An Open Book

I've told you about our friend Nancy before. She's 95 and a kick ass lady. She is well read, opinionated and spunky and I adore her. In her lifetime, she bore 4 daughters, ran her own companies, designed and built a number of homes, did hundreds of scuba dives in exotic locations, loved to skydive and would still do it if her doctor would allow it, and at a young age, learned how to fly planes.

This is a little story she shared one night over dinner.....

While at university, which was completely full of women because the men were at war, a bunch of her friends were going to a lecture. They invited her along but she declined because of some required studying. Afterwards, all a twitter, the ladies came back and gushed over the lecturer Frank Lloyd Wright. Nancy was disappointed because she had just finished Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, which she had greatly enjoyed, and the unconfirmed rumor had it that the protagonist was based FLW himself. 

Not to be disappointed, she called the hotel where FLW was staying and, somehow, was put through to his room. She asked him for an interview. He replied that he was quite busy but if she would meet him at the train station early the next morning, he would give her some of his time.

Off she went, where they chatted and where he confirmed that, indeed, Howard Roark was based on him. Apparently, Ayn had asked his permission to write the book and he had rejected the idea. She went ahead and wrote it anyways and sent him a copy before sending it to be published. He liked it enough to tell her to go ahead with it. And that was that.

I know this is not how history tells the tale but this is what was said to her 76 years ago.

I love Nancy's spirit. She is fearless in so many ways.

Boy Scout and Nancy 2019