The news of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's split has hit Americans very hard. Most of us were at the wedding - well, maybe not at the wedding itself - but we watched it on television, and we saw a lot more of it than many of the guests who were in attendance.
I saw it on Martha's Vineyard under unusual circumstances. Virginia Durr, the Queen Mother of Vineyard Haven, announced that she wanted to see the wedding from start to finish, which meant turning on the set at 5 in the morning.When my wife and I realized we had to get up at that hour, we decided to have a wedding breakfast and invite our friends. I went to Hallmark and bought all sorts of royal decorations, including a paper crown which we placed on Virginia's head.
I also stopped into the British Consulate in New York and talked them out of a large blowup of Charles and Diana, which we hung in the window.
Midway through the ceremony the phone rang. It was the writer, Ward Just. He had just arrived on the island with a friend named Anthony Haden-Guest, a reporter from the London Sunday Observer. Ward had heard about the party and was wondering if he could bring Haden-Guest over.
"Of course," we said, delighted that we would have an expert to fill us in on the details that Barbara Walters didn't know.
Haden-Guest arrived and was given a seat of honor at Virginia Durr's feet. He was able to identify all the people in their ermine-trimmed robes and velvet britches.
Our role in the wedding took on added significance when Haden-Guest wrote a long story in the London Observer called, "How the Americans Celebrated the Charles-Diana Wedding." He depicted us as a typical family in the new colonies who were still thrilled with the pomp and circumstance of a royal wedding. His description of our breakfast touched all of England. From that day forth everything the royal couple did was eagerly followed by our group, which is why there is so much sadness now. Not only for Charles and Diana, but also because we know that we'll never have a breakfast like that again.