Robert Beaumont's article preserving the memory of Princess Diana must have echoed the thoughts of all feeling people. It added further to the heartfelt words of a mourner keeping vigil outside Kensington Palace on the second anniversary of her untimely death: "Diana will always be remembered for her love and caring spirit. She stood for everything good about the country ..."

I recall as though it were yesterday the incredible depth of sadness felt by the majority of people. Those who did not feel, and almost scorned the genuinely expressed national sorrow, were wrong. Both an understanding of the effects of her death and the false perception of the truth about her short yet fulfilled life were empty of heart.

Diana was certainly of the people - courageous, compassionate and caring; acutely sympathetic in the active sense to others in dire need of comfort, she gave help unstintingly and with unquestionable love.

Immature, youthful and tender, easily hurt, manoeuvred into a situation among people with lesser personal understanding and literally abandoned, she suffered dearly as any of us might have done in such obviously cruel circumstances.

Always a beautiful, people's fairy tale princess, undoubtedly one of us in fact, Diana, Princess of Wales rose above all her imposed misfortunes and unhappiness, leaving behind a legacy of exemplary service and loving kindness. She will always be remembered, monument or not.

Laurence Burt,

Marygate,

York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.