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Earl Charles Spencer's eulogy of Diana
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LONDON (September 6, 1997 09:04 a.m. EDT) - Following is the text of the
tribute to Princess Diana at her funeral by her younger brother, Earl Spencer:

"I stand before you today, the representative of a family in grief, in a
country in mourning, before a world in shock.

"We are all united, not only in our desire to pay our respects to Diana,
but rather in our need to do so, because such was her extraordinary appeal
that the tens of millions of people taking part in this service all over
the world via television and radio who never actually met her feel that
they too lost someone close to them in the early hours of Sunday morning.

"It is a more remarkable tribute to Diana then I can ever hope to offer to
her today.

"Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty.

"All over the world she was the symbol of selfless humanity. A standard
bearer for the rights of the truly downtrodden. A very British girl who
transcended nationality. Someone with a natural nobility who was classless
and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue
to generate her particular brand of magic.

"Today is our chance to say 'thank you' for the way you brightened our
lives, even though God granted you but half a life. We will all feel
cheated always that you were taken from us so young and yet we must learn
to be grateful that you came at all.

"Only now you are gone do we truly appreciate what we are without, and we
want you to know that life without you is very, very difficult.

"We have all despaired for our loss over the past week and only the
strength of the message you gave us through your years of giving has
afforded us the strength to move forward.

"There is a temptation to rush, to canonize your memory. There is no need
to do so. You stand tall enough as a human being of unique qualities, and
do not need to be seen as a saint.

"Indeed, to sanctify your memory would be to miss out on the very core of
your being -- your wonderfully mischievous sense of humor with a laugh that
bent you double, your joy for life transmitted wherever you took your smile
and the sparkle in those unforgettable eyes, your boundless energy which
you could barely contain.

"But your greatest gift was your intuition and it was a gift you used
wisely. This is what underpinned all your other wonderful attributes.

"And if we look to analyze what it was about you that had such a wide
appeal we find it in your instinctive feel for what was really important in
all our lives.

"Without your God-given sensitivity, we would be immersed in greater
ignorance at the anguish of AIDS and HIV sufferers, the plight of the
homeless, the isolation of lepers, the random destruction of landmines.

"Diana explained to me once that it was her innermost feelings of suffering
that made it possible for her to connect with her constituency of the
rejected.

"And here we come to another truth about her. For all the status, the
glamour, the applause, Diana remained throughout a very insecure person at
heart, almost childlike in her desire to do good for others so she could
release herself from deep feelings of unworthiness of which her eating
disorders were merely a symptom.

"The world sensed this part of her character and cherished her vulnerability.

"The last time I saw Diana was on July 1st, her birthday, in London when
typically she was not taking time to celebrate her special day with friends
but was guest of honor at a fund-raising charity evening. She sparkled, of
course.

"But I would rather cherish the days I spent with her in March when she
came to visit me and my children at our home in South Africa. I am proud of
the fact that, apart from when she was on public display meeting President
Mandela, we managed to contrive to stop the ever-present paparazzi from
getting a single picture of her. That meant a lot to her.

These are days I will always treasure. It was as if we were transported
back to our childhood when we spent such an enormous amount of time
together as the two youngest in the family.

"Fundamentally she hadn't changed at all from the big sister who mothered
me as a baby, fought with me at school, who endured those long journeys
between our parents' home with me at weekends.

"It is a tribute to her level-headedness and strength that despite the most
bizarre life after her childhood, she remained intact, true to herself.

"There is no doubt she was looking for a new direction in her life at this
time.

"She talked endlessly of getting away from England, mainly because of the
treatment that she received at the hands of the newspapers.

"I don't think she ever understood why her genuinely good intentions were
sneered at by the media, why there appeared to be a permanent quest on
their behalf to bring her down. It is baffling.

"My own and only explanation is that genuine goodness is threatening to
those at the opposite end of the moral spectrum.

"It is a point to remember that of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps the
greatest was this: a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting
was, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age.

"She would want us today to pledge ourselves to protecting her beloved
boys, William and Harry, from a similar fate, and I do this here, Diana, on
your behalf.

"We will not allow them to suffer the anguish that used regularly to drive
you to tearful despair. And beyond that, on behalf of your mother and
sisters, I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we can to
continue the imaginative and loving way in which you were steering these
two exceptional young men so that their souls are not simply immersed by
duty and tradition but can sing openly as you planned.

"We fully respect the heritage into which they have both been born and will
always respect and encourage them in their royal role. But we, like you,
recognize the need for them to experience as many different aspects of life
as possible to arm them spiritually and emotionally for the years ahead. I
know you would have expected nothing less from us.

"William and Harry, we all care desperately for you today. We are all
chewed up with sadness at the loss of a woman who wasn't even our mother.
How great your suffering is we cannot even imagine.

"I would like to end by thanking God for the small mercies he has shown us
at this dreadful time, for taking Diana at her most beautiful and radiant
and when she had joy in her private life.

"Above all, we give thanks for the life of a woman I'm so proud to be able
to call my sister -- the unique, the complex, the extraordinary and
irreplaceable Diana whose beauty, both internal and external, will never be
extinguished from our minds."

Copyright 1997 Nando.net
Copyright 1997 Reuter Information Service
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