Adieu, Miep

Miep Gies has died, a month and two days shy of her 101st birthday.

I had the good fortune of exchanging a few letters with her in the late 1990s.

She never liked being called a "hero".
I can understand that. I agree with her that what she did is what any human being should do - no more, no less.

She was a lady.
What a lady!

But for some strange reason what I remember most fondly - apart from her being the protector of Anne Frank and the custodian of her diary before it was published - is that she was once the "best Charleston dancer in Amsterdam".
(You can take a girl out of Vienna, but you can't take Vienna out of a girl. :)

And why not?
It is a joyful heart what makes us want to dance.

There is little room for darkness in a joyful heart, and no room at all for evil.
A joyful heart doesn't need eyes to see, or ears to hear.

The song coming from a joyful heart is possibly the best prayer there is.
And I suspect the dance steps dictated by a joyful heart lead directly to paradise, wherever it is.


So, Miep, here is something just for you...