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WHATEVER LOVE MEANS—DIANA
Although neither or them remembered the occasion, Diana first met her
future husband when she was just a baby. It happened during the winter of 1961,
when twelve-year-old Charles, Prince of Wales, was visiting his mother’s
Sandringham retreat.
At the time, your Prince Charles barely glanced at the tiny baby sleeping
in her cot. After all, bow could a twelve-year-old boy be interested in
babies?
But the Prince would eventually take a very keen interest in this
particular baby —it would just take some time.
In fact, it would be sixteen years before Prince Charles and Lady Diana
Spencer took place in the middle of a farmer’s field during a shooting party in
November 1977.
It was a cold, rainy, bleak afternoon when sixteen-year-old Diana, dressed
in a borrowed parka that was too large for her, boots, and blue jeans, crossed
the field to meet the heir to the British throne.
It was almost twilight when the two came face to face near Nobottle
Woods.
“What a sad man,” Diana thought when she first saw him. The future Princess
was intrigued to finally meet the most eligible bachelor in England, thought she
was not impressed with his five-foot-ten-inch height, thinking to herself that
she would tower over him in high heels. But Diana would later say that she
admired his beautiful blue eyes.
The Prince later remarked that he thought Diana was “a very jolly and
attractive” girl, “full of fun,” though Diana herself believed that “he barely
noticed me at all.”
Diana, it was discovered later, first came to the attention of the royal
family when she acted as a bridesmaid for her sister Jane’s wedding that April.
It was the first major social occasion that Diana attended as a young woman. And
many of the royals were surprised at how beautiful and mature the once-gawky
girl had become.
Even the Queen Mother. Prince Charles’s grandmother, noticed Diana’s
beauty, grace, and charm. She complimented the Earl on the fine job he had done
in bringing Diana up.
A short time later, Prince Charles sent his valet to hand-deliver a formal
invitation for Diana to accompany him that very evening to the opera and a
latenight dinner at the palace.
Though she was flustered, and the invitation came at such short notice,
Diana accepted. She and her roommate, Carolyn Bartholomew, hurried to dress and
prepare Diana for her big date. The evening was a success, and an invitation to
party on the royal yacht came soon after……
Although she was intimidated by the crowd at Balmoral, Diana was wise
enough not to stay in the castle itself . She asked for, and was granted, an
invitation to stay with her sister Jane and her young husband at their cottage
on the Balmoral estate.
The Prince visited Diana there every day, offering to escort her to a
barbecue, or extending an invitation for a long walk in the woods.
When Charles went to Switzerland for a ski vacation, Diana missed him
terribly. He called her after a day or two, and told Diana he had something
important to ask her.
He arrived home on February, 3, 1981.Three days later, he arranged to see
Diana at Windsor Castle. Late that evening, while Prince Charles was showing
Diana the nursery, he asked her to marry him.
To his surprise, Diana treated his proposal as a joke, She actually
giggled. But soon she could see that Prince Charles was serious. Despite an
insistent voice inside her head that told her she would never be Queen, she
accepted his proposal.
Diana told Prince Charles over and over that she loved him.
“Whatever love means.” Was his reply.
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