At home, where Johnston lived with her mother, grandmother, and older sister, the war affected her life and imagination in various ways. "My first memories . . . are of uniforms," she wrote in the
Something about the Author Autobiography Series (
SAAS). "I remember hearing my mother once describe the telegram her family received saying that one of my uncles was missing during the war and presumed dead. After the war I used to imagine going to Europe and searching for my uncle and finding him and bringing him home safe and sound." As Johnston noted, her character Keely ponders a similar feat in
Hero of Lesser Causes. A nurse named Margaret came to live with the family after Johnston's grandmother suffered a stroke. Johnston was just three years old at the time, but Margaret's arrival provided her with another enduring memory. Margaret, "strong," "superstitious," and blessed with talents that left Johnston "believing in her superhuman power," became a part of the family. Margaret departed at the death of Johnston's grandmother, when Johnston was nine years old, but aspects of her character, as Johnston revealed in SAAS, reappear in that of Peggy, the nurse in Hero of Lesser Causes.
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