20 Years On

My heart tucked at the end of the tributes.

Today I headed back to London to Kensington Palace to mark 20 years since Princess Diana died. I went because I feel the memory of her is being hijacked by "royal attention seekers" draped in union jacks and conspiracy theorists hanging posters touting frankly nonsensical theories to an eager press.

I left my flowers away from the main hue and cry to remember and exceptional woman who made a real change to our society simply through her innate humanity. She wasn't perfect by any means but that is exactly the point, her faults and her understanding of them made her open to people who we all as a society shied away from.

Visitors today at Kensington Palace just reading the tributes or bringing flowers to remember Diana.

I was as guilty as anyone, feeling groups like homeless people only needed to try harder and find a job. Diana changed that. I now support Big Issue sellers giving them ore than the cover price, raise money for odd charity events. Am I now perfect - no, far from it, but I am a "better" person thanks to her.

Me with my daughters Alex and Ellie 20 years ago at Kensington Palace

So my flowers are to mark those strange days after her death when we came together as a nation to be proud of and mourned her. It wasn't the "mass hysteria" is is sometimes contemptuously dubbed, it was a recognising that we had changed and that Diana was responsible.

I wrote an article back then for our Daily Echo newspaper and I feel it was an important thing, catching the mood of real people rather than being an opinion piece about what was happening.

Her legacy, and one that she would be enormously proud of, is her sons. Two princes carrying on her work and reforming a monarchy stuck in older days and hidebound by tradition. A new fresher approach without throwing the best traditions away.

So what was the atmosphere like there? There were huge numbers of visitors coming and going. Literally thousands of people from all over the UK and across the world. Interestingly there was still a very strong anti press photographer feeling, I heard many visitors refusing to have their photos taken and telling photographers to leave them alone as they were responsible for Diana's death.

Press gathering to report on the event

I found a quiet bench a little away from the bustle of the massed press and spent the next 3 and a half hours making a green and white heart with roses, chrysanthemums and carnations. 

A large sized heart wreath with a pavé design with flowers layered over one another.

What was so lovely was the amount of people who stopped and talked about what I was doing and shared their stories about where they had come from, where they had been 20 years ago and even their experiences of meeting her.

I even met NAFAS members from Cornwall who remembered me judging their show at Boconnoc! It is a very small world. 

For me it was a very calm day allowing me to reflect on those 20 years and express my feelings through flowers. I met a delightful young lady called Lola who had just learnt to say "flowers" who went away with a special mini bouquet of her own made from some of my spare flowers. 

Countless people photographed my flowers and inevitably the press were interested and I was interviewed three times.

Delicious creamy white spray roses with white spray carnations and a range of chrysanthemums from little green button types to single greens and white to double whites from really tiny to big flowers. A fresh crisp colour scheme that I always think feels right as a memorial but especially appropriate for Diana.

The most surprising thing was the number of people who hadn't arrived with flowers but on seeing my wreath immediately tried to buy it!

All in all a very moving day and well worth the time and effort to get there with my huge bucket of flowers