Spa Party

http://www.fotohighway.com/assets_d/15517/download_media/summer08_106.pdf

I wanted to share a piece I wrote a while back on a spa party I attended. Fotohighway's newsletter, OnE Magazine has a wealth of fashion and makeup ideas. Leah Marshall is a great photographer who came from New York. She is affiliated with Ann Leister and the SPLASH modeling group. Leah does awesome work. Scroll down to page five to see my article.
Have a great day!!

Thoughts on Miep Gies- the Woman Who Hid the Frank Family

When I read about Miep Gies passing away at age 100, I thought about how she’d seen so much take place in her life. I thought about how she’d helped hide the Frank family during the Holocaust and how she’d helped preserve Anne’s diary by giving it to Anne’s dad, Pim. A short bio on Miep’s life said how she hadn’t read the diary before she gave it to him. It went on to say that if she had, she would have had to burn it for fear of incriminating herself. When I was young, the Diary of a Young Girl made a major impact on my life. Wat resonated was the importance of justice, equality and finding the silver lining in spite of bad circumstances. Anne represented the kind of courageous and optimistic person I wanted to be. I was never able to shake the enormity of her book and as an adult, I wrote a book of poetry based on her diary titled Being Frank with Anne. The journey of this book has proven interesting. Anne’s first cousin, Buddy Elias read and reviewed it. He is now CEO of the Anne Frank Fonds in Switzerland. He suggested that I send it to the foundation there and from there it went to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, where it was archived. The Anne Frank Center website bookstore also displays it. While all of that was exciting, I also thought about how Erin Gruell, (Freedom Writers) had flown Miep to California to meet her students. Then I thought, wouldn’t it be great to have contact with Miep? About that time, there was an article in the newspaper about her turning 100 years of age. One of my daughters found online her email address. I contacted Miep by email. You can imagine my surprise when I received an email from her. She was requesting copies of my book and the CD of the abridged version. After sending her copies, I heard from her in the Netherlands. Excitedly I tore into the envelope postmarked that country. She expressed gratitude for my having penned the book. I felt very humbled by her expression. To think that she had risked her life trying to preserve the lives of others is something truly to admire and remember. Today’s blog is in memory of Miep Gies. \