What if for the 25the anniversary of their respective deaths, which occurred within a week of each other in 1997, Lady Di and mother Teresa decided to record an episode of the show The other noon at the next table, what would they talk about? I allowed myself to imagine their conversation.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
— Hello, Diana, thank you for agreeing to meet me on a cloud just above Skopje, the city where I was born. It’s not as chic as Clarence House or Dodi al-Fayed’s villa in Saint-Tropez.
Diana laughs quietly.
“The pleasure is mine, dear Mother Teresa. You know that your path has greatly enlightened mine. Meeting you in Calcutta when I was in the midst of marital turmoil allowed me to lighten my pain. After visiting your works in Calcutta and the Bronx, I redoubled my efforts to support the causes that were dear to my heart.
“We were unlikely allies, the two of us, Diana. While I welcomed lepers and AIDS patients into my hospices, you worked to fight prejudice by holding their hand. Few celebrities at the time had that courage. I think it earned you a “ticket to heaven.”
“Ummm, it’s funny you mention tickets to heaven, Mother Teresa. Since your death, the approach of your missionaries has been repeatedly criticized in some of your establishments which are real places of death. Volunteers who worked there reported that you and members of your congregation baptized the dying—unbeknownst to them, most of the time—after asking them if they just wanted a ticket to heaven.
— I was criticized a lot after my death. For this practice, but also because I accepted donations from dubious sources. In addition, we denounced the opaque management of the money given to me for the poor. I have also been criticized for my ultra-conservative views on abortion and divorce. But despite these criticisms, the congregation that I founded in 1950, the Missionaries of Charity, is doing well today. There are more than 5,000 nuns in its ranks, almost 1,200 more than when I died in 1997. My daughters work in hundreds of establishments throughout the world with the “poorest of the poor”. It’s my former secretary, sister Joseph Michael, born in Kerala in India, who has just taken over the reins of all this. I’m very happy about it. It will certainly help the congregation to face the Hindu nationalist government of Narendra Modi who is suspicious like the plague of Christian missionaries in his country.
“You know, Mother Teresa, I’m not going to throw the first stone at you. I, too, have been criticized a lot. Firstly because I dared to speak about my private life and Charles’ betrayal in public, breaking a golden rule of the royal family, but also because of my love-hate relationship with the media. They say I used them one day and ran away from them the next. However, when I think about it, that’s not what I remember from my time on earth. Above all, I see my two boys, William and Harry, each going their own way. Harry, in turn, defies his grandmother and the rules of the monarchy. Go, Harry! And I see that the causes that were close to our hearts, to you and to me, have continued to resonate.
“You are right, Diana. The AIDS epidemic, which preoccupied both of us so much during our lifetime, no longer has the same face. In the year of our disappearance, 2.3 million people died worldwide from this disease. Today, there are still as many HIV carriers in the world, but the disease kills 75% fewer people. Ah! Science has done miracles there.
– Well said. And it’s true that poverty has been in constant decline since our departure. In 1997, almost two billion people on the planet lived in extreme poverty, on less than $1.90 a day. It was almost 35% of the world’s population and now, 25 years later, it is 9% of the inhabitants of the planet who are in this situation. It’s still amazing, isn’t it?
— Yes, especially since it is in particular the progress of India, the country where I have lived almost all my life, which explains this upturn. From India and neighboring China. That said, if I was still on earth, I would have plenty of work left. After all, one out of two children of God lives on less than $5 a day. And inequalities have only widened.
— It’s true, it’s quite heartbreaking, but let’s say that I have to be careful when I talk about inequalities. After all, I was born from the thigh of Jupiter and lived on the Olympus of the privileged, unlike you, who were born into a well-off family in the Ottoman Empire, but chose to live the most simply of the world.
— I think that today, some would reproach me for my lack of environmental awareness. Let’s say I’ve flown a lot of planes in my lifetime.
An angel passes.
“Tell me, Diana, were you surprised by the huge wave of sympathy that swept over you after your death?
– Surprise ? Stunned would be the right word. From being unloved in my marriage and in my in-laws, I became the darling of billions in death. They made me an icon, a kind of lay saint. So much so that my death overshadowed yours.
– Oh ! Diana, I’m not complaining. I was beatified and canonized by the Catholic Church faster than any other saint in history. It also awoke my staunchest critics.
– Yes, you and I are well placed to see that a halo is as heavy to wear as a crown!