Princess Diana’s elegance and beauty gained her admiration from all over the world but it was her compassion and empathy for others that earned her the title of ‘The People’s Princess.
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The mother-of-two traveled to numerous countries for her humanitarian causes and during one such visit, she shared an emotional moment of solidarity with another mom.
Only a few weeks before she died on August 31, 1997, Princess Diana was on a humanitarian trip to Bosnia. Jerry White and Ken Rutherford accompanied her on what would be her last trip.
Almost 20 years after she tragically died, the White and Rutherford reflected on the emotional journey for 2017 documentary ‘Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy’ on HBO.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the two shared many stories about the mother’s compassionate spirit. One that sticks out is the unplanned detour she took on August 10, 1997, to the Sarajevo War Cemetery.
“The image of her in a cemetery in Sarajevo, on the last day of our three-day trip [still haunts me]. 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.
’The image of her in a cemetery in Sarajevo, on the last day of our three-day trip [still haunts me]. 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,’” White said.
“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,” he added.
“So, we drove out of the way to the former Olympic stadium that had become a massive graveyard for those killed during the war. 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 added that he sometimes wondered about her intuition in the aftermath of her death only 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,” he expressed.
“Diana listened more than she spoke. 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,” White added.
“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?’ 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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