by In a speech in Manchester, England, on Tuesday, Prince William spoke about living with pain.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited the city to open and attend a memorial, called the Glade of Light, honoring the victims of the 2017 Manchester Arena terror attack.
Twenty-two people were killed by a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert on May 22, 2017, and more than 50 people were seriously injured. An estimated 800 other victims suffered physical and psychological injuries.
William spoke about visiting the city just after the attack, saying he remembered “all too well the shock and pain on the faces of the people I met.”
“Five years later, I know that the pain and trauma felt by many has not gone away,” the Duke said.
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“As someone who lives with their own grief, I also know that what mourners care about most is that those we have lost are not forgotten,” he continued, in an apparent reference to his mother, Princess Diana, who died in 1997. , when William was 15 years old. “There is comfort in remembering. Recognizing that though horribly soon taken, they lived. They changed our lives. They were loved and are loved.”
“That’s why monuments like the Glade of Light are so important,” William said. “Why did Catherine and I want to be among you today?”
The Duke has mentioned his own grief in previous public statements, alluding to his mother’s death in a powerful speech against extremism after a terror attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019.
William and his brother Prince Harry unveiled a memorial to their late mother last year, on what would have been her 60th birthday.
The statue, created by sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley, occupies a permanent space in Kensington Palace’s Sunken Garden.
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“Today, on what would have been our Mother’s 60th birthday, we remember her love, strength and character, qualities that made her a force for good around the world, changing countless lives for the better,” the brothers said in a statement. communicated in time.
“Every day, we wish she was still with us,” they continued. “Our hope is that this statue will forever be seen as a symbol of her life and her legacy.”
