Girl with the wild-flower posy.

Edda was called Audrey until 1939.
Daughter of a Netherlands Duchess,
she was such a lovely child.

In 1940 the evil came.
Despite the neutrality of Holland
the Nazi's just invade.

Her mother looked her in the eye, she said;

Audrey, from now until they leave, you are Edda van Heemstra,
and you only speak in Dutch

Edda nodded solemnly,
taking strength from love of country and her mothers touch.

Edda was a dancer, a love of ballet filled her soul.
When the Nazi's murder her uncle
she dances with a different goal.

She dances totally silent recitals,
in her grandfathers caste,
and other blacked out silent rooms.
To silent rapt audiences she dances by candlelight
and raises money for resistance funds.

Edda was still a child,
but a child with a lions heart.
Dancing was not enough.

Edda, like many a child, wore oversized men's shoes.
Stuffed with newspaper they were better than nothing,
when nothing was all most had.
Edda's shoes held resistance messages and she was never searched.

One day in summer she is given a special task.
An English airman in a local field.
He has to be reached and fast.
He has to be told a rendezvous point
and Edda is still English at heart.

Edda reaches the airman,
gives him the information that he needs.
Then the soldiers arrives.

Edda thinks calm and fast.
She knows she has to act.
As they spread out to search the field
Edda tells the airman "Just lay flat".
Then Edda picks a wild-flower posy
and Edda begins to dance.

Edda picks flowers as she dances,
she dances towards  the enemy men.
When she gets close enough she pretends to suddenly notice them
and offers them the blooms.
They refuse the flowers but, entranced, they ask
"Have you seen an airman, or a parachute come down?"
She, oh so innocently, says no.
The German's leave to search a different field
and Edda and the airman go home.

Life, for the Dutch, after Arnhem 
(where Edda was a resistance nurse)
was even harder than before.
Where food was scarce there is now none.
A nation begins to starve.
Thousands die before Edda sees, on 29th April, 1945,
the Wellington's fly in.
Dropping food and blankets and hope.

In operation Manna Edda becomes a future UNICEF ambassador.

With the war finally over she returns to London,
takes back her given name.

Audrey Hepburn then danced with the Rambert,
until she was cast in Gigi,
then Roman Holiday and fame.

The world still loves and adores her
for her beauty and her grace and her style.

Now we know, that in the depths of the endless beauty of those eyes,
lived a courage an ocean wide.