The Butterfly Moment -- Another Ledecky Moment (In Which She Mentions Dr Hagan, Williston, ND) -- August 26, 2016

When you view the YouTube interviews with Katie Ledecky, remember two things:

• she's only a high school senior
• she has North Dakota values, at least what I grew up with 

This is quite a spectacular story, from the August 22, 2016, issue of Sports Illustrated:

It was the butterfly that sealed it.

Jon Ledecky was already having an unusually heady day for an 11-year-old: The principal at his elementary school in Queens, NY, had introduced him as a future U.S. president, then Jon had given a speech to his classmates and then he had walked outside with the priest who had given the blessing.

That's when the yellow butterfly fluttered onto the back of his hand and sat there, beautiful and calm. "Oh, my God," the priest said. "It's a sign."

So, yes, Jon had cause to think that he was destined to do something great. And he did go on to build a billion-dollar business, give away millions to charity and, last month, at 58, become co-owner of the New York Islanders. By most standards he lived up to that lepidopteran promise—and had the markers to prove it.

But what if, all along, none of that was the prophecy? What if Jon's true fate was to meet Mary Gen Hagan one day in 1990, to instantly know that she was his brother's match and to set out to introduce them? The next weekend she and David Ledecky would talk for 3 1/2 hours at a party in Old Town Alexandria, VA, and David would snatch her card from Jon and call her a day later. In two years they would marry. In 1997 they would have a baby and name her Katie.

"When I met Mary Gen, things slowed down," Jon says. "That's why I was so emphatic that my brother meet her. It was like a bright light shined on her and said, This is your brother's wife. Dave was not in the mood to go to that party, and I literally dragged him. Who knows? If you believe in faith—and Katie has this deep belief in faith—something was going on there. That was the butterfly moment."

Let's enjoy another Ledecky moment. She mentions her grandparents in North Dakota, including her paternal paternal grandfather: WWII US Army surgeon; Pacific Theater; Purple Heart, Williston physician.

In the video below, her uncle Jon is also mentioned.

Several pools were mentioned in the video, but not the one I swam in: the outdoor Harmon Park pool. I believe a very memorable middle school teacher worked at that pool during the summer. I never had her for a teacher, and I never met her. 

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