My Hero Bill

I’ve had my share of heroes. When I was a kid they were mostly movie stars and baseball players, make believe characters that taught me about winning and losing in broad strokes without a lot of subtlety. I loved what I thought was the biggest and best. I was a huge fan of John Wayne and Gary Cooper. And I lived and died with the Yankee teams that featured Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford. If those folks had flaws I didn’t know about them, and probably wouldn’t have cared. They were my heroes and I wanted to be just like them. Nothing wrong with that I guess, it’s just the way a kid thinks.

Heroes at my age are a trickier thing and I have to say I don’t have many. But with Memorial Day and Father’s Day coming up I have to mention one, my father-in-law Bill. Bill is a genuine war hero, a decorated medic who risked his life saving others in harm’s way. He served with valor in both WWII and Korea. But you’d never know it from talking to him. He’s humble, hard-working man who puts his family and country first. I suppose there are thousands of men out there like Bill, and I hope you have the good fortune to know one of them. Bill’s the one I know. And he’s my hero.

God Bless,

Jim