Linda

Me and Mom in Italy (Photo taken by: Gary Schulz)

When I hear the word hero, I first think of a classic superhero like Superman or Wonder Woman. But then I begin to think about those who are realistic heroes in the world that want to help us all. Steve Irwin and Oprah Winfrey are two people who are very heroic to many of us. But heroes don’t always have to be the people shown in the spotlight or on massive televisions. Heroes can be the ones you know personally and see everyday in your own home. To me, a true hero is the one who wants to make a difference, a person who never gives up on their values and defends the ones that they love no matter what the cost. My hero is my mother.

Born on April 2nd in Brooklyn, New York, my mom Linda was born. Growing up with an older sister, a mother, and a father, my mom was raised in many different parts of New York throughout her life. At a young age, her parents divorced and remarried. At twelve, she moved in with her father and step-mother. The morning before my mom left, she made sure to leave her mother a note saying that she did not want to leave, but she felt she had to in order to take care of her sister. While living with her father, she received a baby half-sister, my aunt Andrea.

When Andrea was born, my mom became the official housekeeper. She could never go out or be with friends because she had to keep the house clean and baby-sit constantly, giving her the family nickname of ‘Cinda-Linda’.

When not baby-sitting, my mom would always be studying. Her dad would make her study every subject for an hour a night, resulting in her getting straight A’s, skipping the 7th grade and graduating from high school at age sixteen.

Mom in Mexico (Photo taken by: Tracy)

One of the main issues my mom had as a child was with her older sister, Monica. They had a good relationship for a long time until my aunt reached her adolescence and stopped being around my mom. My aunt hated her father’s house and once ran away with her boyfriend, not coming back for almost a year. This was one of the harder times in my mom’s childhood life, for she could not look up to her sister for guidance and had to become independent.

My mom never kept many friends in her life because her family would often move in the middle of the night. Her father, my grandfather, was very cheap with his money, and he would never pay rent. The night before getting evicted, the whole family would move into a hotel until they could find another home.

My grandpa was so cheap with his money that he even took my mom’s school funds and life savings to buy a car and go on vacation with his wife. Any money my mom ever made was soon to be “borrowed” later and never to be returned. He stole all of my mom’s savings for college, making her have to work odd jobs at Wendy’s, the local pools, walking dogs, babysitting and selling herself to science. Before being accepted into the University of Florida, my mom moved out of her house with her dad, and made a surprise visit to see her mom for the first time since she was twelve, making them closer than ever.

Mom and me coloring together (Photo Taken by: Gary)

After college, my mom got her first real job as a financial adviser. Going to one of her first clients, she spoke with her travel agent and later met face to face. Then she soon fell in love with him. Her travel agent was my dad.

After two years of dating, they got married. The first few years of their marriage, they had a lot of fun together. One problem that got involved was my mom’s health. She found out that she had a retinal detachment and needed surgery right away if she didn’t want to go blind. The surgery in the eighties definitely did not have the same technology as today. The surgery these days is a procedure that lasts only a couple of hours, but back then, it took months of recovery, which my mom has told me was the most painful time of her life.

Five years later they moved to New Jersey and had me. Later in my life, we moved to San Francisco, California, where my parents began to have a rocky relationship. By the time we moved to Virginia when I was four, my parents got separated for the first time. After a couple of months, my parents got back together and lived unhappily ever after until about three years ago, in my seventh grade year, later getting legally divorced in 2005.

Downtown with my mom (Photo taken by: Gary)

During the times that my father lived with us, my mother was unhappy everyday, only staying married to him for my happiness and to make sure that I would not be emotionally scarred being a child of a divorced family. She decided she had to do something about our family and got divorced from him, leaving me with some emotional issues for many months.

Eventually, my mom later began dating and fell in love with yet another one of her co-workers, this time he was one of my mom’s clients of several years. His name is Jon and he is now my step-father. Jon has made a huge, beneficial impact on both me and my mom’s lives. He has been a great influence for both of us and constantly shows his love for me and my mom, which makes my mom happy, ultimately making me happy too.

To me, a hero is one who has gone through many difficult times themselves and knows how to handle a lot of pressure. They are also somebody who can help others with the same problems and want to be the ones who stand their ground in the darkest hours. My mom shows great courage and love for me everyday. Through her life, she learned many life lessons, helping her stay successful, strong and loved by all. A true hero is one that has a great sense of values and wants nothing but the best for those around her. My mom is an exact definition of what I see in a hero.