Chapter 2 kiss her cheek

This is a story about an ordinary girl's legendary star journey.Through relentless hard work and a little bit of luck, her talent was finally discovered, and with the help of a talented group of actors, writers and directors, she finally succeeded. This is a beautiful story about a beautiful woman.She always feels that she is too thin, her nose is not straight enough, and her feet are too big. However, her flat shoes, three-quarter sleeves, tight waist, stand-up collar pullover, exaggerated black sunglasses... make her always in the The focus of the times and become a symbol of the fashion industry.

This is a story about a woman who had two failed marriages.In part, it's because she's never healed of a childhood wound that has cast a shadow over her married life for the rest of her life. This is a story about a mother who loves her family and her children.Her greatest wish is to keep her family together and she loves her dogs, her garden, her spaghetti in tomato sauce, her husband and children. This is an ordinary, simple, and true story. It is for this reason that my mother has never written any memoir-style books. She feels that her life is too ordinary and simple. How can a book be called a "Hollywood-style autobiography" and sell if it doesn't contain scandals or sensational secrets that shock society?Barry Paris was the last biographer of his mother, and probably the most responsible. He wrote in the foreword: "For biographers, Audrey Hepburn was a dream and a nightmare at the same time. Neither A movie actress who is so respected, an inspiration in herself, and an inspiration to those around her. Her performance on screen and her acts of kindness off screen are unmatched. She is kind, everyone loves her, no one says Had a bad word about her. Perhaps the worst thing she ever did was forgetting to mention Patricia Neal at the Oscars in 1964. She left no horrific secrets and the media never got a chance Expose her scandal. Beneath her kind and warm exterior is an even more kind and warm heart.”

Another reason why my mother never wrote her own story and had no plans for an autobiography was that, deep down, she didn't want to expose her private life to other people.She's so low-key, out of the limelight, that she'll ignore the great moments, make her life seem so mundane, so obvious, so insignificant.She will involuntarily skip those plots that are very exciting in the eyes of others, but it is in those simple details that the secrets of her life are contained. I have to say that none of the multiple biographies currently available on the market are worth reading of.Still, I would point out that there are two unremarkable episodes in Barry's work that should be revised because they are not exact.Although these are not two crucial mistakes, they prove that some authors have fabricated certain plots without serious research and research, while others have only listened to and spread falsehoods.

Some biographies state that the mother was born Edda Katharine Hepburn-Ruston before changing her name to Audrey.For the author who wrote this story, it may be too difficult to write a best-selling book in the face of her mother's life without many ups and downs, so she has to make up some harmless lies, and these lies are due to the age. And it's hard to find definitive evidence.However, I have my mother's birth certificate, which clearly says: "Audrey Catherine Ruston".After World War I, her father, Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston, discovered in some family records that some ancestors had "Hepburn" in their surnames, and he has since added "Hepburn" to his own In the first name, this led to the fact that from a legal point of view, the mother must also add "Hepburn" to her own name.That story about "Ada" is nothing like the truth.During the war, my grandmother temporarily changed my mother's name from Audrey to Ada, out of concern that the name Audrey was too British.During World War II, in the Netherlands occupied by Germany, it is not a good thing to have a British color. This is likely to attract the attention of the German troops stationed in the Netherlands. The result may be that freedom is restricted or even exiled.My maternal grandmother's name was Ella, and she simply swapped the two l's for two d's to become my mother's new name, Edda.At that time, many documents were handwritten. Ella was a name that could be easily altered. Every time my mother went out, she would bring her grandmother’s ID card with her. When necessary, she would add two letters under the two l’s. A semicircle becomes two d's, and then the date of birth is changed from 1900 to 1929, so that the mother becomes Edda Van Heemstra.My grandmother was such a witty woman.

In fact, Audrey was not a common name even in England, and in those days, anything uncommon was often speculated to be Jewish, when the German authorities had a tendency to "relocate" all minorities Millions of Jews were sent to concentration camps.The grandmother decided to change the name of the mother, of course to protect the mother. Another mistake was even more insignificant. In an early version of the biography, there is this description, "On January 17, 1960, Audrey Hepburn was very happy when her first son, Sean, was born." This error is repeated "faithfully" in many biographies of the mother.I am so proud to have such a great mother, and I will never miss the day she gave me life, July 17, 1960, not January.

My mother fully deserves the adjective "great". I am proud of her and the contribution she has made to this society. I can't think of a more suitable word to sum up her life except "great". . My mother never planned to write a biography. She once thought about writing something about home for my brother Luca and me in the last days of her life, recording those special characters and unusual things that appeared before we were sensible. things.But the mother has been unable to find time to write the book due to her work for UNICEF. On May 9, 1991, the famous publishing agent Alvin Laner wrote to his mother for the last time, hoping that she would consider writing an autobiography.I do not want to quote only some sentences here, but to publish the whole letter.From this letter, we can see how close the relationship between them is, and how much Evan Lana wanted his stubborn mother to change his mind, although in the end he still failed.

A book about "philosophy of life"!This is exactly what I want to do.In the past few years, I have often been asked what the content of this book will cover.I always replied, "This book will contain the last months of my mother's life, our exchanges during that time, and through these words I can re-feel my mother's thoughts and love." The mother never had the opportunity or the time to write the book she wanted to write, a book about her family, her life and her experience working for UNICEF.If she manages to finish the book, I'm sure she'll donate some or all of her $3 million in royalties to charity.Now that I've finished the book on my strengths as her son, I'm going to donate all the proceeds to the Audrey Hepburn Children's Foundation, which I think a mother would like to see.

Before I sat down to write this book, I had a long and intense battle of ideas.She didn't write the book herself, for the reasons I've listed before, so maybe I shouldn't either.After all, this was her life, her private secret.I don't want to write about other people, or make up compelling stories.First, no such story exists, and second, even if it did, my mother would never tell me someone else's story.I hope to write a book about her, about her as a person.Mother is very similar to those images we see her portray in the movies: passionate, brave, elegant, romantic.What can I say about having a mother like that?happiness.

So, this is not a book about other people through the eyes of mothers, but a book about mothers through other people's eyes. For those who are keen to find gossip in the tabloids, this book may be very boring.But if you believe in a simple life and firmly believe that as long as you work hard, you will have happiness, then this text trip will not let you down. This book will take you on a journey into the tender heart of a mother whose son has lived under her loving care for 34 years and who is impeccable both as a mother and as a friend.When the characters she plays appear on the screen, the image you see and feel is not only what the writers, directors, cameramen and editors want to show you, but also the image of this simple and legendary experience. What the best woman really has, and because of this, she deserves the love of so many audiences around the world to this day.

The famous director Billy Wilder was one of his mother's closest friends, and his words are the most intriguing: "God kissed a little girl on the cheek, and Hepburn was born."