"My own life has been much more than a fairy tale. I've had my share of difficult moments, but whatever difficulties I've gone through, I've always gotten a prize at the end." ~ Audrey Hepburn
Life calls our strength and courage on occasion. With each difficult moment, there is a prize.
Born Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston on this day in Brussels, Belgium, actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) charmed the world with her gamine glamour, great dark eyes, and graceful beauty.
She made her stage debut in 1948, as a ballerina then was discovered by novelist Colette who saw Hepburn as the perfect actress to play her heroine Gigi (1951) on Broadway.
From there, the luminous actress worked her way into our hearts in unforgettable films like Funny Face (1957) and Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).
"She's a wispy little thing," described director Billy Wilder. "But you're really in the presence of somebody when you see that girl."
Hepburn won the Best Actress Academy Award for Roman Holiday (1953), but the role of her lifetime was her humanitarian efforts in 1987 as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, spreading light to the world's underprivileged children and citing the hunger she suffered in wartime Netherlands.
A staunch advocate for children, she said: "People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed and redeemed and redeemed."
Upon Hepburn's death, actress Elizabeth Taylor said, "God has the most beautiful new angel."
Have faith... there is a prize at the other side of a difficult moment.