I remember hearing some stories about the women on my mother’s side of our family that made me believe they were women who were way ahead of their times in their thinking, attitudes and behaviors. I think they must have learned at a very young age to be independent and resourceful, or perhaps they just inherited those traits and abilities -  I don’t know, but one of the stories I heard about my mother made it clear to me that she had these traits and abilities, even when she was a very little girl. The story goes like this: One day when her father was at work at their family’s store, my mother was at home with her little sister and their mother, my Grandma Libby. I remember Grandma Libby sometimes used to have “spells” – we were never told what they were all about, but these spells would cause her to pass out. Well,  sure enough, she had one of her spells on this particular day. When Mother couldn’t wake Grandma up, she knew she needed to get help. The telephone was on the wall, too high for her to reach, so she dragged a chair over to it, climbed up and called her father to come home. She stayed with Grandma but also kept an eye on her little sister until their father arrived home. Mother was only three years old!