Anna Elizabeth Forrest

Make a Wish Foundation granted Anna's wish. (http://www.kplctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11508434)

What is a hero? Is it someone who saves the day or even the world? Is it someone who saves a life? Well, those are all important, and I guess that would depend on whomever you are asking. When someone asks that question, most of the time, they don’t just want a dictionary definition. No, they want an opinion from the person they have chosen to ask. Your opinion is yours, but this is mine.

So I guess you might think one person’s hero isn’t a big deal. However, I disagree because every hero counts. I say this because, when all of those heroes get together, they can do something really big. So, to me, a hero isn’t just a word. A hero is so much more than that, and this is what it means to me.

You might think that someone like that would have to be perfect. Well, if you thought that, that is understandable. My hero is Anna Elizabeth Forrest. I fist met Anna when I was somewhere around five. I think I was in kindergarten. We took dance class together. She always looked delicate. It turns out, she had almost died at three years old. To save her, the doctors performed a bone marrow transplant with her brother’s bone marrow because his was the closest match to hers. She told this to the class in kindergarten when the teacher asked if anyone had ever saved our lives. She was the only one to answer. She started dance class when she improved because her mother wanted her to feel like a normal child.

Anna ( on the couch ) and her 6th grade teachers (Courtesy of Mrs.Fontenot.)

Then, she started to get worse and worse through elementary school. Anna was the type of person that had every right to complain but never did. She always shivered under a jacket when the rest of us sweated in the summer heat. After that, middle school came. She only came a few weeks at the beginning, but she would visit. I remember, once, she was at school carrying her books to class. She was crying in pain, so I took her books and walked with her. She would visit us at lunch because she wanted to go to school. She was weak and in a wheelchair. Then a time came when she could barely get off of the couch. Our grade sent her a signed poster, and my mother and I brought her some things to entertain her without much effort. Another time, we saw her mother at the grocery store while Anna waited in the car. She said that she was okay. We were going to visit her again that summer. There was word at school that she was getting better and was even going to go to seventh grade!

We never did get around to visiting Anna that summer. We didn't even get the whole summer to try. She never did go to seventh grade, either. She never got the chance. It was the week of August 30, 2010. It was raining, and I was watching television, when my mother called me over. "Courtlynn," she said, "Anna died." The weather seemed to fit the mood. I think I heard thunder when she told me. My great-grandmother had seen the obituary in the paper and asked my mother if I went to school with her. That was one sad funeral. I walked in and Shianne and Kaitlin rushed over to hug me, crying their eyes out. I was strong, though. I never cried. I never really have at funerals. Anna’s mother was the strongest of all, though. To be honest, I'm not sure how she did it. She had just lost her baby girl. I admire how good a mother she was to Anna. She even told me that one day she picked Anna up from school and Anna said, "Mom, you ought to hear Courtlynn sing!"

It is hard to repeat what I am about to tell you. At the funeral, Anna's mother told us that she had had a genetic disorder, so it was incurable. The doctors said they couldn't change her DNA. Before she died, she was having difficulties breathing. That is how she died. It was her last struggle according to what I know. The saddest part is when she was at the hospital, she was really bad off and she told her mother something heart wrenching. She said, "Mom, I think I'm dying."

She never thought about herself. She was never selfish. Anna was a wonderful person and a wonderful friend. I miss her. Everyone does. After all, she was my hero.