Heroes

Everyone has heroes...whether it's their parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers, etc....or whether it's a folk hero, a singer, an actor, or all of the above. My heroes growing up were my parents, grandparents, my aunts and uncles, my sisters, my cousins, and Abraham Lincoln. In my teenaged years I added God and my husband. So many things I think contribute to being a hero...whether you save someone from a burning building, from being robbed, or whether you are saved from yourself and the image you've seen there your whole life. I watched a movie on LMN called Married To A Stranger, the story of Terry Evanshen, a pro football player in Canada. Wow, some people would say, a pro football player, any one of them could be my hero too, like in the movie Remember The Titans, they were all heroes. That's true, they were, but not like Terry. You see, Terry was in an automobile crash that wiped his memories away, gave him retrograde amnesia and profound short term memory loss. He was in a coma that no one thought he would come out of, but he did. He didn't know his wife, his three children, or how to do even the basic everyday things that we take for granted everyday. Giving hugs, loving someone, looking at the stars at night, walking during a sunset holding someone's hand and feeling the love they have to give, he didn't understand. After therapy and realizing that the Terry everyone knew was never coming back, he went on with his life and became a motivational speaker throughout Canada, reading off index cards, lest he not remember something. The memories he shared with his family he'll never get back, but he learned to go on day to day with faith, hope, and love that came from within him. I sent him an email and he took time out of his day to call and tell me that we have to take one day at a time, and to have faith. He's a hero to me.