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Justification of Existence

  • May. 12th, 2008 at 7:47 PM
Heartstrings/VM/Logan
Every time a truly remarkable person dies, the world is a little poorer for it.

Irena Sendler died today. She was 98. A long, and, hopefully, post-war happy life. No one deserved it more.

She had saved some 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazi Holocaust by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto, some of them in baskets. She was arrested and tortured but refused to give up her accomplices. And after she escaped, she changed her name and continued her work.

When honored as a hero, she responded with: "Every child saved with my help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers, who today are no longer living, is the justification of my existence on this earth, and not a title to glory."

May she rest in true peace. As a born Jew, and an agnostic at best, I don't know if there is a heaven. But at times like these, I sure hope there something. Because there has to be a place where people like that get their due.

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[info]lady_eonen wrote:
May. 13th, 2008 10:50 am (UTC)
Isn't it so horribly ironic that her own children haven't survived and she had outlived them.
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[info]hiddeneloise wrote:
May. 13th, 2008 07:38 pm (UTC)
Horrible. And sad. And somehow cosmically unfair. This is a person who deserved so much. Sigh.
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[info]midnight_27 wrote:
May. 13th, 2008 02:50 pm (UTC)
What a courageous and humble lady, an angel looks down upon us.
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[info]hiddeneloise wrote:
May. 13th, 2008 07:39 pm (UTC)
Indeed. One of the few people that make me hope that there's something out there.
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[info]sophisti_girl wrote:
May. 13th, 2008 07:12 pm (UTC)
It's good that she was able pass away naturally after living such a long and meaningful life.

When I hear stories like this, it makes me wonder where people of this caliber are anymore. With a government that tells us to "get over it" and that we only get a say every four years, it can make me pretty jaded about the world. We need to hear more about people like her who did so much good in her lifetime.
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[info]hiddeneloise wrote:
May. 13th, 2008 07:42 pm (UTC)
It's easy to get cynical. We live in a pretty cynical world. Thing is, it's always been despite governments, conditions, or political climates that people like these lived and worked. Hopefully it's never going to change. They are rare whatever the century. That, sadly, isn't likely to change either.
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[info]earth2mars wrote:
May. 20th, 2008 06:51 am (UTC)
The world lost another amazing person with her death. Seriously, who are our heroes today? I'm completely drawing a blank here. Isn't that scary?
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[info]hiddeneloise wrote:
May. 21st, 2008 03:43 am (UTC)
Seriously, who are our heroes today? I'm completely drawing a blank here. Isn't that scary?

It is. And sad. And I'm with you on drawing a blank, though I'm sure I can come up with a few if I really think about it. But that's just it, they are few and far between. And when they die, it's a tremendous loss. I'm glad she lived to the old age. I know it was probably her time to go. Still, it's so, so sad.
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