Who Is My Hero?

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of scifi that engages the emotions. When I saw the topic for this month's posts, I went blank. Hero is a word overused in the modern world and often for things I don't regard in the least bit heroic. I see it used a lot for sports personalities, for example. Frankly, I don't see a footballer as a hero in the true sense of the word. Someone kicking a ball around a field for 90 minutes or less for several grand, often shouting abuse and spitting? Not heroic. Someone who runs 26.5 miles in a rubber rhino suit to raise money for charity? Now that's heroic!

Hero (from dictionary.com):
noun, plural heroes
1.
a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.
2.
a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal:
He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.
3.
the principal male character in a story, play, film, etc.
4.
Classical Mythology.
a being of godlike prowess and beneficence who often came to be honored as a divinity.
(in the Homeric period) a warrior-chieftain of special strength, courage, or ability.
(in later antiquity) an immortal being; demigod.

I've never really had an iconic real life hero or heroine. Is that bad? To me, it's the unnamed and often forgotten day to day heroes who deserve recognition. The ones who risk their lives in the emergency services saving others, and helping to keep us safe, like the ambulance crew who rushed out to me when I had a panic attack while heavily pregnant and suffering from a chest infection. The carers and the teachers. The volunteers who work at shelters for the homeless or for injured or abandoned animals. The soldiers who fight to defend those who can't defend themselves. Those who stand up for the rights of others despite the abuse or physical attacks. Hundreds of people whose names may never be known.

But in my small, everyday life, my husband is my hero because there are some days when he saves my sanity if not my life. He's the guy who, three months after first starting to date me, stayed by my side and held my hand when my mum died when I was just nineteen. He's been there through three pregnancies with me, including medical complications and an emergency Caesarean with our first child, and one miscarriage. And even though when I first started writing and he thought it was just a pipe dream, he's now the one that gives me a hug when I have my bad days and reminds me how far I've come and what I've accomplished.

He might not fit anyone else's definition of a hero, but he does for me, and he provides the background inspiration for so many of my own fictional heroes who would do anything for their loved ones and family, and heroines who would do the same.

7th May, 1993

When Ordinary People Become Heroes by Kristin Wallace

The theme this month on Romancing the Genres is “real life heroes”.  I think sometimes we use the term hero loosely. Sometimes we celebrate the wrong people. We elevate athletes and other celebrities, when real heroes are right in our communities. The teachers who inspire students to learn, the doctors and nurses who go to work every day and save lives, the single mothers, those battling cancer or other disease.

Sometimes heroes turn out to be people going about their day who are suddenly faced with a situation where they have to step up. Then there are the times when a group of strangers becomes the rescue team. I see videos coming across my Facebook feed all the time. I love these videos because they show that people will do the right thing, despite all the negative news stories out there. Whether they are rescuing a woman from a sinking car, a father jumping into a river after his daughter, or even a deaf man pulling a deer trapped in the ice to safety, real heroes are all around us. We just have to look for them. Here are a couple examples. 

Kristin Wallace is the USA Today Best Selling Author of inspirational and contemporary romance, and women’s fiction filled with “Love, Laughter and a Leap of Faith”. Her popular series include the Covington Falls Chronicles, inspirational romances set in a fictional Southern town, and Shellwater Key Tales, women’s fiction/romances set in Florida. Look for her latest release COMING HOME TO PARADISE later this month! For info on her books or how to connect, visit her website at Kristin Wallace Author 

My Hero

By Judith Ashley

This month the Genre-istas are talking about favorite heroes and heroines. Who’s mine? 

Judith Ashley

His name is Ralph Harvey Rawson and he was my grandfather. I was born about two weeks before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. When my dad was drafted, my mom and I moved in with my maternal grandparents.

There is a family treasure trove of black and white pictures of me with my mini-rake and mini-shovel helping my grandfather in the vegetable garden, picking gooseberries with him, and sitting on his lap obviously telling him important news.

And not just the pictures. There is a plethora of family stories. One my mom told, much to my dad's chagrin was how hurt my dad was when I would not let him even try to fix a doll I had whose arm had detached. Whenever any of my toys needed fixing, I insisted that ‘grandpa do it’.

He always included me – moving his Solitaire cards to the side of the small table he used so I had room to play next to him with my deck of cards. Letting me sit next to him at the breakfast table on the dictionary instead of in the highchair.

My memories of my grandfather are special ones. Everything I took to him, he fixed, every confidence I told him in secret, he kept. I knew I was special to him because he included me instead of pushing me away. He made time for his demanding little granddaughter.

I only remember him failing me once. He died the month I turned nine.

I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be a heroine to someone else, to leave this life before they saw my foibles and failures, to have them look back on my part of their life and see me in the same way I still see my grandfather. One of those 'what if' moments in life that most likely will never happen.

Everyone needs a hero or heroine in their life. My wish for each of you is that you have or have had your own Ralph Harvey Rawson. My life and my memories are richer because of him.

© 2013 Judith Ashley

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