I hadn’t heard the sad news until my friend Lee sent me an email this morning with the New York Times obituary. Immediately, I went to the Anne Frank Foundation website and read the announcement . Her cousin, Buddy Elias, died March 16 shortly before his 90th birthday at his home in Basel, Switzerland.

The reason Lee sent me the obit was because the New York Times cited a story I wrote on Elias in 2012.

I met Elias and his wife, Gerti, at an uptown Atlanta hotel. He was touring the United States to promote a book, “Anne Frank’s Family,” which told the story of the entire Frank family. Many of the details in the book were not known until an amazing discovery more than a decade ago. You’ll have to read the story on CNN.com to find out what that was.

I felt a sadness come over me this morning when I learned of Elias’ death.

Like millions of others, I was deeply influenced by “The Diary of Anne Frank.” I was in the seventh grade in India when my father bought me the book. It was fascinating to hear Elias talk about his days with Anne. I felt I got to know her all over again, in happier days,

My CNN story begins like this:

If the curves of Buddy Elias’ 86-year-old face look familiar, it’s because he is the closest surviving relative of the girl whose diary gave an early glimpse into the Holocaust. It’s not difficult to see that Elias is Anne Frank’s first cousin. He has the same soulful eyes and smile in the photographs that accompanied Anne’s famous diary, written while hiding from the Nazis. 

He was my closest personal encounter with a girl who opened my eyes to the cruelty of this world. It was the goodness of Anne that amazes every reader of her diary, despite it all.

In Elias, I had seen that same goodness.

Rest in peace.