Ron Ralph

My hero is my Grandfather, Ron Ralph. We call him Poppa because when my oldest sister was little, she could not say Grandpa. She could only say Poppa and from then on, the name stuck. My Poppa is a big strong man with a great laugh. And my mom says I’m just like him because of my sense of humour and appetite.

My Grandfather has all of the qualities of a hero like bravery, courage, responsibility, and more. He was born and raised in Ottawa Ontario Canada; he was born April 5, 1946. He also has Irish decent. Poppa is my hero because he is funny and smart but also because he had a very important job where he risked his own life every day for other people. He was a firefighter.

Ron Ralph (family picture)

Poppa didn’t just save lives while fighting fires. He also saved lives on emergency calls like car accidents, drug overdoses, and suicides etc. My Poppa’s job was very hard but he is such a strong person that he was good at what he did. My mom says that he was her hero as well and even though she is now an adult, he still is. She also says that everyone that Poppa worked with really liked and respected him. He is always joking and making people laugh.

He’s been retired now for about 4 years. I think that sometimes he still misses the excitement of his job but now he is happy to travel with my grandmother and spoil his grandkids. Poppa was on the Ottawa Fire Department for about 35 years and then he retired when he was 60.

Poppa now also teaches people how to stay safe and all about fire safety. He sometimes teaches at First Air and has to travel up North. Because of my Grandfather many people are safe.

Poppa likes to travel to places like Europe, British Columbia, Iqaluit, Nunavut and especially Germany. He likes to work on planes at his second job First Air, one time when he was flying in a first air plane to go and teach other people to fix planes and he got to meet Mr. Dress up and got a photo of him. But most of all he loves to spend time with his family making us laugh and telling very funny stories.

Because I spend so much time with my poppa I have learned a lot of new things like teaching me how to work the knobs on a fire truck and what all the levers do on an airplane. He thinks that getting a good education is very important and he would be very proud of me when I go to college and because he has told me how important it is he makes me want to go.

Because of all that my poppa does for me and other people, like saving their lives, this is why he is my hero.