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: Kelli

My sister, Kelli, is my hero. She has overcome a lifetime of hardships including physical and emotional abuse, substance abuse and poverty. Today, she is a clean and sober single mother of five daughters. Though she works full time and takes phenomenal care of her 5 children, she still finds time on the holidays to take plates of food to less fortunate people she knows throughout the city. She opens her home to animals in need of care and has taught her children the same values that I admire in her: perseverance; kindness; sacrifice and the spirit of sharing.

Many times during my life, I have lost my way and lost hope. It was always the thought of her that kept me going; her strength, her unconditional love and her complete selflessness have been my beacons throughout my life.

Now, I am pregnant and look to her as a role model for motherhood. I can only hope and strive to be as wonderful a mother as she is and to instill the same values in my children that she has so successfully taught hers.

Story was submitted anonymously