10 years today - 31st August 1997

I can't believe that it's been 10 years Since Diana died, where has that time gone, heck I can remember that day very clearly.

What were you doing 10 years ago today, when you heard the news?

Falling off a horse in NZ. We went on a horse trek on some manic horses, somewhere in the Waikato, and the nutty woman said 'All of you who want to canter, go and the rest stay here.' I was at that stage a very novice rider and didn't want to canter on narrow, winding, metal roads. Sadly my horse (who had a mouth like teak) decided we were in the cantering group and after cantering out of control for a while I came off into the hoofs (hooves?) of the rest of the group. Nearly put me off horses for life. Anyway, when we got back to the car we heard the news...

I had just been out and bought some new speakers for our Home Theatre system (of all things to be doing!).

I remember arriving home and just sitting in the car listening to the radio as the news came through. It was so hard to believe at first and then I remember rushing upstairs in time to catch the first broadcasts on CNN. We watched the news reports for hours and hours. Then it was the same on the day of her funeral. We watched the coverage from the beginning with Charles and the young princes walking behind the gun carriage until the hearse disappeared through the gates of Althorp (the Spencer family estate).

I will never forget those days. It was SO sad. Still brings a lump to my throat just thinking about it.

We were up the Mahurangi River in the boat. We had decided to take the launch up there from our mooring down river and get an ice cream. For some reason, hubby had gone over earlier and I went over later in the car. On the way over I sort of heard it on the radio that there had been a car accident. Got onboard, and away we went. We were at Warkworth waiting for a boat to pull out from the wharf so we could get in and it come on the radio again, so I turned it up and couldn't believe what I was hearing. I said, I had heard it on the way over, but it didn't comprhend sort of thing. We turned the boat around, went back to the mooring, headed home and was stuck to the telly. I didn't feel like ice-cream after that. I thought, in the old days the citizens to used to go overboard when their King or Queen died and I thought, how bizarre. But, I realised then why they did, they genuinely loved their royals. I think since though there has been too much hype over it, specially lately. AND, I'm glad that damn Camilla woman didn't go to the service yesterday and took herself off to the Med.

We bought a house that day.

We were pulling up in front of it for a second look when we heard about the accident. It was a bit unreal. We had the second look, made an offer on the house and came out to hear on the car radio that she was dead. Had difficulty believing it.

Sitting in our dining room in the sun with some friends when another mate turned up and told us the news. We thought he was pulling our leg!

I didnt know till my sister rang & I switched CNN on .. wow havent those 10 years flown ?? No matter what, I thought Di was fantastic, a breathe of fresh air compared to all those old "stuff-pots"

I was at the gym, it came on the TV but the sound was turned down until someone went and asked for it to be turned up. The whole place came to a stand still while everyone crowded around the TV's to watch. Must've been one of the few times I ever used that membership!

About to plant an Apricot Tree in Charleston Christchurch.
A swan flew overhead.

Yakut

I was in the bathroom! I shan't elaborate upon that![] Suffice it to say that BD got a good telling off!! He could have waited for just a few more seconds!!

That day we had planned to go to Cadbury World in Birmingham, it was an awful day weather wise, there was so much rain that you couldn't see the road markings on the road it was like everyone was crying in the Heavens!

It was a very subdued day. On the way back we were caught in traffic, on the news they were reporting that her body had just arrived back in the UK and that Prince Charles had gone to meet her. We looked at the faces of others in the cars around and they were crying or they just looked very sad. It was a very surreal day, a country seemed to be united in grief. I'm not a huge fan of the Royals but they are part of our heritage. I wasn't even a fan of Diana but she had become her own person, so alive and vibrant and probably at her most beautiful. That was what made it more sad I think.

We went up to London a few days afterwards, visiting her home there and Buckingham Palace etc, I will never forget the atmosphere there, there were candles and flowers everywhere and silence. No-one spoke really.

On the day of the funeral we watched it on TV at a friends then watched the journey of the hearse as it made it's way through London then headed North on the M1 to her final resting place in Northamptonshire. They passed by the junction near our friends. We drove down and waited on the banks of the motorway to see them as they passed. Suddenly a surge of people like a Mexican wave ran into the centre of the road. Two police officers there to control the crowds gazed helplessly at so many people on the road. Pedestrians are not allowed on Motorways in the UK. Luckily traffic was light that day.

