Letter: Flowers, but no real compassion

Sir: In the train yesterday (5 September) were groups of women holding bunches of flowers with notes of love for Princess Diana.

A young homeless man got on with his bundle of The Big Issue, the magazine of the homeless, and went round the carriage trying to sell his magazines. The women with their bouquets turned him away with never a word or a smile.

I thought of Princess Diana and of how she would have reached out to touch his hand, how she would have spoken to him and how she would have smiled warmly on him. If we have not learnt from the example of her life, then I fear our bunches of flowers are empty tributes to this wonderful, caring lady.

JEAN S HUMPHREY-GASKIN

Thornton Heath, Surrey