This patch was worn by the astronauts aboard Challenger, mission # 41-G. Among the fortunate people who launched on October 5th, 1984, were two women, Kathryn D. Sullivan (Mission Specialis), and another woman famous in her own right, Sally Ride.
I lived at home for most of Ivy's life. That was my good fortune. Our bedrooms were next to one another and we shared a common wall. Every night when we went to sleep I would call out to her through the wall "Good night,love-love. Sweet dreams."
That was my nickname for her. "Love-love" described how I felt about her. It was a double love. We were thirteen years apart in age. She was my younger sister and the daughter I would have wanted..."
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Okay, you say, these are fine actresses with money, power, and prestige. They have nothing to do with me or my life. Maybe not. But, think again. We may never know the doors these women opened with a cigarette in one hand, a child in the other, and an eyebrow raised to both the worlds of business and politics. These are all worlds that are wide open to women everywhere in this new century. They were not when I was a girl. As a grown woman, an obscure poet tucked into a dusty Southern California town, I remember the looks these women garnered from some people when they were out there doing and being...
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