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Princess Diana

by Shreenu from San Diego

"A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself"(Campbell). A hero is not born; a hero is made. Princess Diana is a hero and her legacy has been achieved through her selflessness. Princess Diana was born "Diana Frances Spencer" on July 1, 1961, in Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk to John Spencer and Shand Kydd. Diana's mother re-married after a bitter divorce in 1969. Shortly afterwards, her father won custody of Diana. Following her parent sloppy divorce, her father remarried and Diana was not fond of her new step-mother. Diana became known as Lady Diana when her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer. Diana was often noted for her shyness while growing up, but she did take an interest in both music and dancing. She also had a great interest in children. She began working with children, eventually becoming a nursery assistant at the Young England School. Diana had apparently played with Princes Andrew and Edward as a child while her family rented Park House, a property owned by Queen Elizabeth II. After a year of dating, Prince Charles proposed on February 6, 1981 and she inherited the title Princess of Wales. They conceived their first of two children, a son named William. During the course of her first pregnancy, she tried to commit suicide not once, but five times. On September 15, 1984, Diana gave birth to their second son Henry. It wasn't long before the marriage began to slowly deteriorate.The divorce was finalized in August of 1996. Within a month, she began dating Dodi al Fayed and their relationship lasted until their deaths. On 31 August 1997, Diana was fatally injured in a car crash in a road tunnel in Paris, which resulted in Diana's death and her spouse's. Even after her sudden death, she remained a remarkable inspiration, a hero, to millions. She left an impact on the world as a remarkable woman who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it, and saw an opportunity and made the most of it.

Diana was one of the most photographed woman (http://awhitecarousel.com/ ())
Diana was one of the most photographed woman (http://awhitecarousel.com/ ())

Unconditional love does not have a distance. Princess Diana's nurturing qualities expanded with every smile, and her compassionate caress displayed heroic qualities, in which she used tenderness to medicate the world of its pain. She nourished and cared for not only people suffering in the world, but she maintained a loving and healthy relationship with her two sons, William and Henry. "Motherhood~ It wasn't just in her approach to charity and the kind of interaction she expected and enjoyed with ordinary people where Diana was beginning to break with previous royal behavior. 'The children were her absolute priority. The thing that mattered most to her was her sons. They were at the heart of her life.', says Sarah McKnight, her close friend"(Coward). Through her busy life of public interaction and charity work, she always managed to care for her two sons and always spent time with them. It was family that she thought was the most important. However, her family became more than just her two sons. It reached the victims of land mines in Angola or AIDS sufferers in Harlem, New York. She proved that despite the fact that she only had two hands, she could do so much more than hold the corners of her lavish dress or readjust the crown on her head. Her nurturing state led her to be incredibly humble and selfless. She did so much to benefit the world and she touched so many people's hearts. "During her life, the Princess was known for her high profile charity work, starting with her support of AIDS charities campaigns in 1987. Diana was the first celebrity to be photographed touching a person with the HIV virus. In an instant, the photographs of her compassionate gesture went a long way to helping shift public awareness of AIDS. Diana often made unannounced visits to terminally ill patients in hospital but with the request that she remain out of the media on these occasions"(A+E Networks). This reveals that she was humble in her decisions and any attention she received was to benefit the people, who had received no attention from the world at all. She provided grief-stricken people with more hope than they could imagine they would ever accept. Her public attention confirms that she is selfless and that her beauty went beyond her physical appearance. Instead of building her ego for all of the media coverage she got, she used it to benefit all the charities she had a driving passion for. She raised awareness and gave the world vision to see that every human has the capability to love and that every human has the ability to be loved. Her love bounced off the corners of the world and she quickly numbed the pain of those hurt in everyday life. Diana's love could not be photographed or written enough to show how much of a capacity it had. However, Diana's love was something that could be felt in the heart, overpowering all the darkness locked in us.

Diana visits and volunteers for the elderly (http://worldrelief-fund.com/81/charity-work-prince ())
Diana visits and volunteers for the elderly (http://worldrelief-fund.com/81/charity-work-prince ())

Being humble is defined as not being proud in oneself and not thinking as yourself better than other people. A hero is someone who can be defined as humble, one of Diana's strongest traits. "When she [Princess Diana] stroked the limbs of someone with leprosy, she did more to break the taboos surrounding that disease than any number of books, articles, and health education programs. When she sat on the bed of a man with HIV/AIDS, held his hand and chatted to him naturally as a fellow human being, she struck a tremendous blow against the stigma and superstition which can cause almost as much suffering as the disease itself and makes it so much harder to prevent and treat"(Nelson Mandela). In this quote, Mandela praises Diana for her astounding humbleness and compassion. It's hard not to acknowledge that we are better than someone else. However, Diana's outlook on life was not focusing on herself but instead she concentrated on the other seven billion people out there. She didn't consider herself better then the people she visited in hospitals or elderly homes, and she made sure that the world would not make that mistake either. She never believed she was something she was not. "No longer in the exclusive service of the British monarchy, she had become a multifaceted global who appealed to a great variety of individuals and groups, ranging from AIDS and land mine victims to people who had experienced similar matrimonial breakdowns. Descriptions such as the "people's princess" or the "queen of hearts" reflect the supranational and almost universally applicable meaning Diana had acquired by the time she died"(Newsmakers). She let people know that if you didn't have anyone to catch you when you fell, she would. She gave people courage and despite their circumstances, made them believe in themselves again. She reached out to so many different people the rich and poor, the young and old, and the strong and weak. Everything in her heart was pure and utter humility.

