Welcome to my blog, where I take pleasure in words and pictures, be they my own or those of others. I'm a creative individual, and the crafty side I explore on my 'other blog', Picking Up The Threads, which I hope you'll visit too. I'm sure you understand that I have sole copyright of my original work and any of my contributions, so please ask if you want to use them. A polite request is rarely refused. So, as they used to say on the BBC's 'Listen With Mother' radio programme, many years ago: "Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin."

Thursday 31 August 2017

Weep if You Must

If I should die before the rest of you,
Break not a flower nor inscribe a stone.
Nor, when I'm gone, speak in a Sunday voice,
But be the usual selves that I have known.
Weep if you must,
Parting is hell.
But life goes on,
So........ sing as well. 

(Joyce Grenfell)

9 comments:

  1. I sort of remember seeing the headlines in the Sunday paper here and being totally surprised.

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  2. I have no idea what I was doing. I could look at the date and figure it out. I do remember when she got married I was in the basement of the dorm of the summer school in Norway doing laundry while in the next room people were watching it on tv.

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  3. I remember coming across the sight in Kensington Gardens. I've never seen anything like it, either before or since. I took a roll of film of it, (which shows how long ago it was) but nothing could really convey the extraordinary atmosphere. I wondered what it meant then, and to be honest I still wonder.

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  4. This resonates with my experience as a child when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I recall the same quiet streets as everyone sat glued to the television trying to make sense of it all.

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  5. It was the first time I heard that "Paparazzi" were such a force in famous people's lives. The news media changed in my mind about then, and continues to do so. Hearing all week about Houston, without any mention of the many people drowning from monsoons...for instance. That's in America anyway.

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  6. The circles of ordinary lives do not usually intersect those larger orbits of celebrities like Diana. She was the fairy tale princess made real and I suppose the media likes to repeat her story because it still resonates with a public that reveres mythical figures like Elvis or JFK who seem to die before their time. I agree with you about the meaningless expressions of sympathy. It is senseless noise without value to those that truly mourn.

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  7. I have to agree with you Marilyn. I still see the events (the public reaction, that is) of twenty years ago as an exercise in consumer emotionalism. The odd thing was, however, it caught a public mood that must have been building up over time. Strange mood - I prefer the car boot myself.

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  8. I used to know what I was doing but I'm not sure now. The reaction of the British public was quite amazing. There has been a lot in the Australian media about the 20 year anniversary.

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  9. We were visiting friends in Alaska the day Princess Diana died. And strangely, twenty years later, we were just returning from two weeks in Alaska on the 20th anniversary of her passing. How odd it that?

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