Answer Miep Gies: "That was not a deliberate decision. It grew over the years. The first few years my health was still fragile and the situation in Austria unstable. So, my mother felt it would be better for me to extend my stay in the Netherlands. In that way, I got adapted to the Dutch and to the high school I had been put to. I also had made new friends. Subsequently it was decided I should first graduate, which did prepare me for a Dutch job. It was a gradual development, also influenced by the early death of my parents and my only sister."