December 14th 1938

Dear Diary,

It has been two weeks since I and my family arrived in Switzerland after fleeing from Herr Zeller and the Nazis on the evening of the music festival, just four hours after mother and father had returned home from their honeymoon in Paris, and everything is so different from the way that it was before. Mother and father are no longer seen as Baron and Baroness, and the accounts in which father had saved all of our money have been frozen which means we are no longer the wealthy family that we had been back in Salzburg. I do like living here in Gimmelwald, one of the more rural areas of the country, because the beauty of the alps helps to clear my head whenever I start to dwell on things that are in the past and which mother say are best left there, and I'm able to escape up into the mountains whenever I need to find release and when I need to be on my own for a little while. Mother spends most of her time in the kitchen and caring for Marta and Gretl now, whilst I and the others either help father with the crops and animals or we help around the cottage so that mother has less to worry about. Father says that she needs as much help as possible, now, considering she's almost three months pregnant with our sibling.

Our home isn't as luxurious as it was back when we lived in Salzburg and there are definitely others who live in more comfort than we do, but none of us seem to really mind. It feels as though having a smaller house has brought us closer as a family, considering we all sit together in the sitting room in the evenings as the flames from the fire warm the cottage so that the younger ones don't wake in the night due to the bitter cold that December is bringing with it. Father plays his guitar for us when we sit together with cups of tea and hot chocolate before bed, and mother still sings with us when she's got the energy to after she's finished with her final tasks of the day, and it feels so nice to know that the time we spend as a family won't ever change even when it seems as though the rest of the world is against us. Mother and I have seemed to form quite a strong bond since she returned home from Paris with father, and she always makes time in the day to put her tasks aside and sit and talk with me about anything that's troubling me. It is usually thoughts about Rolfe and the way he hurt me that trouble me the most, since I always believed that he had at least some feelings for me, but she's always there to support me.

She has always been there to support me.

I know that mother and father have found it just as hard as I and the others to settle down here in Gimmelwald, but they always manage to put a brave face on when they're in front of I and the others. There was one night, just a few days ago, when I walked past their bedroom and heard mother crying from behind the closed door. I stood and stayed quiet for a time to try and hear what she and father were talking about as I could hear the two of them talking quietly to each other, but the only thing that I could clearly make out was the sound of father comforting her with gentle shushes. The thing that I love most about my parents is how deeply they love and respect one another. I know without a doubt that father loved my first mother deeply, considering I used to watch the two of them dance together in the grand hall from the corridor above them when I was meant to be in bed, asleep, and I remember hearing him tell her over and over again how much she meant to him and how much love he possessed for her. The love he holds for mother now, though, appears to be somewhat stronger than the love he held for my first. Maybe it's because he knows how precious time is and that he needs to take each opportunity to let her know how much he adores her. They are both my inspiration. The two of them have shown me what I want in a relationship and just how big of a commitment one is.

I realize now that my feelings for Rolfe were just some schoolgirl infatuation and that the only reason I felt so drawn to him was because I longed for someone to give me some attention. I look at the relationship of my parents and realize that whatever relationship Rolfe and I had was the complete opposite of theirs. They have mutual respect for each other and are incredibly calm and at ease when they're in one another's presence, whereas, even though I believe Rolfe had a level of respect for me, we were never actually at ease when we were together. I would draw my hand back from his at the slightest brush of his fingers against mine, and even though he kissed me in the gazebo I still felt a bit wary around him when we were alone. Maybe it was just my heart's way of telling me not to trust him. Maybe I should have listened to it instead of thinking that I knew better. Father knows that I'm struggling to get past the ache that Rolfe's betrayal left in my heart and that I'm going to need some cherishing before I become more like myself, so the two of us occasionally find time to drive down into the village and spend the afternoon together like we used to when I was a little girl. He always knows just what to say to help cheer me up when I'm down, and he never fails to make me laugh when I'm close to tears. Our bond is so perfectly strong now, and it's the most incredible feeling in the world.

I feel as though everything that has happened over the last two weeks has made me realize that family is the most important thing in the world and that it's so important to tell those in your family exactly how much you appreciate them, because problems can come at any moment and separate you from one another. Mother and father still choose not to tell me and the others about what would have happened if the Nazis had caught us all on the evening of the music festival, but now, due to what I've been learning in school, I have some idea of what might have happened. I and my siblings would have potentially been thrown into concentration camps, along with mother, and forced apart from each other. Father wouldn't have been taken to Bremerhaven if we had been caught; he would have been shot for being a conscientious objector. Just thinking about being unable to be with my family; to be unable to protect my siblings from the things that take place in a concentration camp makes me feel sick. Even though my family is no longer wealthy; even though we now have to only spend money on the bare necessities, I feel as though I'm the luckiest girl in the world. I used to feel as though the latest fashions and make-up brands were important, but now that we can't afford to spend boat-loads of money on things like that, I don't understand why I deemed them to be such important things.

The only thing that matters to me now is my family and their safety. I know that they would all go to the ends of the earth to keep me safe, and I would do the same for them.

I must end this entry here and retire to bed, because I have to leave the house at seven o'clock in the morning if I am to get to school in time.

Goodnight,

LieslvT.

Author's Note: I've heard that some people don't like long A/N, so you don't have to read this if you don't want to :) Please review, though!

Hello everyone and thank you for reading my first chapter! I know that most people tend to say that the family lived in Zurich after they moved to Switzerland in the movie, but I decided to change it up a little! I have no idea how many chapters long this is going to be, but I won't abandon a story and not tell you, so please don't assume that I've abandoned this one if I take a while to upload chapters. If I haven't stated that it's an abandoned story, I'm still writing it but am having writers block. I hope you enjoyed and please review, thank you! :-)