Charlotte Craig, Kathy Swan on Princess Diana's impact 25 years later

Twenty-five years ago today, the world woke up to the news of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, who was killed in a car crash the night before on Aug. 31, 1997, in Paris.

The Southeast Missourian reached out to two local women who remembered hearing the accounts of Diana's sudden death at the age of 36 and who spoke of the legacy left by the former member of Britain's royal family.

Charlotte Boyce Craig

Charlotte Boyce Craig headed the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center for more than 30 years and gives Diana credit for raising awareness of the suffering of HIV/AIDS patients.

"She was a person who stepped out of the box at the time (and) created an understanding that AIDS was not contagious by being willing to visit victims and touch them," said Craig, who headed the county health department from 1975 to 2011.

BBC News chronicled the 25th anniversary of Diana's death with these words:

"Diana opened the United Kingdom's first purpose-built HIV/AIDS unit exclusively caring for patients infected with the virus. In front of the world's media, Diana shook the hand of a man suffering with the illness — doing so without gloves, publicly challenging the notion that the disease was passed person-to-person by touch. She showed in a single gesture that AIDS was a condition needing compassion and understanding, not fear and ignorance."

Kathy Swan

Kathy Swan started a nursing career at Cape Girardeau's Saint Francis Healthcare in 1970, going on to become a business owner and a District 147 state representative and currently a state Labor and Industrial Relations commissioner.

Like Craig, Swan also lauded Diana for the enduring gift of presence, which the commissioner called a "faith-driven" response.

"It was extremely brave of (Diana) at that point in time because (AIDS) was relatively new, and we didn't know as much about the disease as we do now or have the treatments we have now," Swan said. "Her actions were very nonjudgmental and very compassionate."

Craig also said Princess Diana's actions were felt in Cape Girardeau County.

"Our health department was the first one from St. Louis on down to have an HIV/AIDS clinic at right about the same time that Princess Diana was making these visits," Craig recalled. "We all benefited from her acceptance of people with that particular disease."