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I want to thank you for visiting this site, for sharing your deepest feelings in the tribute book & for the personal mail you have sent me. You are people from every corner of the world coming together because of this one beautiful young woman, The Princess of Wales. That's just as she strove for things to be while she was alive & you've now proven how easy it is for us to reach out to eachother. This is something we can & should sustain long after our initial grief has softened. Diana's undertakings were both large & small & although her larger causes gathered the most attention you'll find that many things she did for others are things we can all do...Diana was most concerned with the individual in society that's been left out or forgotten. We all know there are people in our communities that need our caring & now is the time to reach out & put our grief to good purpose, to honour the life of a great humanitarian, to honour ourselves as human beings.
I have a few suggestions for you to consider, in case you don't already have a small cause of your own. They are all undertakings that would follow in The Princess' tradition of reaching out with kindness & caring.
- Meals On Wheels desperately needs volunteers to bring food to the elderly & other shut-ins...apparently in many of the States there's a real crisis & you are really needed...! As far as I can research there's a M.O.Wheels in nearly every city across North America.
- Generally every city has an AIDS hospice that needs volunteers to spend some time with the patients...reading out loud for a person is something anyone of us can do. If your city doesn't have a hospice one of your hospitals will have a specific AIDS floor or wing.
- Your local food bank always needs help, especially during the major food drives & Thanksgiving is coming up soon...helping to pick up, sort or box food is easy to do. Or start a drive for your local food bank at your church or civic meetings. The congregation or members can donate a food item once a month.
- Children's hospitals...there are so many kids who must live in hospitals due to terminal or chronic illnesses & they really need you to read, play or talk with them. All children are our future, not just the healthy & fortunate ones.
- We all watch the news & have concerns about the larger world issues but just because we're not in a position of power the way Diana was doesn't mean we can't make a difference. I know it seems futile to write or call your politicians but it's not. In fact the more hopeless you feel about a certain issue the better it is to make some move towards fixing it. We can't worry about who else is going to join in we just have to do it. Lead by example in this case :-) Often times there are groups of your fellow citizens that have already banded together on an issue & they need your participation.
I can't list addresses for you because that would take a lifetime if I was going to cover every city in the world, but it took me less than 5 minutes to look them up in my own city's telephone book... that's all it takes. That and, at the very least, an hour of your personal time every week. My hope is all of us who have been touched by the Princess will take up where she left off in making the world the place it was meant to be... I know we can do it because in the past few days you have shown the world the depth of your caring & character.
Tracy Graham
September 1/97
updated August 31/98
Ontario, Canada
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