Saturday, August 04, 2012

Dear Kitty

I've always been keen to read this memoir for many years. I remember reading about it in the papers when I was still in school, and the name Anne Frank stuck in my mind. I never did find the book till recently and finally got the chance to immerse myself in it.

It's been awhile since I read a novel this thick. Admittedly, lately I rather read simpler stuff because I can't wait to reach the end. With rosters being quite tight, I thought I'd never get time to read. Luckily, I persevered :p

I had reservations when I got the book. Anne Frank was a teenage girl. Could I relate? Could she hold my interest? I know it's archaic to think like that despite the many commends she has received.

I smiled when I read her first entry though. The way she wrote, light-hearted and warm. It was harder to put down than I earlier perceived.

Her entries were honest. I got sucked into the innocent abandon she wrote with. There were also entries with so much details, it felt like the journalist she aspired to be. As I read through her pages, her words felt as though they were for me. It felt as if I was Kitty, as if I could receive letters from the past. As I read more, "yours truly Anne Frank" was a friend I knew growing up. The different phases she went through, the fear, frustrations, hopes, despairs, all of it as if she conveyed personally to me. How a person so young like her, in such circumstances as hers, was able to keep pulling through, I cannot imagine. Makes one rethink about perspectives of life, the wants, the needs, obsessions and inspirations.

Reading the final pages today, my heart sinks at the unhappy ending my friend has to face. If you knew her, many like her, you'd ask why do certain people even exist. And therein lies all the contradictions about life.

68 years on this very day that I read her final words, the Secret Annexe was raided. Reading the after words, I hear a heart thumping so fast in the distant. I wish I could save her.

"I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death! And that’s why I’m so grateful to God for having given me this gift, which I can use to develop myself and to express all that’s inside me!"

- words from Anne Frank -

 

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