A true hero is not one who just helps others. A true hero is someone who went through difficulties and hardships and did not crumble. They fought back and continued to remain positive. A true hero, accordingly, is Diana. She stayed devoted to her true purpose despite whatever surfaced. "One of several biographies of Diana published in 1992, Andrew Morton's Diana: Her True Story alleged that Diana attempted suicide five times in the early 1980s--the first only six months after the wedding, while she was pregnant with William. The episodes were characterized as cries for help rather than serious attempts to end her life. Morton's book, along with the others, also claimed that Diana suffered from bulimia"(Merriman). This shows that Diana got herself better and stayed devoted to helping other people who were going through similar things. She didn't let her depression over power her and her devotion was a strong out line of how loving she was. It's hard to get back up when you fall, and sometimes we need a hand to help us out. She remained true to herself and admitted that, she too, was a victim of pain. "When former flatmate Carolyn Bartholomew learned that her friend's depression and exhaustion might be caused by potassium depletion, she reportedly encouraged the Princess to seek help by warning her of the dangers she might face, if she continued along this destructive path. In 1988, Diana began a course of treatment with Maurice Lipsedge, a fashionable physician and consulting psychiatrist at Guy's Hospital in London. As painful as it may have been, the Princess' struggle may have had an ironic benefit. Having suffered much, she was able to empathize with those who suffer far more"(Reynolds). This shows that she wasn't afraid to admit that she needed help to get back up. She had fallen but she received pouring love and people did not hesitate to lend her their hand. When she got back up, she stood up tall, strong, and became an individual woman who spoke her mind without having to hide behind a title.

Diana with her two sons William and Henry (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews ())
Diana with her two sons William and Henry (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews ())

Diana's countless attempts to right the wrong in this world proved successful and at her funeral, the overwhelming love she received, displayed that the amount of lives she had inspired . Through her inspiring journey, she held the hands of all people that were in need of someone to be there for them. She cured sickness, not by medicine, but by her compassion. She put her love out there and people did not stutter in grabbing it. They knew that her love was everlasting despite what would happen in the future. The death of Diana astounded millions and worldwide, people stood in silence remembering the woman who had shaped the unfamiliar smiles onto their faces. "The mourning for Diana bore many hallmarks of a popular cult: the sea of flowers at Kensington Palace, the ubiquity of her image, the miniature shrines, the stories told of miraculous cures effected by her visits to the sick, led some to view her as a secular saint. Slogans adopted by mourners included 'Born a lady, made princess, died a saint"(Reynolds). She was a born a normal girl, but her decisions and her outlook of life was what made her a princess. It wasn't the crown or the palace, it was her heart that showed she was beautiful inside and out. Her love and devotion to people, especially children, drove them towards happiness and gave them an incredible hope for their future. Princess Diana strived to remove the undeniable flaws of modern society. She supported so many and those who were weak and unstable she provided the strongest foundation anyone could provide, a foundation of love and compassion. Every bit of Princess Diana's legacy demonstrates that she, indeed, was a hero.

Works Cited: A+E Networks. "Princess Diana Biography." Princess Diana. A+E Networks, 2005. Web. 17 Dec. 2014. <http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/diana-spencer.html>. Reynolds, K.D. "Diana (née) Lady Diana Frances Spencer 1961 - 1997." EBSCO Biography Reference Center. EBSCO Industries, 2010. Web. 17 Dec. 2013. http://web.ebscohost.com Newsmakers. "Princess Diana." Gale Biography in Context. Gale, 27 Nov. 1997. Web. 17 Dec. 2013. <http://ic.galegroup.com Merriman, John, and Jay Winter, eds. "Diana, Princess of Wales." Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale, 2006. Web. 17 Dec. 2013. <http://go.galegroup.com Coward, Rosalind. Diana : The Portrait / Foreword : Nelson Mandela ; Author : Rosalind Coward ; Introduction : Lady Sarah McCorquodale. Auckland, N.Z.: Hodder Moa Beckett, 2004. Print.

Page created on 1/11/2014 12:00:00 AM

Last edited 7/10/2020 5:02:38 AM

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