Women have always had good reasons to be fearful: dangerous men, dangerous circumstances, looming failure, even uncertainty itself.

When I get onto an airplane, I like to introduce myself to my seatmates. Most women traveling alone will shake hands, but the introduction is strictly first name only.

Look in the phonebook. Most of those names with a single initial are women.

I was out when Reddy called, so I checked the phonebook for the number. Manierre, Nancy No fear in that listing.

"If you want to talk to Nancy Manierre, here's her listing," it says. "However, if you are considering making an unwanted or obscene phone call, you had better think twice, buddy."

Nancy wasn't afraid to pick up perfect strangers in her car and take them into town, to the doctor, or to the Safeway to buy groceries. Today, we call that organization which she started with her friend Rene Llewellyn, FISH.

Nancy wasn't afraid to associate with the poor or homeless. When Rene said, "we have to do something about those old houses with dirt floors on the west end of Middleburg," Nancy said, "OK, Rene, you get going on that and I'll back you up." And today, we call that organization the Windy Hill Foundation.

Nancy wasn't afraid to ask for a miracle: enough loaves and—canned—fishes to feed hundreds in our community. And today, we call that organization 7 Loaves.

Whether from family, or from Foxcroft, from friends, or from her faith, Nancy wasn't afraid. She would just step up and do something.

Today, we are still oiling and stoking those three engines of social service that Nancy and Rene and their generation built and put onto the tracks of our community.

Nancy got it. She "got" the Lord's message: "Trust me and don't be afraid."

And just look what happens when someone, including Nancy Manierre, believes that.

[Nancy Redmond Manierre, 86, died June 28 at Waycroft Farm, near Halfway, Va. Donations in her honor and to her memory can be made to Foxcroft School, Box 5555, Middleburg, Va. 20118 or to Hospice Support of Fauquier County, 42 North 5th St., Warrenton, Va. 20186]