Audrey Hepburn: An Intimate Portrait (51 page)

>From
the moment she agreed to do the work, she had an impact. “The work that
Audrey Hepburn did for UNICEF was imperative for us,” said Lawrence E.
Bruce, Jr., the president and CEO of the United States Committee for UNICEF.
“Many people think that UNICEF gets a slice of the UN pie, which is not
the case. The organization has to raise its funds each year, so fund-raising is
an ongoing effort.”

In
the midst of her work with UNICEF she also agreed to host a six-part PBS
series,
Gardens of the World.
These
programs allowed her to share with a whole new audience her passion for both
the aesthetic joy and the therapeutic value of bringing beautiful things to
life.

“Audrey
never considered herself a good gardener,” said Janis Blackschleger,
executive producer of
Gardens of the
World.

She
liked to talk about how good she was at pulling weeds. But that’s because she
was just so modest.

“We
all know Audrey Hepburn is a great legend. But what she was more than that was
a great human being. When you were with her you felt prettier, better about
yourself and your own possibilities. I just feel grateful she agreed to do the
show, because I had a chance to get to know her.”

“I
was initially very skeptical,” Audrey said. “I mean I grow tomatoes;
I plant a few rosebushes. My garden is really an orchard. There are lots of
fruit trees, a little bit of a proper garden with flowers, a cutting garden,
and a vegetable patch. It’s very messy, but I love it. I am not a real gardener
by any wild stretch, so I didn’t really feel qualified to host the show.”

Again,
Wolders went to work on her, convincing her that she would be a fine narrator.
“Anytime my confidence flags, he can boost it,” she said. And
although she initially felt that a show about gardens might seem frivolous
coming from an ambassador for starving children, Audrey began to see the real
connection between children and the environment.

What
clinched the deal is the fact that the shows were filmed during the summers, the
one season when her UNICEF duties let up. She traveled to sixteen gardens in
seven countries and fell in love with the Giardino di Ninfa, outside of Rome.
Built on the site of an early medieval town that has crumbled through the
centuries, it is full of roses, irises, tulips, and trees. “It is
completely wild,” Audrey said. “I thought I only loved the
orderliness of an English garden, but I fell in love with the jumble near Rome.
It’s friendly, inviting. You don’t feel you have to dress up to walk through
it.”

But
it was at a Shinto shrine in Japan that Audrey came to a revelation about the
connection between gardening and her work with UNICEF. “The Japanese
worship nature. They never cut a tree, and if it falls, they let things grow
over it, so that it can support life—again. Even in Somalia and Ethiopia,
people plant seeds, watch them grow if the conditions are right. It’s so
life-affirming.

“Gardening
is the greatest tonic and therapy a human being can have. Even if you have only
a tiny piece of earth, you can create something beautiful, which we all have a
great need for. If we begin by respecting plants, it’s inevitable we’ll respect
people.”

Glenn
Berenbeim, the scriptwriter of
Gardens of
the World,
recalled her overwhelming concern for all life after he visited
her at Tolochenaz. “The happiest times were the meals,” he said.
“Audrey made these wonderful salads. She fed the dogs buttered toast,
which it was clear they loved! It was clear during my stay that one didn’t
interrupt the joy of a meal for, say, a phone call.”

But
if one of the animals got sick, that was another matter. Tuppena, the Jack
Russell terrier she gave to Wolders as his first pet, got something caught in
his throat during Berenbeim’s visit.

“I
was amazed at Audrey and Robbie’s concern,” he recalled. “For forty
minutes, everything stopped. They stayed with Tuppena until they were sure he
was okay. You couldn’t fake that kind of respect for life. Audrey was amazing
to all who met her. She believed all life was a miracle. That’s why she worked
so hard with UNICEF.”

Audrey’s
involvement in UNICEF transcended the charity cocktail party circuit where she
felt “old stars are propped up for wealthy people to gawk at who must then
pay—and pay dearly—for seeing the wrinkles up close!”

“Audrey
knew herself perfectly—the qualities as well as the flaws,” recalled
Givenchy. “I had not dressed her for a film since she became devoted to
UNICEF, but I continued to make some of her evening dresses and day wear. She
once told me, `When I talk about UNICEF in front of the television cameras, I
am naturally emotional. Wearing your blouse makes me feel protected.‘ It was
one of the most touching compliments she ever gave me,” Givenchy said.