for Anne, Mentor, Friend and Inspiration

When people ask me about people or situations which have inspired me, I usually talk about my mother who loved words and was herself a poet. Sometimes I talk about Ben and the Green Corduroy Angel, or Little Pear, Prince Dolor, Scout, Boo, or a host of other fictional characters that I cherish, all of whom were created by authors I've come to admire. Other times, particularly when I am asked to speak about my interest in Historical Fiction, I talk about Anne. 

     I'm sorry to say that I didn’t always see the value in studying history. When I was growing up, history was an extension of math— a never ending timeline of dates that I memorized with mnemonic couplets or stick-figure drawings. Between history and math, I was firmly entrenched in the what does this have to do with my life camp.

Then I read Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Anne Frank who loved a boy named Peter. Anne Frank who didn’t always get along with her mother. Anne Frank who kept a journal and dreamed of being a writer. This girl had EVERYTHING to do with me. This girl could have been me. Anne was more than a scratch mark, more than a number somewhere between A-25060 and A-25271. 

Suddenly history mattered. Anne mattered and I mourned Anne’s devastating fate as I would mourn the loss of my dearest friend. I mourned— and still mourn— a world where such a fate is possible.

Anne Frank would have been 90 years old today. In spite of everything that she suffered, Anne  believed that people were good at heart. World events continue to challenge this belief but Anne Frank's words remain a noble and heroic inspiration.  How wonderful, she wrote, that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

Though we never met, Anne Frank has been a mentor and friend. Under the most difficult circumstances imaginable, she remained true to herself and became the writer she dreamed of becoming. On this, her 90th birthday, I wish her peace.