The woman on the street was quite distressed. A year after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, she was still struggling to come to terms with the hysteria which gripped the public in the week after the Paris crash.
Prompted to explain what she meant, she put into words what undoubtedly many people felt after Diana died - she was devastated but the pressure to feel sad was so overwhelming that if she hadn't felt sad, she would have felt guilty.
In the "chaotic excess" of Diana's last month, when she at once appeared as a joyful, young woman on the threshold of a new and happy life and as the landmine campaigner comforting the victims of a horrific weapon of war, the complex reality of her life was never more in evidence.
On the one hand, Diana was pursuing an admirable cause, prompting headlines which portrayed her as a designer-clad angel flying to Bosnia to comfort the children. On the other, she was being cast as an Onassis-like figure, enjoying the luxury of private jets and private villas. According to some, she was in danger of becoming a "fast woman".
A year on and the defining images of the week immediately after her death are still familiar. The carpet of flowers outside the gates of her former home at Kensington Palace; the quiet grief of her sons, Princes William and Harry, at her funeral; the stinging funeral oration by her brother, Earl Spencer; and the wave of applause which swept through Westminster Abbey encapsulating the public's disappointment with the royal family.
All these images have stayed with us. Just as those who remember where they were when President Kennedy was shot or man landed on the moon, everyone remembers where they were when they heard Diana died and what they were doing in that sad week even if they didn't mourn her death.
But is this the total of what we feel about Diana a year later? We remember hearing the dreadful news of her death and sitting in front of the television for a week. Many thousands of people laid flowers and lit candles; others camped outside Westminster Abbey for the funeral. But a year on can we call it the "cult of Diana"?
In an opinion poll for the Daily Telegraph last week it appeared that the public was suffering from "Diana fatigue". Some observers were surprised, others merely relieved, that mass public displays of grief were not planned for today's anniversary. While six per cent of people did plan to observe the anniversary, 93 per cent said they would not commemorate Diana's death.
Of course, it is not to say that the public no longer cherishes Diana and she is still a source of endless newspaper articles, rather it is the realisation that mass mourning cannot be sustained. Diana was loved by millions of people across the world and she still is; she has not been forgotten and never will be.
As one observer said recently, in the week after Diana's death many people felt sad because they could identify with the troubled aspects of her life and still do.
Writer Julie Birchill said recently that it seemed as if Diana's legacy was destined to be a "river of tears and a head full of hysteria". We reacted to Diana's death emotionally, she argued, when Britain should have instead turned its pain and anger on the royal family.
However, Ms Birchill's position has not mirrored that of the undoubted change in public opinion in favour of the royal family, Prince Charles in particular.
While the past year has seen Diana's memory tainted by commercialism, by contrast Prince Charles has emerged with a better public profile than he could have imagined. He may not be the "people's prince" but there can be no doubt that the public is warming to him in a way which has transformed his relationship with those who may one day call him king.
His rehabilitation in the eyes of the media began earlier this year during a trip to Canada with his sons, when a relaxed Prince Charles was put on public display. Later, in South Africa, he was pictured alongside President Nelson Mandela and the Spice Girls and a normally reluctant prince was replaced with a man seemingly in touch with popular culture.
Queen Elizabeth has embarked on a rehabilitation of her own, opening a MacDonald's restaurant in recent months, but there will be no public commemoration of Diana's death. The royal family will visit Crathie church, close to Balmoral, briefly today to say prayers for Diana.
The queen was stung by the public criticism of her refusal to lower the flag at Buckingham Palace immediately after Diana's death and her absence from London until the day before her funeral. And while she is attempting to modernise the royal family, the wheels of change move slowly at Buckingham Palace.
Prince Charles and his sons, Princes William and Harry, have thanked the British public for its support on the anniversary of Diana's death.