William and Harry will always be two boys who lost their mother too early, too tragically. They do honor her memory well though, as the good sons they have always been.

One cannot help but become emotional when Prince Harry, now 22, says his mother, the late and much regretted Diana, Princess of Wales, was the “best mother in the world,” as he did today during the memorial service he organized with his brother William.

Friday, August 31st marks the 10th anniversary of Diana’s death. On July 1sr, she would have turned 46. Harry and William have organized the whole event mostly on their own, with the help of Diana's brother, Earl Spencer and Diana’s sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes.

Harry, who was only 12 when he lost his mother, said her death 10 years ago has “changed our lives forever.” He said Diana had been “our guardian, friend and protector” and called his childhood, while Diana still lived, “blessed years.”

He urged the congregation of 500, as well as the worldwide television audience, to remember Diana as “fun-loving, generous and entirely genuine.”

Prince William, who was 15 at the time of his mother’s death, gave a reading from St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

Present at the hour-long Thanksgiving Service for Diana in London’s Guards’ Chapel were Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and his wife, Sarah, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and his wife Cherie, singer Elton John, Cliff Richard and celebrity photographer Mario Testino.

Elton John arrived with his partner David Furnish and with Camilla Al Fayed, sister of the Princess’ late companion Dodi Al Fayed.

Prince Charles’ new wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, did not attend, after saying earlier this week that her presence would “divert attention from the purpose of the occasion, which is to focus on the life and service of Diana.”

Harry and William chose the music for the service, including hymns that were previously sung at Diana’s wedding to Prince Charles in July, 1981 and at her funeral ten years ago.

Rev Patrick Irwin, Chaplain to the Household Division, conducted the service. Two prayers were written for the occasion by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, at the request of William and Harry.

Mohammed al-Fayed, the father of Dodi Al Fayed, led a tribute to his son and Diana at London's Harrods department store, which he owns, joined by the staff and shoppers.

It has been a week of mourning of the much-loved “People’s Princess,” remembered for her kindness and grace, as both Britons and tourists gathered Friday at Kensington Palace, her London residence, Buckingham Palace and nearby Wellington Barracks Chapel, where a memorial service is to be held later Friday.

Father Frank Julian Gelli conducted an informal open-air service at Kensington Palace. Diana sometimes worshipped at Gather Gelli’s Kensington church.

Harry said it best – and he and William know best how painful Diana’s death is: we “think about her every day, speak about her and laugh together at all the memories.

“We miss her. When she was alive, we completely took for granted her unrivalled love of life, laughter, fun and folly.

“To lose a parent so suddenly at such a young age, as others have experienced, is indescribably shocking and sad. It was an event which changed our lives forever, as it must have done for everyone who lost someone that night,” he said.

“But what is far more important to us now, and into the future, is that we remember our mother as she would have wished to be remembered - as she was: fun-loving, generous, down-to-earth, entirely genuine,” he said.