Audrey Hepburn

Although my family and their needs dominate my time, every once in a while I get a chance to sit and read. I got hooked on the twilight series but am in between books right now. So, to just have something, I randomly picked up a book at the library. It was lighthearted and funny and it mentioned Audrey Hepburn and her movies throughout it. That rekindled an interest I had in her from before and this time I'm renting all the movies I can and I'm reading up about her. I'm finding her to be just as interesting as I thought she might be! So - that's been fun. She is extraordinarily beautiful but what I didn't know is that her father left her when she was young and she lived near Amsterdam through the second world war. Her uncle was killed and her home was taken away from them. She almost starved along with hundreds of thousands of others in her country. She saw so much death and violence as a little child. And yet she came out of it having been taught to think of others and to always be kind. She managed to work with all sorts of difficult personalities but managed to stay friends with everyone and often became close friends with them. She had two boys in between her 5 miscarriages and suffered so much with that. All she wanted was to be a mom. Huh! Interesting. She spent many of her last years travelling the world as a spokesperson for UNICEF - not just sitting in her mansion telling people what to do. So - anyway - just something from my life that doesn't involve the kids. I say that but actually there was one quote in this book I was reading that I keep going back to in my mind. She is referring to being 'a housewife' at a time when she was doing that and not making movies:

"It's sad if people think that's a dull existence, but you can't just buy an apartment and furnish it and walk away," she said. "It's the flowers you choose, the music you play, the smile you have waiting. I want it to be gay and cheerful, a haven in this troubled world. I don't want my husband and children to come home and find a rattled woman. Our era is already rattled enough, isn't it?"

This week I'm trying not to get so rattled! Even when my dishwasher stops working for the seventh time!! :)

Have a great day everyone!