Tama

A hero is a person who other people not only admire and look up to, but they are the people on this earth that have the ability to walk into a room full of negative people and walk out with a room full of smiles.

My hero is very caring, someone I look up to, and so much more. My hero is Tama. She is a fourth grade teacher and has the biggest heart in the whole world. Tama never thinks about herself, only others and she has a personality that is strong and confident. I have not known Tama for a very long time but for the few months that she has been in my life, she has already made an impact that will never be forgotten.

Tama is a loving mother of three beautiful daughters, Ashley, Emily and Amy. They all have perfect smiles and are very fortunate with tons of natural talents. She is married to Tim and they have a strong and healthy marriage. If you met them at the same time, you would just know they were made for each other. Ashley Kay is Tim and Tama's eldest daughter and is the type of girl that makes people like me jealous. When I first met Ashley, she was very shy but full of smiles none the less. Athletic, smart, popular and kind, Ashley just couldn't be mean to anyone. I played against her in sports and I had hung out with her at friend's houses over the summer. She was awesome, just like my hero, her mother.

You are probably wondering exactly why Tama is my hero. Well it all started last summer. Instead of focusing on volleyball, I spent more time worrying about my social life and I got into a lot of trouble. I did a lot of things that I still regret and I hurt a lot of people. The worst of my summer was getting caught drinking and driving more than once. Not only did I lose a lot of friends and respect, but I lost trust from everyone I knew as well. After a huge fine, house arrest, probation, suspended license, and community service, I figured my debt to society was paid, unfortunately that was not the case. For the first three months of school I didn't have very many friends and I was not able to do much of anything. I made a lot of mistakes and I am still paying for them today.

After the school year had kicked off, I became even more depressed and felt even more sorry for myself. Our volleyball team was not doing very well and that was just another burden added to the list. I decided to go to a football game at our school and figured it would be okay since my dad was there too. I was actually starting to have fun when I got a phone call from a friend of mine that ended in tears. Ashley had died in a car accident on the Friday afternoon. I was in shock when I found out. It was so strange to think about someone you know and had just seen was gone, forever.

The funeral was devastatingly sad and made me realize how lucky I was. After the service I went up to Ashley's mother and introduced myself. I spent about twenty minutes standing there talking to Tama and the whole time she was telling me how great of a person I was and what an exceptional athlete. She went on and on about how I had made some mistakes but it was okay. She held my hands and I held hers right back. This woman had just lost her eldest daughter and she had spent time at her funeral talking about me. She made me feel so good inside and we formed a bond that will never be broken.

When I got home from the funeral, I sat down on my bed and spilled out all of my thoughts onto a piece of paper. I decided to write a poem about Ashley and how her journey to heaven was. Every single time I thought that I was at a good place to end, my hand just kept going and going. I sent the poem to the their family's house and never felt better. For once I was thinking about somebody else instead of me and it gave me the warmest feeling of satisfaction I had ever felt.

Tama opened up her heart to me and while showing me the greatest respect and kindness; it in return opened up mine. I will never forget Ashley or her mother. When you meet two people that have hearts of gold, perfect smiles, and love for every single person they meet, it's extremely hard to forget them.