Hello!
This theme usually notes an event or important facts and people somehow connected to the current day. Today, I decided to write about one event and one person from the near past. Lady Diana’s funeral took place in London on 6th September, 1997. That is one. Dolores O’Riordan, the notable and unforgettable lead singer of The Cranberries, was born on the same day in 1971.
1997 – the Funeral of Princess Diana
The beautiful and widely-loved Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris speeding away from paparazzi on 31 August 1997. I remember I cried when I heard the news on the radio at my grandparents’. I was surprised by my tears, because I hadn’t been a huge fan or anything. I liked her as anyone else did, but didn’t follow or admire. Still, that was it – I wept thinking how young and sweet looking she was, also how young her boys are. Since then, I have noticed that I cry at such news and also at weddings.
The funeral took place six days later, and was widely covered by all media. At that time, the Internet was not everywhere as it is now, so I doubt if anyone in Bulgaria followed it live, but all newspapers printed pictures of the sad luxury of the occassion. For me, the saddest part were Diana’s sons, the Princes William and Harry, who were left motherless. Amidst all the grandeur and ceremony, the bitter taste of jealosy and disapproval remained as all reporters stressed on the long period of dislike between husband and wife, as well as the royal family’s disparaging attitude towards Prince Charles’s ex-wife. There were also pictures of the millions of flowers people left outside of the Kensington Palace for their beloved princess.
I distinctly remember two keynotes. First, I’ve wondered many times, how these boys felt? Second, I’ve always seen my tears then as my fear of what was going to happen to my father. A tumour had just been found in his kidney, and he was about to the operated upon in a week from that day. And, as you know, a tumour is nothing to be light about. In our case, it was the worst. I remember Princess Diana’s funeral as the start of my tears of mourning for my dad. Mourning that went on for many years.
Dolores O’Riordan, 6th September 1971 – 15th January 2018
I heard about The Cranberries for the first time, like most of the world, in 1994 when their video of Zombie made it on MTV. That was one of my warmest Christmas seasons. I had a great and loving boyfriend, whose family liked me. He got them a contract with a cable TV provider as a Christmas present (!) and I got to spend most of my holidays over there, watching MTV. That was still a nice channel, mainly airing music. In the evenings, we would go to one of the bars our heavy-metal and punk-rock friends frequented, and there we discussed music and stuff. The Cranberries were quite a topic, mainly because of Dolores. Such a tiny girl with such a memorable voice!
Let’s enjoy it again!
That was all for today’s Throwback Thursday. See you next week!
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