My personal heroes...

While I recognize the need for those 'bigger-than-life' heroes in this world, I have never gone looking for them. I admire people who do heroic things but again, I do not go looking for them to admire and imitate.

My heroes have always been personal ones, the ones I didn't have to go looking for. They lived in the same house that I did.

My heroes are my parents.

A photograph of my father would show you a large man with dark hair that only grew gray during the last year of his life. It would show you a man with a quick smile, a quick sense of humor, and a joyful, giving spirit. It would also show you a man who was taken from his family and friends way too soon.

Another photograph, this one of my mother, would show a farm girl, one quick to laugh with an indomitable spirit. Her wants were simple, her needs few. She married late, at the age of 29, and had six children, the last the year she turned 40. I was fortunate enough to have her in my life far long than my father, but still, she left us way too soon.

A photograph of the two of them would, more often than not, also include their six children. That's the way it was with them - the children came first. What they did, what they had, was ours. We came first because that's the way it was supposed to be in their world.

Money was short but, as a child, I cannot remember a time when they denied us anything. We may not have had all the 'things' other kids had but I don't think we realized we were being deprived. We had enough; each other, parents who loved and respected each other, a great home, food and plenty of 'things' to make us happy.

Together they raised the six of us to be independent, competent adults. Five have college degrees; the sixth spent a year in college before deciding it wasn't for her and she went to work. Three are parents - three boys and two girls between them.

We are following in our parents footsteps. Their values are our values. They lived each day to the best of their abilities, doing the right thing instead of the easy thing, wanting little more than a chance. They faced their trials and tribulations and kept on going.

For that alone they are heroes.

For the rest, they are my heroes and no one else comes close.