Chapter 31

November1909

Manhattan

Nora reached for a piece of toast without looking up from the plans that were folded next to her breakfast plate. She needed

to find another two feet to include a book-return chute for the new library design.

At the other side of the table, George's head was bent over his copy of the Times .

"Huh," he said.

Nora made a quick note on the edge of the blueprint. "What's the ‘huh' about?"

"The ladies of the Colony Club are in the news again."

"Oh?" Nora put down her pencil and gave him her full attention. "What is it this time?"

"Seems they're not content just to donate to the cause, they've taken to marching alongside the striking women garment workers."

He smiled, then read, "?‘Dressed in their finest hats and mink coats, they placed themselves between the marchers and the

policemen and hired thugs, thinking they were less likely to arrest and beat the female strikers with respectable women among

them.'?"

"Bully for them," said Nora. "If I had a mink coat, I would join them."

George dipped an eyebrow at her from across the table.

Nora suppressed a grin. "Maybe my new tweed would do?"

"I think you're doing quite enough without getting yourself arrested. You just leave the ladies to do what they do best and you do what you do best. Like Aunt Sorcha, a brigade unto herself, always says, the way to resolve problems is from all angles.

"And yours is to finish the prospectus for the new library on West Broadway. If we get the bid, we'll insist they keep a special

shelf for every book written about the strike of 1909—when someone gets around to writing about it."

"You sound like you think the strike will succeed," said Nora.

"Well, it should, at least to some degree, and you shouldn't be so impatient for the world to change."

"I know, ‘brick by brick,'?" Nora said. "As you always say when I want things to happen faster."

"Hopeless advice on my part, I'm afraid. But listen to this. The press is calling them the Mink Brigade." He chuckled. "I

don't think they mean it in a complimentary way."

"Well, I like it," Nora said. "These newspaper people don't have a clue as to the power of Daisy and her Mink Brigade.

"Which reminds me, I'll be back late tonight. I'll finish the final library plans and leave them with Fergie, but then I have

to meet Anne Morgan at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. To think that until Anne came along, the navy didn't even bother to feed the

men who serve our country. They had to go off the base to buy their lunch from food carts. And stand on the street just to

visit their families."

"So you've told me."

"The newspapers can scoff all they want at what they call the Mink Brigade. But thanks to Anne—"

"And you."

"—the navy is about to have a refitted space to serve a thousand men and their families. And this is just the beginning. Anne

intends to establish the same program on more bases."

"And hopefully hires you for them all."

Nora pushed her chair back and looked fondly at her partner in life and work. "I'll always be happy to consult, but first

there's an apartment complex and a hospital wing renovation to finish. And"—she picked up her blueprint—"fingers crossed,

this library to build."

George finished his coffee. "Lest I be considered the slacker in this family, I'll accompany you down to the office and get

to work. Oh, I almost forgot, Aunt Sorcha and your mother have invited us to have Thanksgiving dinner with them."

He followed Nora to the hall, then held out her winter coat for her. She turned into him, slipped her arms into the sleeves,

and stretched up to kiss his cheek.

"I appoint you as official supporter of the Tweed Brigade. Shall we get to work?"

April18, 1963

Washington, D.C.

"And that's how we established the Colony Club," Daisy said. "It's still in existence, you know."

The young reporter sighed. "And from there you embarked on an eminent career. Social reformer, union organizer, suffragist,

diplomat, political activist."

"I've had a very meaningful life, for which I'm grateful."

"But what about the others? Did your paths cross again?"

"Oh, yes. We all stayed in touch through the club. Enlisted others and have had much success in the causes we supported.

"Elsie was so successful with the Colony Club that it established her reputation in New York, and it soon spread. As Bessie predicted, she became known as the mother of American interior decoration, though Elsie I'm sure would prefer to be known as the queen."

"And Nora?"

"She built her hospital; several, in fact. Finnegan, Douglas, and Bromley became known for their civic buildings, as well

as a number of schools and affordable apartment buildings. They used the newest and safest materials and designs. She and

George got married, as we all knew they would. And true to his word, he kept ‘Bromley' in the firm's name even after she became

a Douglas.

"We used to exchange cards every Christmas. George died just a few years back. Nora's children bring her to visit me every

once in a while. So many of my friends are gone: Elsie, Bessie, Anne, and my dear Bordie and sweet Ethel. But they still live

on in a way."

"In your heart?"

"Oh, yes, but in something even more substantial."

Daisy looked up at the citation so recently bestowed on her. "By their energy, skill, and dedication to so many causes, and

through the lives they changed, they are all very much alive."