Last Words: A Diary of Survival

Amelia - 1942: The inside of my closet held the last bit of my freedom before I was torn from my home and shoved onto a dark train. Our destination was even darker. ‘Women and children to the right. Men to the left’, they shouted at us. Everything was taken from me, leaving only the smoke-filled air, piercing screams, and soul-burning cries. I was slowly starved and weakened to the bone, but there was a man - a Nazi - who brought me extra food. He called himself a prisoner too, but he scared me, and I wondered if he was the enemy I should fear the most.

Emma - current day: My grandmother hid her past in an old diary under her bed. The tattered, brown leather book sat there for years until she asked me to find it and read her unspoken words. Now, her stories and secrets are consuming every moment of my life.

She’s dying … and asking for a man no one in our family has ever heard of. I never imagined a handwritten book could change my entire life, but it has. It opened my eyes to a new beginning, and I learned that love is not the unsaid word my grandmother has refused to speak. It’s an action - it’s longevity, taboo, and sometimes forbidden. Do we fight for what’s wrong, or do we spend our lives searching for what’s right? Last words were never spoken because love doesn’t stop until a heart is no longer beating.