The Hero

We all have iconic figures that we look to. Some may call them role models, mentors or even heroes. Their actions inspire and influence. We look up to them hoping to shadow their footsteps and maybe experience what they lived through. They are the movers and shakers of our inner being next to God. It is those people whose simple existence helped guide us down the path we are on now; sometimes they may not or may not have known. My late grandfather was such a person, a pillar of my life.

It’s been three years since I lived through one of the hardest days of my short life. I had to say goodbye to my hero, friend and Opa. My Opa was soft-spoken but had a temper I could certainly relate to. His humor was contagious, unique in its own special way. He could be the quiet man or the life of the party. Deep down inside you know he had a story and a heart of a man of faith. His story along with my Oma began back in the old country, the Netherlands.

It was my Opa and Oma’s stories that became perhaps the greatest influence on me being a lover of history. Their stories outdo any Hollywood script. Growing up in a simple world without television, cell phones and computers. Hard work was needed for survival. Not some day-to-day lazy routine, but blisters on your hands hard work, the hardest work and challenges coming though the Second World War.

For five years Opa and Oma endured Nazi occupation, bombings and great battles. They saved countless lives; Jews were certainly among them to be sure. They braved one of the greatest battles of World War II to see each other, running from foxhole to foxhole, crater to crater. It was during the war that my grandparents first fell in love. Culminating in over sixty-five years of marriage. After the war they were married and came to America, a land that could offer them more than war-torn Europe. In 1949, with seventy-five dollars to their name they began their journey. It’s a journey that continues to this day with Oma and her numerous children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

I’ve learned many lessons from their stories and examples: bravery, hard work, faith and love. Inspiration can be found closer to home than we think. When I think of heroes I don’t think of athletes, actors and actresses or historical figures. No, the real heroes are the people that inspire me and shape me for the better. People like my Oma and my late Opa, a dairyman from Holland named Teunis Van Manen.