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Moved to Write, After So Much Living

At 92, Nora Percival has lived a long and varied life. But she's still making her way -- at 88, she turned to writing full time. As she recently told her granddaughter, Emily Wynns, it was a pursuit she had long put off.

Percival first had the desire to write in the 1930s. But in the days of the Great Depression, it was a struggle merely to survive. And Percival's life wasn't easy in those days.

After her husband, Herman Gund, died of leukemia in 1939, Percival learned she was pregnant. And as she says, even at 24, "I was determined that I was going to have his child."

"When I got older, and things eased up, then I realized there was one more act of resurrection I needed to do, Percival says.

She wrote a book, fulfilling a long-held ambition -- and reliving her love affair with Gund. The hundreds of letters they had written each other served as the raw material.

This piece was produced for 'Morning Edition' by Piya Kochhar and Katie Simon.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.