dt     ADDRESS BY THE 9TH EARL SPENCER, PRINCESS DIANA'S BROTHER     09/07/97 ================================================================================                              DAYTON DAILY NEWS                   Copyright (c) 1997, Dayton Newspapers Inc.DATE: Sunday, September 7, 1997             TAG: 9709070142EDITION: CITY          SECTION: SPECIAL SECTION PAGE: 2 TYPE: SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE SECTION           ADDRESS BY THE 9TH EARL SPENCER, PRINCESS DIANA'S BROTHER    Text of address by the 9th Earl Spencer at the London funeral Saturday ofhis sister, Princess Diana:   I stand before you today the representative of a family in grief, in acountry in mourning before a world in shock.   We are all united not only in our desire to pay our respects to Diana butrather in our need to do so.   For such was her extraordinary appeal that the tens of millions of peopletaking part in this service all over the world via television and radio, whonever actually met her, feel that they, too, lost someone close to them in theearly hours of Sunday morning. It is a more remarkable tribute to Diana than Ican ever hope to offer her today.   Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. Allover the world she was a symbol of selfless humanity, a standard-bearer forthe rights of the truly downtrodden, a truly British girl who transcendednationality, someone with a natural nobility who was classless, who proved inthe last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate herparticular brand of magic.   Today is our chance to say ``thank you'' for the way you brightened ourlives, even though God granted you but half a life. We will all feel cheatedthat you were taken from us so young and yet we must learn to be grateful thatyou came along at all.   Only now that you are gone do we truly appreciate what we are now without,and we want you to know that life without you is very, very difficult.   We have all despaired at our loss over the past week and only the strengthof the message you gave us through your years of giving has afforded us thestrength to move forward.   There is a temptation to rush to canonize your memory. There is no need todo so. You stand tall enough as a human being of unique qualities not to needto be seen as a saint. Indeed, to sanctify your memory would be to miss out onthe very core of your being, your wonderfully mischievous sense of humor withthe laugh that bent you double, your joy for life transmitted wherever youtook your smile and the sparkle in those unforgettable eyes, your boundlessenergy which you could barely contain.   But your greatest gift was your intuition, and it was a gift you usedwisely. This is what underpinned all your wonderful attributes. And if we lookto analyze what it was about you that had such a wide appeal, we find it inyour instinctive feel for what was really important in all our lives.   Without your God-given sensitivity, we would be immersed in greaterignorance at the anguish of AIDS and HIV sufferers, the plight of thehomeless, the isolation of lepers, the random destruction of land mines. Dianaexplained to me once that it was her innermost feelings of suffering that madeit possible for her to connect with her constituency of the rejected.   And here we come to another truth about her. For all the status, theglamour, the applause, Diana remained throughout a very insecure person atheart, almost childlike in her desire to do good for others so she couldrelease herself from deep feelings of unworthiness, of which her eatingdisorders were merely a symptom.   The world sensed this part of her character and cherished her for hervulnerability, whilst admiring her for her honesty. The last time I saw Dianawas on July the first, her birthday, in London, when typically she was nottaking time to celebrate her special day with friends but was guest of honorat a charity fund-raising evening.   She sparkled of course, but I would rather cherish the days I spent withher in March when she came to visit me and my children in our home in SouthAfrica. I am proud of the fact that apart from when she was on public display,meeting President Mandela, we managed to contrive to stop the ever-presentpaparazzi from getting a single picture of her.   That meant a lot to her.   These are days I will always treasure. It was as if we'd been transportedback to our childhood, when we spent such an enormous amount of time together,the two youngest in the family.   Fundamentally, she hadn't changed at all from the big sister who motheredme as a baby, fought with me at school and endured those long train journeysbetween our parents' homes with me at weekends. It is a tribute to herlevel-headedness and strength that despite the most bizarre life imaginableafter her childhood, she remained intact, true to herself.   There is no doubt that she was looking for a new direction in her life atthis time. She talked endlessly of getting away from England, mainly becauseof the treatment she received at the hands of the newspapers.   I don't think she ever understood why her genuinely good intentions weresneered at by the media, why there appeared to be a permanent quest on theirbehalf to bring her down. It is baffling. My own, and only, explanation isthat genuine goodness is threatening to those at the opposite end of the moralspectrum.   It is a point to remember that of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps thegreatest is this; that a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of huntingwas, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age.   She would want us today to pledge ourselves to protecting her beloved boys,William and Harry, from a similar fate. And I do this here, Diana, on yourbehalf. We will not allow them to suffer the anguish that used regularly todrive you to tearful despair.   Beyond that, on behalf of your mother and sisters, I pledge that we, yourblood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative and loving way inwhich you were steering these two exceptional young men, so that their soulsare not simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as youplanned.   We fully respect the heritage into which they have both been born, and willalways respect and encourage them in their royal role. But we, like you,recognize the need for them to experience as many different aspects of life aspossible, to arm them spiritually and emotionally for the years ahead. I knowyou would have expected nothing less from us.   William and Harry, we all care desperately for you today. We are all chewedup with sadness at the loss of a woman who wasn't even our mother. How greatyour suffering is we cannot even imagine.   I would like to end by thanking God for the small mercies he has shown usat this dreadful time; for taking Diana at her most beautiful and radiant andwhen she had so much joy in her private life.   Above all, we give thanks for the life of a woman I am so proud to be ableto call my sister: the unique the complex, the extraordinary and irreplaceableDiana, whose beauty, both internal and external, will never be extinguishedfrom our minds.LENGTH:  116 linesILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Earl SpencerCATEG: INTERNATIONAL NEWS SUBJ: FUNERAL   EULOGY NA: PRINCESS DIANA   EARL SPENCER GEOG: BRITAIN MEMO: PRINCESS DIANA  1961 - 1997 ENHANCER: ref1================================================================================ 31 of 82, 2 Terms                                                              Transfer complete. Press [RETURN] to return to Menu: