One was born in Cortland, in upstate NY, the daughter of immigrants, and stayed. After leaving school at 13, she worked the factory floor, raised her children and tended her faith. The other was born in Hastings-on-the-Hudson in Westchester, NY, went to Wellesley, Cornell, and eventually arrived in Cortland, then later traveled the world. It was in Cortland, where the two lives touched for a time.

They lived the same years in completely different Americas. The same century held them both, the way a century holds everyone, indifferently, without explanation.

The distance between them was not talent or character or will. It was birth, the oldest distance there is.