We’ll never forget you, Mother
THE Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry made a pilgrimage to view the floral tributes left in memory of their mother yesterday as Harry confessed “all of us lost somebody”.
William and Harry stopped to look at the heartfelt messages, pictures and flowers left in remembrance of Diana, Princess of Wales at the gates of her former home Kensington Palace on the eve of the 20th anniversary of her death today.
The royal brothers, with Kate, earlier honoured her memory by visiting a nearby memorial garden in the grounds of the palace created for the Princess.
Charity chiefs from organisations associated with Diana met the royals after their tour and Harry told one group of campaigners about how his mother’s death was a tragedy for them – as they were preparing to work with the royal – as well as his family.
He said: “I can imagine for a lot of you it was like ‘right here we go, now we’ve got her, we’ve got the thirst,
Legacy
we’ve got the attention, now let’s do something’ then suddenly she’s snapped away – if I can put it (this way) all of us lost somebody.”
The princes had spent an hour touring the temporary memorial White Garden in the grounds of the palace with Kate before making the short journey to the gates which are fast becoming a shrine to their mother.
Sheltering from the heavy rain under an umbrella, William knelt down to look at some of the bouquets left in tribute, then pointed out a picture to his brother which appeared to make him laugh.
Harry came over to have a look at the picture which had left his older brother in stitches, and William said: “Look at my shades”.
The Prince glanced at the photograph of the Duke and his mother both wearing sunglasses as they sat in the crowds at an unknown event.
The Duke and Prince stood together under their umbrellas looking at the lovingly created picture montages of Diana which sometimes featured them as babies, toddlers and young boys. And the brothers made it a special day for eight-yearold Maisy Oxby and her sister Gracie, 10.
After spending a day visiting a Princess Diana exhibition at Kensington Palace, the pair were already buzzing.
The sisters’ mother Rhian had taken them along to explain Diana’s legacy and to give them a treat before the new school term starts.
But Maisy and Gracie were left bursting with excitement after Prince Harry came to speak to them during the unplanned walkabout at the Palace gates.
Harry, 32, accepted a bouquet from the two girls and placed it with the wall of flowers. Along with his brother William, Harry showed just why they are seen as Diana’s living legacy, by taking time after an official engagement to speak to ordinary people.
Afterwards, Mrs Oxby and her daughters from Basildon, Essex, told of their delight at the royal audience as they braved drizzly weather to visit Diana’s former home.
Maisy said: “He took the flowers and asked us who we were, and said ‘whereabouts would you like them to go?’.
“I said ‘in the middle under the HRH on the poster’, and he said ‘you know exactly where you want them then?”
“It was a bit scary. It meant a lot seeing the Prince. Diana was such a lovely lady.”
Gracie added: “I felt so excited I was shaking. He was lovely, very nice and we were very lucky.”
Mrs Oxby, 40, said: “We had been looking around the palace and had a lovely time, but had no idea that Harry and William were going to come out. Then a lady who was here gave us these flowers and said she had to leave, so would we give them these flowers.
“Then Harry came over and took them and put them with the others. He was very friendly and funny.”
She added: “It has been really lovely today. Diana was a lovely lady, always good to people. “This shows that she is still an important figure 20 years on, so it is nice to be here to be part of her memory.
“You can see what a wonderful person she was by the way her sons are. They are the same – really nice and really down-to-earth.”
Harry and William, 35, spent more than five minutes looking at the flowers, tributes and photographs left around the gates.
Looking sombre for the occasion, but nevertheless smiling and waving, they walked along a line of several hundred well-wishers.
Diana’s older son pointed out where the famous sea of tributes had stretched to at the time of her death, saying: “Last time, it was all the way down.” Prince Harry smiled at the sight of a large balloon lying