My friend, Anne

Wednesday, February 23, 1944

"The weather's been wonderful since yesterday, and I've perked up quite a bit. My writing, the best thing I have, is coming along well. I go to the attic almost every morning to get the stale air out of my lungs...But [this morning] I also looked out of the open window, letting my eyes roam over a large part of Amsterdam, over the rooftops and on to the horizon, a strip of blue so pale it was almost invisible.

'As long as this exists,' I thought, 'this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how can I be sad?'

The best remedy for those who are frightened, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere they can be alone, alone with the sky, nature and God. For then and only then can you feel that everything is as it should be and that God wants people to be happy amid nature's beauty and simplicity.

As long as this exists, and that should be for ever, I know that there will be solace for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances. I firmly believe that nature can bring comfort to all who suffer."

-Anne Frank

This was written after a year and a half in hiding when Anne was 14 years old. On August 4, 1944, Anne and her family were arrested, and Anne died in Bergen-Belsen that winter.

I became so completely enamored with young Anne that she seems like a friend months after I finished her diary. It is filled with such poignant reflections about life and family, but also small details about the war from her perspective. For instance, she describes "packing" for hiding:

"The four of us were wrapped in so many layers of clothes it looked as if we were going off to spend the night in a refrigerator, and all that just so we could take more clothes with us. No Jew in our situation would dare leave the house with a suitcase full of clothes. I was wearing two vests, three pairs of pants, a dress, and over that a skirt, a jacket, a raincoat, two pairs of stockings, heavy shoes, a cap, a scarf and lots more. I was suffocating even before we left the house, but no one bothered to ask me how I felt."

This classic 13-year-old intense self awareness, wonderfully written and sealed with an indignant jab, makes Anne Frank's diary not just educational but alive. She had dreams of becoming a writer when she was older; she would have been marvelous. I am so thankful that her diary was preserved so that I could meet her. She is an inspiration to me.