Lady Di's message from her past: the time capsule she buried in 1991 has been opened.
Inside the box was a Kylie Minogue record and a photo of the princess.
BarcelonaNo matter how many years pass, the figure of Lady Di will always be surrounded by an aura of glamour and fascination. This was confirmed once again this week when the time capsule that the princess buried in 1991 to mark the laying of the foundation stone for one of the buildings at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London was opened. Inside the lead-lined wooden box, among other things, a Kylie Minogue CD, a solar-powered calculator, and a passport were found.
The items included in the time capsule were chosen by two children who won a competition and were assisted by the Princess of Wales in making their selections. The goal was for the box to include items representative of life in the 1990s, the decade in which Lady Di was one of the most popular public figures. In fact, inside the time capsule is also a photo of her, as well as a pocket-sized television and a hologram of a snowflake. The capsule was not supposed to be unearthed for another hundred years, but it has finally been opened ahead of schedule to begin construction of a children's cancer center.
A joint choice
Lady Di was president of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children from 1989 and visited the medical center several times until her death in 1997. When making the time capsule, she helped David Watson, then 11, choose Kylie Minogue's album. Rhythm of love, published in 1990 and including songs such as Better the devil you know, What do I have to do and Shocked. The other items the boy chose were a piece of recycled paper, a passport, and a pocket-sized television. Sylvia Foulkes, the 9-year-old who also participated in the project with Princess Diana, chose a hologram of a snowflake, a solar-powered calculator, British coins, and five seeds from a tree at Kew Gardens, London's largest botanical garden.
The burial of the time capsule was similar to another ceremony that took place in 1872 when the then-Princess of Wales, Alexandra, laid the foundation stone of the hospital. That time capsule, which contained a photo of Queen Victoria, has not been found.
