About 1,000 Chicagoans stood in line outside the office of the British consul general for hours Monday, striving to pay their respects to Princess Diana and gain solace after her death by signing a condolence book in her honor.
Waiting in the sun, some dressed in funeral black, mourners stood throughout the day in a line that wrapped around the Wrigley Building to the end of the Plaza of the Americas. They wanted to sign their name in the condolence book or write a personal message to the family of Diana, Princess of Wales, who died early Sunday in Paris.
Parents with young children, the elderly, Americans and British subjects alike waited together to express sympathy for the loss of Diana, whom one called “a queen in every way.”
Karen Sorensen, 43, stood in line for three hours dressed for a funeral with carnations in hand to pay tribute to Diana. Just before Sorensen was about to enter the lobby to sign the book, she gave up her spot to an elderly woman in a wheelchair.
“It’s what Diana would have wanted,” she said.
“Diana opened her heart and taught us how to love,” said Sorensen, with tears streaming down her cheeks. “She left us a legacy of love and compassion.”
The British Embassy in Washington, D.C., and its 12 consulates across the United States will offer condolence books for mourners to pay tribute to Diana.
The embassy and many of the consulates that were open Monday were inundated by thousands of people lining up to sign the books.
Usually, embassies open condolence books after the deaths of high-ranking officials from their countries. Political, diplomatic and business leaders outside the country normally use the books to express condolences and engage in a little diplomacy at the same time.
The British embassy and its consulates are tentatively planning to keep their condolence books open until Diana’s funeral on Saturday. Then officials will photocopy the pages and send them to her family, keeping the books permanently at each of the consulates.
Consulate officials in Chicago brought out two additional books for mourners to sign Monday afternoon and kept the lobby open late for people who had been in line for hours. The books will be in the lobby of the Wrigley Building, 400 N. Michigan Ave., until Saturday, officials said.
“It’s been overwhelming,” said Consul James Halley in Chicago. “In some respect, we thought this wouldn’t be the type of reaction from Chicago. I’m sure the visit last year is still fresh in everyone’s mind.” Diana visited Chicago for the first time in June 1996.
For Sheila Clark of Naperville, who came to the United States 30 years ago, signing the condolence book was a way to feel unified in grief with fellow countrymen.
“It’s hard. This is all we’ve got,” Clark said of the condolence book.
Clark stood in line with her daughter, Debi, for more than two hours. “There’s not much an ordinary person can do to show love and support for her (Diana’s) children,” she said. “In the last few years, she was breaking through to the ordinary people.”
Elizabeth Latsos brought her 3-year-old daughter to see the shrine of flowers, candles, cards and stuffed animals for Princess Diana outside the Wrigley Building. The consulate plans to donate the mass of flowers to local hospitals that Diana visited during her stay in Chicago.
Latsos, office manager of the Chanel Boutique, said she and her daughter met Diana twice last year when the princess visited Chicago. “I was truly amazed by her beauty and kindness. She took my breath away,” Latsos said. “She made sure she shook everyone’s hand and thanked everyone for the flowers.”
“I burst into tears when I found out she was dead,” said Ina Alikhan, 40, a British subject who lives in Mundelein. “I felt very close to her, like she was a long-lost family member.”
Alikahn and her husband, Bob, waited three hours to sign the condolence book. “We would have waited another three hours. It was something we needed to do,” Bob Alikahn said.
Tears ran down the face of Stephen Paterak, 71, and his wife, Bernice, from Grafton, Mass., when they came out of the building after signing the book. “She was quite a lady, a loving mother and humanitarian,” said Stephen Paterak. “God has another angel to watch over us.”
The Pateraks were in Chicago for a convention and decided to postpone sightseeing to sign the book. “She had so much to live for, so much to do,” Stephen Paterak said.
“She might have lived as a princess, but she was truly a queen in every way.”