Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast where we provide one lesson every day to help you

with your most important job being a dad. These are lessons inspired by ancient philosophy,

by practical wisdom, and insights from dads all over the world.

Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

It's not usually an accident.

Florence Nightingale was an incredible woman.

She revolutionized nursing. She saved

thousands and thousands of lives. And this came as a surprise in Victorian England because

women weren't supposed to do career-type things, let alone something as hands-on as work in a

hospital. Her spirit and determination came as a surprise to her parents, too,

as we've talked about, who thought that their wealth and status should have bestowed on their

daughter a quiet dignity and a taste for the finer things. But anyone who looked at Florence's

family tree should not have been surprised. She wasn't just some saint that came from nowhere.

Her great-grandfather was a philanthropist who supported the American Revolution, even donating

large chunks of his holdings in Savannah to the cause. His son, Florence's grandfather, was a member

of the British House of Commons and a leading abolitionist in the UK.

The fact that his daughter, Fannie, Florence's mother, didn't seem to care much about the less fortunate,

was the exception, not the rule in their family. It wasn't an accident that Florence Nightingale

was inclined to charity and selflessness.

She learned it in the fashion that traditions are created from family.

She was inspired by her ancestors.

That her mother fell short.

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