Alex had shocked her parents at seventeen, when she volunteered at a well-known hospital, and then at the Foundling Hospital, helping to care for the babies there. Her mother had explained to her that charity work was something you did on a committee, not actually working with the patients or the poor. You did things that benefited them, you didn’t ever actually meet them. Alex had realized then that she was different from her family, and she had no idea why. But she was still excited about her debut. She was eighteen when she came out as a debutante, and although she went to every party she was invited to, and had a wonderful time, she didn’t meet a single boy she thought was interesting, and none of them snagged her heart. It was an exhausting year of constant parties. And by her second season, the war had begun in Europe a few months before in September 1939. Although it didn’t affect any of them personally, it bothered Alex that another deb season had begun, while people were suffering in Europe during a war. That seemed so wrong to her. She had continued her hospital volunteer work despite her mother’s objections. Her father had agreed to let her continue it. And after her second season as a deb, with no engagement in sight, she didn’t want another season. She regretted more than ever not having gone to college, and allowing her parents to talk her out of it. Her mother told her that overeducated women did not appeal to men, which seemed odd to Alex too. Why wouldn’t a man want an educated, intelligent wife, or one with a career?

After her second season, her volunteer work at the hospital no longer seemed like enough to her. Without consulting anyone this time, she signed up for an accelerated course at a nursing school in the city. It was January of 1940, and she was scheduled to graduate in June of 1942. Alex was thrilled with what she’d done. Her mother tried to convince her to withdraw, and her father said it might be simpler if she did, rather than upset her mother, but Alex refused. She was nineteen years old, and her sister suggested that it was some form of belated adolescent rebellion. Whatever the reason for it in the first place, Alex loved her nursing classes and did well.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, Alex had six months of nursing school left and the country was at war. Alex had only one goal after that, which she discussed with no one. She knew what the reaction would be, but she had a mind of her own, and knew how to get what she wanted.