Everybody was leaning over the central reservation to try to see them coming, our son and friends daughter did the same being only little. Something made me pull them back just as the lead motorcycle rider rode past, he was crying.

Then as if in slow motion the hearse passed, and there she was! The coffin draped in the coat of arms flag was feet from us. It was a moment that will live with me forever, I had goosebumps and the hairs on my neck stood up and I felt so strange.

As soon as they had passed the crowds turned and headed back across the road and up the banks to their cars. You know those dreams you have sometimes when your legs don't move? Well thats how mine felt, I couldn't walk, my legs had turned to jelly. I was still trying to get back across the road as the cars were speeding up on the motorway, I was thinking, "Great, I'm gonna get ruddy flattened in a minute!
Just then I heard a voice say "Hello Sue, How are ya?"

I saw a guy I used to go to school with, "Oh hello, well I've had better days!" []

We witnessed such a significant piece of history that day, something that we will pass on to our grandchildren one day I expect.

I was sewing an outfit for my new baby when the first report came through of the accident.. I rushed outside to tell my husband.. then back in to listen and then the final report came through... I couldn't believe it.. was completely surreal...

I sat in the lounge with my friend (whose baby was a week older than mine) with the babies on our laps and sobbed through the entire funeral while our husbands (who couldn't cope with it all) went possum shooting....

now our babies are 10 years old... seems like a long time in so many ways but just a moment in others...

Changed my opinion on the Royal Family after that carry-on!!! hope the young princes will continue her tradition .. seem to be pretty good (apart from some youthfull high-jinks)... they should change the monachy ...

I wasn't a fan of Diana's much either, but she was still a mother and it was an awful thing to happen to anyone. I must admit I stayed up to watch the funeral and cried. Just that fact that millions and millions of people STOPPED for it was amazing.

My favourite hymn (I went up the aisle to it when I got married) is I vow to thee, my country. I can cry to that even when its not a sad occassion. When they showed them singing it on the news, well I was just about off ........... It gives me goose bumps.

I do remember what I was doing at home and a friend came over to say had I heard the news (it was abou 4pm) that Diana was in a car crash and Dodi was dead (they didn't say Diana was at that point).

[8][8]

My mum rang me at home to tell me the news, although I can't remember what time of the day it was... I was living with an english bloke at the time, and it was very weird cos his mum rang that day - and his family hardly ever rang. We actually told them the news, they didn't believe us, so told them to turn the BBC on the tele, as they didn't broadcast that day as a sign of respect. I can't believe its 10 years either - but then a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then!

I was 5 months pregnant and just finished painting walls in our "new" to be temp' residence. We were just at the top of the driveway in the ute, when the broadcaster said she had been in a car accident in Paris, injured, more to come etc etc.

just as we started to drive down, they said she was dead and others were too, so we raced inside and watched the TV reports because there seemed to be alot of confusion as to why it took so long for her to receive treatment.

I have to say I was absolutely stunned. On the morning of her wedding I had collapsed at home (not related, blood pressure issues) and had to have 2 weeks off school until I could have a scan, so watched her wedding from the comfort of a hospital bed.

I thought then, as I do now, they were throwing a young girl, too young to be getting married, to the wolves for some old bugger to deflower, all for the sake of appearances and producing a heir.

I watched her funeral with great sadness. At some point, when I go "home" I will pay my respects.

10 years later, I still don't think it was any less of a set up. She was murdered just as she was coming "into her own" and being successful and beautiful to boot. She would have kept Charlie and the Royals (except her Sons) off the front pages for years to come.
Surprised they haven't done away with Fergie yet, although then it would look suss.

did you see the 10 years Bio updates on Pay TV there? What about that journo/investigator who had the white fiat and was claimed he was in the tunnel, who was found dead a couple of years later, suspiciously in a burnt car in bushland?

I was at a friend's workplace in Wellington with my best friend, just hanging out, when someone rang up and told us to switch on the news. I remember going to my best friend's place to watch the funeral as well. I was fine until they zoomed in on the envelope on the coffin that said 'Mummy' - that was it, I was off.

Diana was not someone I was ever particularly bothered about but she was a excellent ambassador for her many charities and passionate about her children and her death was a tragic loss for those people for whom she meant so much.