Thursday, February 24, 2011

Princess Diana

The first time Diana was in the news was because of the engagement to Prince Charles. Of course they had an extravagant wedding with the beautiful gown, tons of people in the church not including the whole world watching on television. Although she got her title of fame from marrying Prince Charles, she also was known from the charity work she took part in. She wasn’t your average princess, she wanted to go outside of the box of what normal princess did for charity and really give back to people that were less fortunate. The types of charity she was involved in was helping people with AIDs, anti-personnel landmines, people suffering with drug abuse, people with leprosy and homelessness (Princess Diana’s Charity Work 1).
              
Diana Frances Spencer was born on 1961 along with her three other siblings, a brother and two sisters (2).  As a child Diana had a pretty normal life growing up until the age of 9, her father Edward John Spencer and mother were in a nasty divorce (3).  Right after her father and mother divorced her father received custody of her and her siblings (4).  After her Grandfather passed away her father earned the title of Lord Edward Spencer, where she was named Lady Diana.
             
Lady Diana wasn’t interested in school so decided to not continue her studies and drop out of school at West Heath at the age of sixteen. Which than lead to her father putting her back in school but then again dropping out and went to England to pursue a nursing career (Princess Diana Biography 1). While pursuing her nursing career in England, she decided to move to London to become a Kindergarten teacher. She didn’t want to be in school for any longer and wanted to help children learn.
   
A few years after she turned nineteen she was engaged to Prince Charles. As the world watched the fairy tale wedding, Princess Diana looked beautiful in her dress it was made out of six different fabrics including 25 yards of silk taffeta, 100 yards of tulle crinoline and 150 yards of netting for the veil a red carpet matching that in St. Paul's Cathedral in London (Princess’ Diana’s Wedding dress 1).  A few years after the wedding in, 1982 Henry was born two years later William was born; she devoted her time to her family and charitable events (2). Even when Henry was sick in the hospital she was by his side every moment until he recovered. She always cared for her children as opposed to Prince Charles who only dropped in a few times to check on him (3). She never liked the fact that he was never around to be with the children and couldn’t see why it was important, the Di wasn’t like all the other Princess, just letting a nanny take care of her children, she took care of them herself and what need be (4).
              
The media was so infatuated with Princess Diana because she was so different from previous Princess’ and Queens’, meaning she wasn’t about being traditional she was about being  non-traditional and getting what she wanted for people (Princess Diana Biography 2). While growing up in the media Diana had such attributes to attain to, such as over 40 different charitable events like people with aids, homelessness, drug abuse and leprosy (Princess Diana Biography 2). Like most people in the royalty family they would just visit hospitals and other organizations, but as for Diana, she had a different idea of charity (2).
              
First Charitable Organization she took part in was people suffering from aids (Princess Diana Biography 2).  She went out of her way to talk and shake hands with these people. “HIV does not make people dangerous to know. You can shake their hands and give them hug heaven knows they need it" (Princess Diana’s Charity Work 1). Sense an epidemic was going on she wanted the whole world to know that these people were not contagious. By her warmth and compassion for these people warmed their hearts and gave them hope (2). This shows what kind of Princess Diana was towards other people that were sick. She wanted everyone in the world to know that it was okay to be around these people with aids, that you won’t catch what they have even if you shake hands with them, like Diana did. Di worked well with other people and was very relatable to most people, people looked up to her.
              
Another contribution she worked was helping people that were involved with drug abuse (Princess Diana Biography 2). She herself has had some problems not necessarily with drugs, but with being bulimic. Although she wasn’t a perfect person either, as the world had ideally set out for her to be, she suffered from anorexia, and other weight problems (2).  It goes to show that even a person with that much power and beauty has problems like everyone else. By Diana not being perfect shows that not everyone is perfect, and many people do have flaws they just need to overcome their obstacles like Di did.
             
 Challenging obstacles not only with suffering from Bulimia but with being in the public eye so much rumors started to swirl about fidelity from both Diana’s side and Charles side (Princess Diana Biography 2). The rumors did put an incredible amount of stress on Diana and it did affect the way people were seeing this couple crumble in front of the world. A few years after everyone knew about the fidelity rumors they decided to divorce from each other. The world couldn’t believe that the couple actually divorced, after all the things they had endured they wanted to end it. Prince Charles gave Princess Diana $23 Million and paid for her office (2).
                
The divorced did not stop Di from her charity work; she was involved in the anti-personnel land mines. She even lent her name to ban landmines in hopes for Britain and other countries to support the Ottawa Treaty (Princess Diana’s Charity Work 1). This treaty was prohibition of the use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and their destruction (ICRC 1). The help that she participated in did end well; the treaty was passed and became effective September 17th 1997, a few days after Diana’s death.
              
One day after out being with her rumored to be new boyfriend (Princess Diana Biography 2). The press had a field day and decided to chase her to get photos of the new couple. Which actually ended up happening was that the car chase ended in a car crash, which left Diana fighting for her life as the car crashed but there was no hope when they brought her to the hospital (2). She was pronounced dead August 31st 1997.  Her both sons were devastated but they held it together. As people heard the news they gathered and brought flowers to her funeral (3).
               
After a few years of Diana’s death, Henry, and Harry continued with their mother’s charities that she was involved in (Princess Diana Biography 2). They felt it was necessary to end what their mother has started. With being in the media had its ups and downs, but Princess Diana was a very kind, caring and giving women. She wanted everyone to feel loved and not to give up on even if you are not perfect, “The worst illness of our time is that so many people have to suffer from never being loved” (Princess Diana’s Charity Work 1). She wanted to give back to people who were less fortunate and she did just that (2).