Struggle

“Robby and John Isaac, [Audrey’s] friend and photographer at UNICEF, both
recount a moment they will never forget. No one in those camps knew who she was.
They just knew that a plane or helicopter would land, and out of it would emerge
this woman: thin like them, gentle and caring, with something in her eyes they
could connect to. At the end of one of these visits, they entered a rough
structure where a long line of children had formed, all waiting for their one
meal: a bowl of that porridge UNICEF uses in extreme
situations.

[Audrey] was deep in conversation with one of the
officials when both Robby and John noticed a little girl in a long line of
hungry children. She seems transfixed at the sight of this unknown woman she had
probably just seen be so compassionate with the other children. As the line kept
bringing her closer and closer to her meal, it became apparent that a struggle
was building inside this little girl. She would look at the head of the line,
probably blind with hunger, and yet something was pulling her away from the food
towards [Audrey]. You would see the struggle in the child’s eyes. She was
dealing with two of the most basic instincts in life: the need for food, for
survival, and the need to rush into the arms of a woman offering inexplicable
hope and the kind of reassurance you only get from a
mother.

Finally their eyes met. [Audrey] became very quiet. As the
little girl reached the head of the line, she looked at the plate, the food, and
in a flash broke out of the line and rushed into [Audrey’s] arms. The need for
affection, to be held in the arms of this mysterious woman, had surpassed, for
that short moment, her need for survival.”

-Sean Hepburn Ferrer, Audrey Hepburn: An Elegant Spirit