Does happy really equal pretty?

I have mentioned before on this blog that Audrey Hepburn was quoted as saying, "I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls." 

If this were a facebook post, some of my more dour friends might immediately take issue with it.

"Of course she was happy. She was beautiful."
"Of course she was happy. She was rich."
"She must have been a Democrat."
"She must have been a Republican."

"What about people who are born into horrific circumstances? Surely they can never be happy or pretty."

Oh! But they can!

I am reading a book titled "Born Survivors" by Wendy Holden. It's the story of three young women who gave birth in a concentration camp. I cannot imagine being born into more desolate, hopeless circumstances.

But the three babies lived -- and so did their mothers. And I met two of the "babies" (now 71 years old) when they appeared with the author and the sons of two of their liberators in my town.

These two people, a man and a woman, were two of the most beautiful people I had ever seen. 

At 3 weeks old, Hana was covered in boils when her saviors found her and took her from her mother in order to treat her. They then returned her to her mom, and she grew up and became a lovely, contributing member of society.

"Why are you not bitter?" an audience member asked her. This is what I was thinking: "How can you sit there and speak so calmly and eloquently about the nightmare that your mother lived through (at the hands of monsters) to bring you into the world?"

I don't remember her exact answer, but it had to do with not letting bitterness take hold. Her mother wasn't bitter. And she learned from her not to be bitter.

Hana and her mom, 1949

Hana still has scars where her boils were lanced, medicated and stitched, but they have not made her ugly. She has the knowledge that the Nazis killed her father, but it has not made her an angry and unhappy person.

Some may say that's impossible. Some may say it's her right to be bitter. So I give you this quote from Hana's mother, Priska, who lived to age 90:
"I had a beautiful life with my child after I...gave birth to her in a concentration camp...My daughter is very precious...I thank dear God that he gave me this love that I have for my daughter. I survived. We are here. I brought home a baby. That is the most important thing."

I have not finished the entire book, which chronicles the lives of the three women both before and after the camps. It is a hard book to read. I took it to the beach in Florida and read it as the tide calmly rolled in and out in front of me.

In my hands I held the story of one of the ugliest times in history, but in my view was one of the most beautiful sights on earth.

Somehow, this seemed fitting. This world, this life, is a mystery. It's not ours to know it completely, but to survive and to love. Those are the most important things.

More of the quote...

 What else I did at the beach:

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