From 8-year old Hilda’s diary:
I had a lovely time this afternoon. I went around the corner to visit Grandma Uri. She is Grandmother’s best friend. She is very old and she always wears a bonnet in the house. She can’t hear very well so she holds a funny trumpet to her ear and when you talk to her you sort of blow into it. She always sits in a big chair by the window in her bedroom and tells us stories about the people she sees through it who are walking on the street. She has a basket of sewing next to her. The basket is made of little pockets and the pockets are full of lovely things she has sewn and other surprises. Sometimes little cookies shaped like hearts or little jelly beans or cinnamon candies that burn just a bit. Grandma Uri always asks, “Were you a good girl this week, Hilda?”, and when I blow “Yes” into her horn, she says, “I know you were. Look into the pockets of my basket and maybe you will find a surprise.” On Christmas and birthdays there are wonderful surprises. Once I found a pearl bracelet and once there was a five dollar gold piece and once the lovelies pink and gold thimble. This afternoon she let me go downstairs and help Louie bake cookies. He gave me a piece of dough all for myself and showed me how to cut out a man and make him handsome with little raisins for eyes and tiny pieces of walnuts for buttons on his coat. I love Louie. I don’t know why I am so frightened of the picture of the Chinese men as Louis is Chinese. I have always known him and loved him. Grandfather says that I must learn that all people are the same inside their skin. That all people love their own children and their own friends and all they want is to be happy and peaceful in their own homes. And then he said that all people are very unhappy when their children lose their tempers and stamp their feet and yell.
Reading of Hilda’s grandfather reminds me of my grandmother’s stories about her own father who was Hilda’s grandfather’s brother. Both men sound incredibly kind and believed in the best in people. They taught their children tolerance and respect for others. Helene’s father published a newspaper in their small town in order to expose corruption and give voice to the voiceless, teaching his daughter values that she carried with her throughout her life.
If only the world had progressed further in the last 110 years!