Hazel

There are over 6,000,000,000 people in this world. In retrospect, I don't know very many of them. How is it possible to set someone apart from so many? And when one person is set apart on positive grounds, what do they have to do to be considered a HERO? Upon cracking open the book, My Hero: Extraordinary People on the Heroes Who Inspire Them, I immediately thought of fictional superheroes, religious saints, and public figures such as Princess Diana and Nelson Mandela. Though the great feats they have accomplished deeply impacted the lives of millions of people, I don't know any of them personally. Choosing from someone I know intimately is a more appropriate approach to realizing a hero. How is someone more of a hero to you than me? To me, every person has the potential to be someone else's hero. A hero is someone who has a positive effect on someone else. Leading by example, a hero makes someone else want to be a better person.

My great grandmother, Hazel Hoffman, has had this effect on me. She has left the impression on me about the importance of values. I live by the values she has instilled in me: selflessness, optimism, resilience, and unity. Family has always been the most important aspect of my great grandmother's life. Born December 26, 1905, my grandmother is the daughter of a riverboat conductor and sister to 8 other siblings. Before marrying my great grandfather, my grandmother taught at a one-room schoolhouse for 5 years. She married John Hoffman in 1925. When they met, my great grandfather worked at a steel mill and was away from home more often than not. My great grandmother was left with the responsibility of influencing their two sons and instilling sound values in them.

As a project for my U.S. History project in 10th grade, the class was assigned to interview someone they knew that grew up during one of the World Wars. Naturally, I chose my great grandmother. Our interview lasted hours. My questions and her answers turned into me listening to a great story of her life during a monumental period in our country’s history. This is where I first began to realize what an incredible woman Hazel Hoffman was. As a young girl during the First World War, my grandmother and her siblings lived in a small town in West Virginia. At this point, many of the fathers in the area were away at war; therefore, many mothers were doing work to support the growing families. My great grandmother described the situation that many children were in. "Most kids were home alone, left to taking care of the others. My older sister, Olga, and I taught the young ones to read." Beyond the tight unity among my great grandmother and her siblings, she spread it to other children in the area. "On many afternoons," she told me, "we went up the road and put on puppet shows for the other kids." She described the smiles on the children's faces and the fun they all had. Today, she says one of the best things is seeing her grandchildren smile like that.

After marriage and a few years of growth of her two boys, James and Gene, my great grandmother and grandfather decided the best situation for the family would be for my great grandfather to take a job as an insurance salesman. The company for which he worked was very supportive and flexible for a family man. In years to come, the Great Depression hit. At this point, my great grandmother and grandfather depended heavily on the support of the company. My great grandmother said that there was nothing more humbling than a situation where you have nothing. "It made the bonds we had tighter. Who else did we have? No one else has anything." Listening to her depict the situation the Hoffman family was in made me realize the immense amount of strength and optimism it must have taken to keep going on with every day activities. "I kept the boys up with their studies," she said.

Many people say that in order to be considered a hero, someone has to overcome a tragedy in their life. Hazel Hoffman has lived through what I can consider multiple tragedies, yet she has persevered through two World Wars as well as other periods of US combat, and The Great Depression. Today, my great grandmother is still living. She lives by herself in Parkersburg, West Virginia in a house that she and her husband built. Every Christmas and Thanksgiving, our entire family gathers at her small house for a large meal and warm company. She no longer is able to share her wonderful cooking due to arthritis in her hands, but every aspect of the meal goes her way. She is one of the most stubborn women I know, but there is no other way my family could have her act.

Hazel Hoffman outlived both of her sons as well as her husband. After losing some of the most important people in her life, she persevered. She is the most resilient being I know. I have always seen her smiling. If everyone had a hero that caused a yearning to be a better person like my great grandmother does for me, the world would be profoundly improved. Improved emotionally, ethically, morally, and psychologically. I live by the values she has instilled in me: selflessness, optimism, resilience, and above all, unity.