The Call Before the Work

On February 7, 1837, a sixteen-year-old English girl named Florence Nightingale sat in the garden at Embley Park and heard what she described as the voice of God calling her to His service. She recorded the date precisely in her diary. She had no idea what the service would be. She had not yet set foot in a hospital, had not yet defied her wealthy family's expectations, had not yet walked the filthy wards of Scutari during the Crimean War with her lamp held high.…