Dana Reeve

Dana Reeve

I think that heroes should be many things. They should have the strength to stick by someone who needs help. They should be able to tell somebody anything. They should do something good for the world around them. The person I chose is Dana Reeve. She is my hero because she has done all three of the things I have listed above and many more.

Dana was born on March 17, 1961. She was born in Teaneck, New Jersey, but grew up in a town in New York. She had two sisters, Deborah and Adrienne. Her parents were Dr. Charles Morosini and Helen Morosini. The reason she got into acting is because she studied it at the California Institute of the Arts. She met her soon-to-be husband Christopher Reeve ("Superman") while acting at the Williamstown Theater Festival. Christopher and Dana got married in April of 1992 and had their son Will in June of 1992.

Dana and Christopher (her husband)

In 1995 Christopher became a quadriplegic because he was in a very serious horseback riding accident. After that, Dana had to stop acting for awhile so she could be with Christopher and help take care of him. Dana gave him all she had, even though they had only been married for three years before this terrible accident had happened. Dana and Christopher founded the Christopher Reeve Foundation, which raised and distributed over $55 million in research grants (mostly spent on stem-cell research). Dana became the chairwoman in 2004 when Christopher died. She then founded the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center, which has given over $8 million for people with paralysis.

Ten months after Christopher died, Dana found out she had lung cancer. She had never smoked, nor had Christopher. I’m sure that it was a very hard thing telling her son Will that she had lung cancer just 10 months after he had lost his father. Dana lived in Pound Ridge, New York, when she died. She died on March 6, 2006, from lung cancer at age 44. She will always be remembered as someone who helped others.

Dana Reeve

Heroes can have a lot of different characteristics. I think they should stand by people who need help, like Dana did with her husband Christopher. They should be able to talk to people honestly, like Dana was honest with her son Will even though it might have been hard. Also, they should do good things, like she did with the foundations. Those are some things Dana did to make her my hero!