My Top Two Real Life Heroes by Paty Jager

If my mom were alive, I'm pretty sure she would agree with me on my top two real life heroes. They are my daughters. I can remember my mom telling me how brave I was for driving 6 hours by myself with small children to visit her. When I flew to New York state to attend a writing conference by myself she said she would never have been brave enough to do that alone. My mom would be even more in awe of her two granddaughters. I know I am!

The oldest has a husband in law enforcement. That in itself is something many couldn't deal with. She is strong and has her faith and the knowledge her husband is well trained. She spends lots of time by herself with their two daughters, one of which has some special needs and can be a handful at times. Yet, my oldest takes it all in stride, holding it together better than I would. She can also shoot better than her husband, grow a wonderful garden, and keep her daughters' animals and poultry healthy. She is more rounded in her knowledge than I am.

My daughters when they were young.

My youngest daughter has six kids! The youngest is 2 months old and the oldest turns 15 this month. She not only home schools the three oldest children, but does it all alone while her husband finishes out his tour with the Coast Guard. This family of 8 is seven miles down the road from us. My husband helps out with the framing/ranching when he can and I help watch kids when I'm needed. But the majority of the work: building rooms, chicken pens, picking rocks, sowing fields is up to my daughter and the kids. She not only takes care of her family, she makes baby quilts for all her cousins as they have new babies, helps her in-laws, and designs book covers.

My daughters grown and starting out on their lives.

While I've always thought of myself as pretty self-reliant and undaunted by tasks that have to be accomplished, I do believe my daughters are braver and more self-reliant than I ever was or will be. They are strong women who are definitely my heroes.

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 40 novels, 8 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

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