Sandra Soto-Birk

Sandra and Randi (Mother & Daugher Dance Performance, June 2004)

My Hero is my sister and friend, Sandra, who is a single mother doing her best to raise her daughter Randi. Sandra has always struggled throughout her life. She comes from a broken home and has always worked very hard to get to where she is at this moment in time.

In school, she studied a lot and had a small, close circle of friends. She didn’t go out and party like so many teenagers her age. She was really a good kid. She practically raised herself; by that I mean our mother was working and she was often left alone. In fact, our mother moved out and left Sandra alone while still a senior in high school. As a mother myself, I cannot imagine doing that to my own child. She has accomplished a lot in her 43 years. She has gone to college and paid for it all by herself. She graduated while working full-time and is now an account executive & commodities broker with a commodities trading firm.

Sandra lives in Southern California and strives very hard to be the best mother that she can be. Like a lot of single mothers, she works all day and then comes home to help her daughter with homework and do all the other things involved with raising a child. She takes Randi to her dance classes each and every Saturday morning, she also takes a dance class so that she can have something in common with her daughter.

She is important to me because she is my sister and because I am so proud of her. I truly admire all of her accomplishments that she has attained thus far in her life. Not only is she beautiful, but she's an intelligent, loving, caring, and giving human being. I have always been the sister that “shined” in the family, but the true hero in my family is really my sister Sandra!

When I was very young, I would beg my mother for a baby sister and 11 years later, I finally got one. I remember how little she was when my mother brought her home from the hospital and how much I loved her. The moment I held her in my arms, we bonded, and she was never far from me after that. I spent so much time with her, taking care of her, that I sometimes felt like I was her mother. I can remember doing everything with her and for her; like changing her diapers and taking her everywhere with me. Even after I moved out of the house at 18 years old, I would drive from the next city over to pick her up and take her to school. I doted on her every way that I could.

My sister is a huge inspiration to me; even now she truly amazes me with her strong convictions and moral values. She strives to be the best person, mother, sister, and daughter. She is truly one of a kind, and this is why she is my hero.