LADY DI

So you are probably wondering why I dedicate one post to the late Princess Diana. Well let me tell you my story.

No she didn’t stay in a four star resort but 90% of my guest were British. It was August 31 1997. I was just stumbling home from las Veronica’s the forbidden fruit. Remember at that time there were no mobile phones nothing.

I arrive in the hotel and the night auditor, really nice guy who also practiced his German with me all the time, told me in Spanish something which I had to think over and over again on my way back to my room, considering it was 4am and I was a little intoxicated. Did he just day to me that Princess Diana died in a car crash or did he say something else. So I went to bed thinking about it and at 8 Maurice my room mate woke me up and told me that yes Princess Diana died in a car crash. So I did understand it right.

So that day I went to work and am glad I did. In the whole lobby people crying, hugging each other, bringing everyone together to deal with their grief. I had never experienced something like that. It surprised me and the emotions also took over me. I spoke to some of the guest and it became really clear to me that this is a situation which needs attention. The whole hotel was in mourning, you could hear a pin drop that’s how silent it was to the days before where people screamed and had fun. No one, absolutely no one screamed, everyone was just in tears.

As my personality is very much defined by empathy I spoke to my General Manager as clearly all staff and him were overwhelmed by the situation to arrange a room in the hotel for people to watch the funeral together and the days leading up to it to have a room where they can be together to grief together.

The situation was bad, I went that night to Veronica’s and though there were people no one was dancing, people were hugging each other crying and clearly mourning. I will never forget that night and that also made me have all the sympathy in the world for the Brit’s who until I thought were just drunk people on holidays. But they are a nation, and they mourn together.

Leading up to the funeral I don’t need to get into the controversy of the royal family but from my part I agreed with the General Manager to make the room available with drinks and snacks complimentary for our guest to grieve and be together and grief together. And probably the most controversial I did, was putting the British flag at half mast before Buckingham palace did and our British guest absolutely appreciated that.

I was always a fan of Princess Diana, many times in my life going forward I compared her life to mine in many of my relationships I have been in, and she had an affect on me from the day she got married, as her wedding is one of my earliest childhood memories, and her death one of the defining moments of my career but also my personal life.