBO documentary titled “Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy.”
Rutherford and White told Entertainment Weekly various anecdotes about their time with Diana in Bosnia, but one of White’s in particular stood out.
On August 10, 1997, an unforeseen excursion to the Sarajevo War Cemetery occurred.
The vision of her at a cemetery in Sarajevo on the last day of the three-day journey still haunts her, White remembered. It wasn’t on purpose. It was never on the agenda. She can’t get this vision of her at a graveyard out of her head, Diana said three times.
She inquired if there was a cemetery nearby since she thought they should go there. They were late for a final banquet and had little time for this diversion, but Princess Diana seemed resolute, curiously.
So they went out of the way to the former Olympic stadium, which had been turned into a gigantic war graveyard. White stood there watching Diana take her place among hundreds of tombstones. It was strange, now that she thinks about it. She moved slowly, past tombstones and yellow rose bushes.
She came into a Bosnian woman tending to her son’s grave, plainly in mourning. Diana didn’t speak Bosnian, and her mom didn’t speak English either. So they simply hugged. Mother-to-mother, so close, so physical, so emotional.
It was typical Diana, reaching out, wiping the mother’s tears and cheeks, White continued. It’s the only framed portrait of Diana she still has.
After her death in Paris only a few weeks later, White began to wonder if the Princess foresaw her own death and burial. She is not sure, but Diana may have felt her death psychically or instinctively. It still gives White shivers thinking about this tremendous, unexpected, unanticipated, and oddly predictive event.
That sounds like Diana, whom we all remember and adore. She was always thinking of others first and had no boundaries when it came to imagining a better future for us all.
On August 31, 1997, Princess Diana was unjustly stolen from us. Who knows what amazing things she would have gone on to do.
