It’s been 22 years since Princess Diana passed away, but she is still missed by millions of people all over the globe. Though she was partly known for her beauty and elegance, Diana was also beloved for the amount of compassion that she showed to the public.
To further her humanitarian causes, Diana travelled to many different countries, and it was during one of these visits that she shared an emotional moment of solidarity with a fellow mother.
A few weeks before her death on August 31, 1997, Diana was in Bosnia on a trip that was meant to further her crusade against landmines. She was accompanied on this trip by Ken Rutherford and Jerry White, and they just reflected on it in HBO’s 2017 documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy. Before the premiere of the documentary, the two shared some of their personal stories about Diana that reflected her compassionate spirit. For White, the main story he recalled was the unplanned detour she took to the Sarajevo War Cemetery on August 10, 1997.
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August 10, 1997- Princess Diana meets landmine victims on her last day of touring Bosnia.
“The image of her in a cemetery in Sarajevo, on the last day of our three-day trip [still haunts me],” White recalled. “It wasn’t planned. It was never on the itinerary. But Diana told me three times, ‘I can’t get this picture of me in a cemetery out of my mind.’ She asked me if there was a cemetery nearby, as it was something we should visit. ‘Jerry, I have this feeling, this image of me in a cemetery, it’s strange.’ We were running late for a final reception, and there was no room for this detour, but Princess Diana seemed adamant, mysteriously.”
“So, we drove out of the way to the former Olympic stadium that had become a massive graveyard for those killed during the war,” he continued. “I watched as Diana took her place among hundreds of tombstones. It was eerie, now that I reflect on it. She walked slowly, among tombstones and even yellow rose bushes. She met a Bosnian mother tending to the grave of her son, grieving visibly. Diana didn’t speak Bosnian, and this mother didn’t know English. So, they just embraced. So intimately, so physical, so emotional, mother-to-mother.”
“It was vintage Diana, reaching out, wiping the mother’s tears and cheeks. It’s the only framed photograph of Diana I still have in my home,” White said, adding that he found himself wondering about Diana’s strange intuition in the aftermath of her tragic accident just a few weeks later. “After her death in Paris only weeks later, I came to wonder whether the Princess intuited her own death, her burial. I don’t know, but maybe, psychically, intuitively, Diana sensed she was going to die. It still gives me chills when I recall this powerful, unscripted, unplanned moment, somehow prescient.”
“Diana listened more than she spoke,” White said. “It was intense to watch her absorb human pain. She was hyper-intuitive and fully appropriate in the face of people’s suffering. She asked questions and gave her full attention, focusing her big eyes like a laser on the tragic story in front of her. Whenever I asked her how she might want to handle a particular visit, she’d say, ‘We’ll make it work. It’s all about the people.’ Diana repeated how it was simply important ‘to care enough to show up’ and be present.”
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August 9, 1997- Princess Diana meets landmine victims on day 2 of her tour of Bosnia.
“She’d ask questions like, ‘Please tell me your story. What happened to you? How did you lose your leg? Where did you find your courage and strength to survive?'” White recounted. “Diana would invariably reach out and touch each survivor at some point in the conversation, never cringing in the face of scars and stumps and open sores. She’d also bring in the family members, asking mothers and siblings what they had experienced, understanding a parent’s pain watching their kids suffer. She invited hope by inquiring about each survivor’s dream for the future. And she always made some side jokes to poke the tense air out of the bubble of tragedy. Humor is one of the top hallmarks of resilience, and Princess Diana always brought laughter and unexpected irreverence into the room.”
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