Max Spoon

My grandfather Max Spoon

To me, a hero is not someone rich, famous or powerful, but someone with a good heart. Heroes are looked up to. They are responsible and brave. A hero can be someone who did a good act to help others. Heroes can be people who started off with nothing but still found the strength to carry on and do bigger and better things. They are selfless and sometimes heroic. Heroes could save a life physically or figuratively. Heroes don’t take their own lives into consideration while helping others. I think heroes set aside their fears and do what is right, what has to be done. That is why anyone can be a hero if he just tries.

My hero is my grandfather, Max Spoon. My grandfather lived in a Jewish area in Montreal. He quit school in grade seven to help support his poor family during the Depression. He worked in a factory as a garment cutter making very little money. Later he took up boxing to protect himself from the local gangs. Instead, he became a famous local boxer. He joined the army at the age of 18 and fought in World War II, saving many lives while risking his own. When he came back, he worked many jobs until he co-founded a company that manufactured and sold corrugated boxes. Before he died, he battled a horrible disease called progressive supranuclear palsy for eight years. It was last year that he lost his tough battle with this disease.

My grandfather means so much to me. He taught me good Jewish values and taught me never to give up. He is my hero because he started out with nothing and fought his way through every obstacle that came before him.