WOMEN TAKING LOSS OF PRINCESS HARDEST.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer

Watching live television coverage of Lady Diana Spencer's wedding to the Prince of Wales nearly two decades ago, Beth Glick remembers being captivated by the shy woman in a white dress with the eyes of the world upon her.

``It was like a fairy tale. I think it was every girl's dream to be a princess,'' said Glick, a single mother and Van Nuys resident.

``And then we watched her go through her divorce with her children,'' said Glick, who spent part of Labor Day with her 2-year-old daughter, Samantha, at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, where one of Princess Diana's gowns was displayed until news of her tragic death Saturday night.

``She was a woman who had everything - the wealth, the role of being one of the most important women in the world. But she admitted she wasn't happy. She became a human being,'' Glick said.

As millions around the world mourn the death of one of the century's most renowned figures, women in particular are memorializing Princess Diana as much for her ability to overcome the obstacles in her personal life as for her dedication to humanitarian work.

``She was a true lady, a good mother, a good wife who tried so hard to make her relationship work and a compassionate woman who really put her heart in what she did,'' said Marie Sotelo, a Tarzana resident who hung a small banner on the railing outside her home that reads, ``God Bless Princess Diana.''

Sotelo, a divorced and single mother who said she is fighting a bout with anorexia nervosa, said she was inspired by Diana the first time she heard that the Prince of Wales was engaged to a 19-year-old preschool teacher.

``I feel like I have lost someone in the family. I consider her a saint,'' Sotelo said.

Diana's marriage into the British royal family was like a Cinderella dream come true. The tale of a shy teen-ager who left her job as a preschool teacher to become one of the most famous women in history captured the hearts of young women around the world.

Because of her personal struggles with her royal marriage - and with her personal victories in breaking from the traditional path of a princess - Diana earned sympathies that will be remembered far longer than her tragic death.

``She became a very real person to many women,'' said Janet L. Jackson, a marriage and family counselor in Pasadena.

``She embodied for women not just the ideal wonderful woman - the beautiful princess who is loved and adored by all - but also a real woman who had to deal with her looks and who suffered from a serious eating disorder and from a broken relationship,'' she said.

Although Princess Diana's fairy-tale marriage to Prince Charles may have ended one year ago this month, she continued the humanitarian work that had earned her respect and inspired the world.

``The fame, the beauty, the pageantry, the celebrity - none of that impressed me. There is already so much of that in Los Angeles,'' said Lynda Golan, a licensed clinical social worker in Sherman Oaks.

``I couldn't help but notice her wedding because of the publicity. But I didn't take her seriously as an individual until she began to travel on her own and to make her own statement. She reached out to the untouchables of the world and was not afraid to make physical contact,'' Golan said.

``She recently found her path and the contributions that would help define her by bringing her graceful attention to social issues,'' she said.

For Lynnell Machernis, an Orange County resident who was strolling through the Sherman Oaks Galleria on Monday with her mother, Diana brought the life of a princess to life for the world.

``She let the public know what she was going through. She really brought home the normality of her life and let us know that she had problems, too,'' she said.

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PHOTO (color) Two women cry while waiting to lay flowers outside St. James' Chapel.

Associated Press