Dear Judithe,

Thank you for the outpouring of emotional support after discovering, reading, and sharing my mother’s book. Thank you to Fremantle Press for their support of Hetty’s words from the very beginning, as they were her original publishers.

You asked: What did Hetty intend young readers to feel: the weight of loss, the power of care, or something else entirely?

I will happily pass this onto my children, Jacleen and Adam, to whom Mum’s books are dedicated. I believe the intention was not necessarily for her many readers to feel the weight of loss or to experience the power of care per se. However, Mum was, as you reminded us, passing on a suggestion that we all have the power to claim our own fate—to hope for better days. Mum’s mantra of “Tomorrow will be a better day” lives on in her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren, and was mentioned at her funeral (which is available to view online at www.hetty.com.au).

I like to believe Hetty was successful in her intention to hopefully have her many student listeners get the “pass it on” effect, so they would discuss the subject of her talks with their parents and perhaps lend their signed books to the nearest relative or sibling to read. Above all, we hope that her words will begin to slowly help others through their difficult days. I have said many times, and I will say it again here, that I am thankful Hetty is not here today to see what’s happening in the world currently, or to see what’s happening to the precious youth of today—the ones she was unable to reach with her knowledge of history and her wisdom. The young adults who are lost in some sort of stupor, as they have no purpose, and so they demonstrate in the streets and, as we know, are paid to do it.

Mum had a very definite purpose, and that was to teach each child one by one, one day at a time, one school at a time, one reader at a time, that love for humanity is the most important blessing you can bestow on each other, and that the senseless killing of her race during the Holocaust did happen. To those who are the brainwashed of today, I believe she would have said, “Pick up a book and read the truth.”

With sincerest regards,

Julia