The Little Girl in the Attic

Miep Gies died this week at the age of 99.

She was but a humble secretary in Germany, a very simple woman. A woman who in her 30's went to work every day like many of us do. Whose days may have seemed as mundane as our own filled with tasks and to do lists.

And then life did what life does. It changed unexpectedly. Circumstances that Miep had no control over crashed into her life and altered reality into an unrecognizeable state.

World War II.

And Miep continued on, doing what she had to do every day. Although what that looked like changed significantly when the Jewish man she worked for, Otto Frank, asked her to help him hide his family and four others in the attic of the office building where she worked.

For more than two years, Miep sheltered the Franks.

She did what she had to do.

Today, my dear readers, I know many of you are facing your own struggles and adversity. So my advice to you is to simply remember Miep, and do what you have to do. As the look and feel of your daily tasks change, stay the course. Your simple devotion to the task at hand has the potential to resonate in ways yet to be seen.


A testament to that simple truth are the words of one little girl who changed the world with her innocent honesty and wise truths. She was able to write them, and we are able to read them, because Miep simply did what she had to do. She bought the groceries. Ran the errands. And ultimately, saved those words.

I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consiting of confusion, misery and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness. I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too. I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end. In the meantime, I must uphold my ideals for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out!

Anne Frank - July 13, 1944


You did carry those ideals out, Anne.

And we owe it all to Miep and her ability.

To carry on.
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Every once in a while "Dating Land" will deviate from the humorous twists of life, because sometimes....life just isn't funny. This entry today is for some dear friends of mine facing some tough struggles. Stay the course. Buy the groceries. Care for your children. Take care of daily life. Those insignificant things matter more than you will ever realize . . . God bless. And carry on. ~Audra