Who Is Your Hero?

Do you have a personal hero? Tell us about them. It doesn’t have to be perfect to make a difference in someone else’s life.

Your Everyday Hero: My Grandmother

My grandmother (1912-1986) was a 1st and 2nd grade teacher. She lost her mother to influenza during the flu epidemic in 1919, and grew up as the 'Cinderella' of the family: troubled dad and uncaring stepmom—not much love. Her aunts put her to vocational school when she was 14; it was a boarding school, she hated it withal her heart, because she was the only one who had to live there all year long as she had no home to go to during vacations. She became a teacher, but it was the great depression, and there were no jobs. She worked as a nanny for a few years, but never gave up the idea of teaching class. And she got a job as a teacher at a Lutheran school, where she spent all her professional years. She was such a great teacher that her students, when they grew up, came to visit her whenever they were in town, no matter how far they had moved since they were 7-8 years old.

Grandma raised two daughters and 3 grandchildren, taught us the most important values, helped Jewish people escape from the Ghetto during world war II, walked 50 miles from the capital with a cart, to get some food for her family.

And she did all this with a smile on her face. Always.

Story was submitted anonymously