16. A World War I Heroine
Heroes and heroines in real life, unlike in comic books and movies, seldom wear capes and tight leotards. In the case of real-life heroine Edith Cavell (1865 – 1915), she wore a nurse’s smock and cap. As a middle-aged woman, Cavell saved hundreds of lives early in the First World War. She was not armed with a gun when she did that. Instead, she was armed and armored by faith and a sense of basic decency that compelled her to help those in need.
Also, unlike the fate of heroes and heroines in movies and comic books, her story did not end happily. Because it happened in real life, and in real life, the hero comes to grief more often than not, Edith Cavell’s heroism got her executed by a firing squad. Born in 1865 in a small English village in East Anglia, Cavell was the eldest of four children of a vicar and his equally religious wife. She received an excellent by the standards of her day, and upon graduation, she worked as a governess, including for a family in Brussels from 1890-1895.
