Patricia Jacobs

Heroic Roots

A hero. The definition of this word is different for everyone, but we all see a hero as someone we personally aspire to be, someone we look up to for either what they have done or what they have been through, or how they formed decisions that made them a “hero” to us. For me, that hero is my grandmother. 

Although she passed away a couple of years ago, after a long hard fight with cancer, she was someone who I hope I can try to be in my years to come. Yes, she had all of the typical grandmother qualities, caring, super sweet, spoils you way too much, but she also had some pretty unique, amazing things about her. She loved to travel, and managed to visit every single continent in her 68 years, including Antarctica. She was adventurous and outdoorsy. Even while she had cancer, the doctors let her travel, and she came on a 10-mile round trip backpacking vacation with my family and me. Most of all, she wants to do whatever she can to help people in need. This is what drove her to help start an amazing project that she dedicated a lot of time, money and effort to.

A Drawing of the Hekima Place LogoOriginal WorkHekima Place is a partially Swahili title, meaning “wisdom place,” or in other words, a place for knowledge. This was the name of the school for girls in Kenya that my grandmother helped to build, through her work with the children. Hekima Place is a “safe, loving, and faith-based home for orphaned and vulnerable girls in Kiserian, Kenya” (the Hekima Place website). The orphanage takes in young girls living alone in Kenya and helps them achieve an education, a job, and sometimes a college education. My grandmother was visiting Kenya regularly before she got sick. She would help teach them, and be with the people in need. I admire this because she put part of her life into these girls in need. She was willing to sacrifice her time and money, and anything else she had the capacity to give to others. This is what makes her a hero to me.

Surviving something like cancer, especially just once, is hard enough, but my grandmother survived cancer twice, and still it came back a third time. What I admire about my grandma's journey through cancer is that even though she was sick and weak, she still managed to do what she loved. She got outside a lot, still traveled when she was able to, and she even visited Hekima Place once or twice while her cancer was raging on. I admire that she could keep on doing what she wanted, no matter what was blocking her path. I aspire to be like that.

My grandmother has shown me something very important, and it is something that will stay with me for a while to come: She has shown me how to be a hero, how to be kind, passionate, and how to do what you love even when it’s hard. I am so thankful that I got to have such an amazing person in my life for at least a short period of time.