It Happened to Nancy, edited by Beatrice Spears is based on a true story taken directly from the actual diary of a young lady. The main character is Nancy, a headstrong fourteen-year old who suffers from asthma.
While her mother is out of town Nancy, feeling that she's in love, invites a young man she thinks is eighteen years old over to her house. The young man gets Nancy drunk and rapes her. He leaves Nancy not only to deal with the traumatic effects of being raped, but with AID's as well.
Because of Nancy's already weakened immune system the virus ravages her body. During the course of her fight with AID's Nancy developed pneumonia, a kidney infection, which caused her to not be able to control her urine, and a rectal infection. She also began to lose her hair, the vanity of most
teenage-girls. In fact within a short period of time the vibrant young lady with her whole life ahead of her was just a shell of her former self.

Shortly after turning sixteen Nancy dies…. Two days before she died she wrote in her journal that she was sorry she snuck a boy into her house- a boy who was actually a twenty-four year old man. She
regretted the unnecessary agony that she had placed her parents and herself through. However, she learned to late that one wrong decision has consequences that can last a lifetime.
As I read this book I was reminded of the importance of thinking things through before making decisions. If Nancy had carefully thought about what she was doing she probably wouldn't have invited that young man into her home. She may have still been here today… a vibrant young woman in her twenties. But, we can't go back and change our past we can only try to make better choices in the future. So my advice to you is, enjoy your youth. Don't be in such a hurry to grow up. You have to live with the consequences of the choices you make today, for the rest of your life

Check you local bookstore for It Happened to Nancy - this book is a must read for young ladies.