Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Granny's example of heroism from The Diary of Anne Frank

Manuscript in a museum in Berlin of The Diary of Anne Frank
From Cloutierville, this safe and happy place, Granny has traveled everywhere for many, many years.  And she has known about some awful things, but nothing worse than what happened years ago to a little girl she remembers as Anne Frank and the kind of people who are heroes in very special ways.

I knew that little darlin', and she was pretty as could be.  And smart, Lord knows that child was smart, and Granny knew that one day that child would write a book herself. . But that book she wrote she never saw again, after she set down those words that make Granny's heart still hurt.

Anne's book is called Diary of Anne Frank, as if it somebody wrote it who done growed up and was sharin' things with friends of hers today.  But little Anne never did grow up, and her Granny never saw that child again after she left Cloutierville and moved so far away.

I loved my Anne very much and remember her right now.  And these tears can't wash away the memories that Granny holds inside.  Anne used to read aloud from a little book in Granny's kitchen with the pretty pictures of many things she loved so very much.  From the kitchen window she'd look out to see and hear the birds and animals, that only the sweetest kind of child could hear like little Anne.  When she moved away from Cloutierville she lived in the Netherlands, a place where bad things happened those many years ago, and they happened to my Anne, that Granny can't forget.

For people they hated Anne just because she was different than them because a bad man told them Jewish people like Anne were takin' over the country and should be stopped so  he could make the country great again.  He said he was the only one who could do that. So Anne and her family were taken from their hidin' place, and no one knew what happened 'til Anne's book was found, and Granny and all of her friends in Cloutierville they learned how Anne had died, cold and sick in a concentration camp in Germany.

Anne was a hero cause she kept the memories alive of why it is so important to stay away from hate and she helped her family stay alive for as long as she could when they had so little food and when it was very cold and scarey.  And Granny thinks of that other kind of hero who helps keep people safe from war and protects the children like that dear, sweet little Anne from getting hurt or killed; and sometimes they get killed themselves.

And Granny's heart is hurtin' when some people don't understand what a hero really is and what families lose when a child dies in a war or when soldiers get killed savin' other people's lives.

Tonight there is families everywhere who weep like Granny does, thinkin' bout those heroes of today and yesterday.

This Granny sits in Cloutierville, thinkin' bout that child, looking at her diary on the table by my door. .  And now I wish my Anne was here with me to tell her story bout what happens when people listen to hatin' words and not The Man Upstairs or when they don't understand what being a hero really means.

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