Another woman I greatly admire is real enough, but she lived a couple thousand years ago. Her name was Abigail, wife of Nabal and her story can be found in the book of I Samuel, chapter 25 from the Bible. She was married to a man of great wealth (though extremely poor character) named Nabal (who's name means 'worthless fellow'). Anyhow, the story happens before David became king and he was on the lam. He and his army approached Nabal and asked for succor, but Nabal refused and instead insulted him. Understandably, David was furious and was ready to kill him. Scripture describes Abigail as beautiful and discerning and when her servants told her what had happened and also that David and his men had been nothing but kind and helpful to them, she acted quickly and bravely. She assembled quite a large donation and herself went to meet David. She humbly took the blame (instead of blaming her husband, whose fault it really was) and asked for forgiveness and spoke words of wisdom to David that it would probably not be a good idea to kill Nabal out of revenge. David recognized her courage and her wisdom and relented, accepted the gift, and, after Nabal soon thereafter dropped dead (literally), married Abigail.
I think this woman is so extraordinary. The Bible describes her as both beautiful and wise, but I also see her as quick thinking, extremely bold, and calm in the face of great crisis. A lot of people might criticize her for taking the blame for what her husband did, but I think what she did was the right thing to do and God took care of her husband for her. God seems to do that a lot.
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