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: Jude M.

Not a week goes by that we do not hear how Jude inspires others to have a good attitude now matter what circumstance they are in. She lives by taking a chemotherapy everyday called cellcept. Less than one tenth of one percent of the nation suffers from her disease—pulmonary fibrosis, an autoimmune disease. It is rare for it to enter the lungs. In 2007 they considered listing her for transplant. They are considering this again now so they do not miss an opportunity.

This winter Jude has been plagued by viruses due to her suppressed immune system from chemo yet she keeps on going, volunteering locally, taking care of her daughter and home, spoiling the teachers in the area, helping at church advertising activities (she has a marketing degree) and at Christmas she returned her big gift she chose to buy 250 dollars in toys for 'Sub for Santa' providing gifts for the needy. Now it is a project she has already started working towards for next year.

She also was a costume designer for her daughter's school production and designed a beautiful costume for a girl in the class who had been less than kind to Jade, her daughter. Jade, after hearing her mom comment how beautiful the dark clouds approaching were, said "That's mom, always seeing the best in every situation."

Now Jude is starting a regular get-together for teachers and overworked moms nearby. She is having a chocolate dessert bar, a spa basket prize for the winner and making dinner for everyone. She does all of this while wearing oxygen. She sees the bad days as an opportunity to learn and spends time watching HGTV and the Discovery Channel.

Jude is wildly creative and designs her own greeting cards. She is a fierce negotiator and helped her dad get a good deal on a purchase. She won disability for her Mom years ago without a lawyer. She insisted on taking gifts and food to her mother on her own birthday. Most kids in the neighborhood know and love her. If Jade is not home they stay to have a chat and a snack. She takes them all snowboarding and insists she will ski again soon.

Jude smiled hugely on her recent 40th birthday, so happy to have reached that milestone, her family and friends toasted to her life. They sang "hey Jude you don't make it bad, you take a sad song and make it better" to her, the popular Beatles tune slightly altered. She is still beautiful, a former beauty queen, inside and out, and she is our hero.

Story was submitted anonymously