The Hidden Hero -- My Grandmother

Bob Riley once said, "Hard times don't create heroes, it’s during the hard times when the hero within us is revealed.” Many people go through difficult times, yet how they handle those times is when their true character is revealed. If they deal with tough times by getting agitated or becoming resentful every chance they get, then it shows that their character needs to change for the better. In rough times they should be joyful and content, trying to find the good in everything; that is my grandmother, my hero, the person I look up to. She lives up to my definition a of hero. A hero is a person that is determined, and strong -- like my grandma -- but she goes unrecognized by many people. That is what makes a hero unique; they're anonymous.

My grandmother has many good traits, but one that stands out to me the most is her perseverance. She had to wrestle with money for her children as an only mother. She got divorced when her children were young; she had to care for and make money for her three children to go to school. Every day she drove to the chiropractor's office, where she worked, and stayed extra hours to raise money. Another distinctive example of her perseverance is when she broke her foot by accidentally stepping into a pothole and rolling it. She had to go to the hospital and get a cast for it. She was in a wheelchair for two months and then a boot for a few more weeks. When it came time to take the cast off, the doctors informed her that the cast had been on too long and she would have a broken foot for the rest of her life. She had endured through the pain of her broken foot, and now she had to do it for her whole life. Me and my sisters used to go on walks and bike rides with her, but now we can't do that. The physician was able to heal the foot, but she still has to wear a brace every day, all the time. When I was little I used to wish on my birthday candles, when I got a dandelion, and even pray that her foot would heal and she could ride bikes with me again. When that didn't happen, I realized that even though things wouldn't be normal again, she still could play with us and bring us exciting places. She was still the same grandma and she could find new things to do and love with us. My grandma has suffered through all of this and is still cheerful and joyful through every step of her life.

When people think of a strong person, they think of a bodybuilder, a wrestler, a football player, but you don't always have to be strong on the outside. That is one of my favorite characteristics about my grandmother, her strength. My grandmother's strength, to me, is like a mighty mountain.  She had to have two surgeries in her neck when she was 13 because she had an extra rib there from birth. During the surgery the surgeon messed up. They were thinking about what to do about it when all of a sudden they main surgeon-- the one who had to do the central part of the surgery-- died. They couldn’t do anything about the more about the surgery, so they left her with a botched neck. Now she can´t turn her neck very well but she fought through that and  didn’t let bitterness stop her. She also had the courage to get through the next day and keep going even when is got hard. My grandmother had to go through many things. She had at least seven cats when she was growing up. Later in life she began to have allergic reaction to cats: soon she was deathly allergic to cat. Now she can't go to her sons house because he has a cat, and when he comes her he has to wash his clothes once or twice to get he cat fur off his clothes. My grandmother is also is allergic to many medicines like epinephrine. She has had to have strength to get through illnesses, sometimes without medicine to help her. These are just a few ways that my grandmother has had strength over the years.

Grandma ran the race of motherhood, and now she gets to enjoy being a grandmother. She was a runner: she kept going and going and didn't stop even when she was weary.When she felt that she might faint, she didn't quit. Eventually she won the race and now gets to be a grandmother to me. Doing an essay about how she is a hero changed my perspective of a hero. To me, a hero used to be someone who saved lives, someone who is tough, someone who is known to the world. People who have the title of a “hero” like Superman or Mother Teresa are normal people that do something to save their world and get recognized for it. In my eyes, heroes are all around us: the woman who gives her money to a person who needs it more than her, or the person that gives up her seat on the bus, or even the man the opens the door for a handicapped person. These are all people who have done heroic acts in simple ways that are not seen by many others in the outside world.