Sixteen years ago, Jeff Kehler watched the royal wedding on a small TV set in his apartment near London.
On Saturday, he and his wife’s family gathered in their home in south suburban Olympia Fields, around a glass coffee table bearing an elaborate but untouched breakfast.
This time, as the images of Princess Diana’s funeral flashed on the screen, they talked–still with a sense of disbelief–about how the tale he had seen begin in England now was ending.
“There are more people at the funeral than at her wedding,” said Kehler, 38. “I don’t think people ever realized, in the whole world, how much acceptance she had. There would be no bigger turnout had this been the queen’s funeral–she was that popular.””
All over the Chicago area, in homes and at hospitals, in college dorm lounges and bleary all-night coffee shops, people rearranged their lives because they, too, felt compelled to watch the funeral of Diana.
Even in this age of technology, when people could have slept through the live, televised ceremony while the VCR taped it, they arose in the pre-dawn quiet or just stayed awake to see Diana laid to rest.
These are some of those scenes.
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The lounge at Ondrak Hall women’s dormitory at Benedictine University in Lisle was dark, except for the brilliant glow of the big-screen TV tuned to the funeral and its reflections off the faces of students Katy Olson, Vanessa Ray and Kate Loritz.
Ray, a 20-year-old sophomore from Chicago, said she woke up at 3 a.m. to radio reports of the funeral and decided to trudge to the lounge. As she watched, Ray felt sorrow for Diana’s sons, William and Harry; not only for the loss of their mother, but because their status as royalty seemed to force the boys to stifle their emotions.
“That’s so sad,” Ray said, “really, very sad.”
Olson, a 19-year-old sophomore from Lockport, said she had stayed up after socializing with friends. She was surprised at the enormous turnout for the funeral.
“They don’t know her personally,” Olson said, searching for a reason, “but everyone feels that they did know her because she shared so much of herself and helped so many people.”
Loritz, 23, is a graduate student in marketing. As she watched and listened to the eulogy for Diana, Loritz thought of the noble role model Diana provided.
“I don’t think the world is ready to be speaking of Diana in the past tense,” Loritz said. “I think she should be remembered for all of the things she was going to do with the rest of her life.”
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It is not at all unusual for the employees at the Hidden Shamrock pub on Chicago’s North Side to linger around the bar after closing. There is, after all, cleanup to be done; the night’s events need to be hashed over as well.
But on this morning, amid the beery smell and smoke that settles over any busy tavern, the employees were still there long past closing time, long after they would have broken up the group and headed for home. What kept them until past 4 a.m., they said, was Princess Diana’s funeral.
“At first, I wasn’t too bothered with it. But now I am,” said Martin Carroll, 23, a doorman at the bar from a small town near Manchester, England. “She did a lot of good, and I guess I thought I should be watching.”
More than two hours later, Carroll was alone at the pub, his head resting on the bar, a beer in front of him. The television was still playing the funeral.
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At Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, nurses Trudy Hunt and Nancy Natick were tending to premature babies, monitoring newborns with birth defects and respiratory problems and administering medication in the hospital’s neonatal unit. On their break, they stopped in a lounge and watched Prince Charles and his sons assemble outside Westminster Abbey.
“I’ve followed her life since her wedding,” said Hunt, 36. “I feel like I lost my best friend. At first, I was just fascinated by her. Then as I watched her grow and mature, my admiration turned to respect. She went from being `Shy Di’ to this courageous trailblazer, and you have to respect her for that.”
Natick, 33, said the simple act of Diana embracing people with AIDS carried monumental benefits and was a perfect example of the princess’ ability to show and engender compassion.
“I just believe that if it had been the queen herself, there wouldn’t have been this much outpouring,” Natick said while watching TV. “I think in so many people’s minds, Diana was the queen. When they think of royalty, they think of her.”
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Tina Bainter isn’t exactly sure why she brought flowers and a card to the British Consulate in Chicago last week, or why she obeyed the alarm at 3:45 a.m. Saturday in her Northlake home.
“It was something within me,” said Bainter, who watched the ceremony with her mother, Bunny O’Donnell, and a childhood friend, Sandy Koenig. “I just had to.”
As the services started, coffee brewed and conversation ran the gamut from Mother Teresa to Diana’s impact on the world.
The somber procession also stirred memories of a tragic loss in their own lives, the death of Deirdra Banakis, Bainter’s sister and O’Donnell’s daughter.
Banakis was killed in a car accident in 1991, when her son, Michael, was 6 years old.
When they saw Prince William’s striking resemblance to Diana, they looked over at Michael, sound asleep.
“(Diana) is in her sons,” O’Donnell said. “It’s just like Michael. You can’t take Deirdra out of that kid.”
They lived worlds apart, yet Bainter, O’Donnell and Koenig said one reason they loved Diana was that, in some ways, she was one of them.
“No one is protected from death and tragedy,” Bainter said. “Just like that, your whole world changes.
“But because (Diana) was here, the world changed in a way. To see her smile, her calmness. She was so elegant. I just can’t express it.”