Thomas P. Foley

My grandfather Tom P. Foley is a hero to me, and everyone around him, as a war veteran, a cancer fighter, or just being there when people need him. My Grandfather is strong in many ways. He fought through liver cancer, the war and losing many siblings some at very young ages

One hundred million Americans fought for their country in World War 2, but over 7,000,000 of them died with honor on the battlefield. My grandfather was not one of them. When Japan began a full invasion of China, we rushed to their aid. That’s when he decided to fight in the most widespread war in history. In mid-1937 the Marco Polo Brigade in Japan began their full invasion.

I can’t even imagine what he went through. It must have been scary. Bombs and smoke, the dust flying to the point that you can't see anything. You don’t know what is coming at you. You can’t tell if one of your soldiers was left behind injured calling for help. Even though he knew how scary and dangerous it would be, he went and fought for his country anyway and that is true courage!

When he got home from the war he spent many years with his family. They lived in Springfield where he worked for many years as a Jail guard. Practically shattering his knee in the line of duty when a fugitive escaped, he chased him down and was hit with a pole in his knee. But despite the pain, he still got the inmate.

After retiring from the jail he spent the rest of his life with his family. He and my grandmother would baby-sit me when my parents were at work. We would go berry picking and we went down to the pet store to get fish every week. But then I had to go to school and the days there got shorter and shorter. Later my mom got a teaching job and I’d go over once a week to visit, then when I got older I started sleeping over and the old times were back! But when I was in 5th grade Papa's knee was hurting him badly, so he went to the doctor's and he had to get a plastic knee. But he recovered quickly from that surgery and was good as new. He started walking again and he was driving within 9 months of the surgery. Then something horrible happened. We all thought that he was getting better. We thought that everything was back to normal. Until he had a heart attack. He was in the hospital for a week and was home for Christmas. Right after that he had another attack and was in the hospital for much longer. He had to go on a special diet that consisted of no salt, no red meat, a limited amount of sugar. Everything he couldn’t eat was all of the things that he ate so we had to buy artificial butter and unsalted meat and unsalted no fat or cholesterol everything. But we all tried everything. No one liked it, especially papa. Then he got worse and worse, to the point that he was lying in a hospital bed in his living room with someone by his side at all times. My older cousin, who is a nurse, had to take time off work to watch him. She was up all night and slept while I was getting ready in the mornings in their living room (my house was being renovated so I was staying there). He couldn’t even get water on his own. His voice was so soft and weak you could hardly understand him. You had to guess that he wanted water.

That night while I was at a sleepover for my friend’s birthday I found out Papa was doing better. He was yelling (one of his favorite things to do) but not at all like he used to. Then when my dad was driving me home I heard the words that I never wanted to hear. “Mary I don’t know how to tell you this so I’m just going to say it…………… Papa died.” Those words shattered me. I couldn’t even breathe. When I got to Nana and Papa’s house, my whole family was there and crying. I ran up to my room and cried then found a picture of him and my other grandfather that no one else had ever seen before. I brought it down to share with my family.

His memory will stay with everyone who has ever been in contact with him. No one will ever be the same without him. I think that this whole experience has taught me what a real hero is.