One day, my granddaughter who is in the 4th grade asked me about my youthful days. I told her how I had grown up in difficult times, attending the 1st grade during the Korean War right after I got admitted into school, and wasn’t able to attend, how my father was killed during the war, and after the war was forced to attend 3rd grade instead.
I had also told her in detail of how my family was in hardship and I was forced to attend carpentry classes to get my tuitions exempt, after 2nd year in high school I had gone to internship to work and etc. I also told her about my late start of college and participating in the Vietnamese War, joining in the commercial and industrial design art exhibition and so on.
Out of all my grandchildren, Naomi who is the oldest had lived together in New Jersey, and had lived with us till she was about 7 after we moved to California. She has my hymnal poem collection, “Lord! My Life!” along with Elder Kwon’s composed, “Growth in Sharing” with CDs of the hymns that were recorded. Seeing that even though she does not know any Korean, she keeps them in a precious spot in the bookshelf makes me proud of her.
`Some time ago, my wife’s phone started to not charge well, (because it was over 8 years old,) she gave her savings of $70 to us for my wife to buy her a new phone even though we insisted that Naomi didn’t. It was proud to see. My daughter said, since my wife’s phone is a simple one, that money would be sufficient enough to purchase her a new one.
One day, my granddaughter approached me and said that she wanted to know more about my past, and asked me few questions. I was curious and asked her “why do you want to know about my past anyway?” and she said that it was to find her “hero” and write a short essay about it for homework.
Several days later, she gave me the precious writing in a white paper.
The title was “Hero” and while I was reading her neat writing, Naomi’s writing was about none other than me! I was reading and saw that the writing was not about things I have achieved, but about what I was to her.
For brevity of her essay, she stated that even though her hero is an ordinary person, I was rather extraordinary as a grandfather. She states that I like to encourage people, such as when I hugged her to cheer her up when she got a bad grade in school, and enjoy supporting poor people, and correcting me when I had made a wrong choice. She said that despite me being ordinary, in her view I am someone she admires greatly.
While I was reading, my face got red because I was not really that great to be admired. But out of the simple care and encouragement, despite being her young age, she was able to remember even the smallest of kind act. I will attach the original writing.
My Hero
By: Naomi Pacheco
Heroes can be in your daily life and you might not even notice them. To me, a hero is somebody who inspires somebody else to do good. My hero to me is my grandpa. My grandpa seems like an ordinary person, but he’s actually very unique.
My grandpa is an extraordinary person and is very loving. My grandpa is a very, very, very cheerful person. When I get a bad grade on a test, and I was very sad, my grandpa made me feel better by giving me a hug. Also, my grandpa is generous. For example, my grandpa donates money to poor families who are in need. My grandpa is also very wise, for example is that once I was about to do something bad, but my grandpa said that was not a good choice. I love my grandpa because he cares for me and he is awesome!!!
There are many heroes in my life but my grandpa stands out from them all. My grandpa is wise, cheerful and generous. My grandpa might look like an ordinary person to you, by the is an awesome person to me!!!
(May 10th, 2015)
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Hero
Tears of the General