Hero

He doesn’t leap over tall buildings. He doesn’t have laser beams that come out of his eyes. He doesn’t have spider senses and he refuses to wear pink, so you can imagine how he feels about wearing a cape. But in my eyes, he’s still a hero.

He has an interesting story and I’d like to tell you about it. It starts like any other; with his early life as a young boy and moves on to the start of his own family and ends to the present. I hope you will find this hero’s life as interesting as I do.

He was born in a small farming town in Quebec, Canada. He was one of 10 kids, the youngest of the boys, a good Catholic family. Having a strong work ethic was not an option but a requirement.

He went to school in a one-room school house miles from his house. He walked the distance with his brothers and sisters everyday after the cows had been milked, the eggs collected and the other chores done.

School was never a huge priority in his home because farming was a family business. His mother passed away when he was 12 and the hugs and kisses stopped then and the chores increased. His father didn’t have much time for feelings or dreams; he expected a lot from his boys and was very unsure about the girls.

At 14 he quit school and followed in his brothers’ footsteps and went out west to start his career as a lumberjack. Sure, he’d always dreamed of being a veterinarian, but for this hero, that wasn’t an option. From age 14 until 21 the boys were required to work in the bush and send their paychecks home to help maintain the family farm.

He moved to a province where his native tongue was barely spoken. He moved in to the logging camps with men two to three times his age. His older brothers kept watch over him at night but during the day, it was he and his chain saw against the monstrous trees. No amount of training can prepare an adult for that kind of life, let alone a teenager. He learned to speak the language of his co-workers by lying in bed at night listening to English radio stations or listening to nearby conversations. He started to understand the language little by little. He formed some great friendships and can sit for hours recounting the pranks and fights that formed his childhood.

When he turned 21, he left that area to log closer to home. His father was anxious to give him the family farm, but he’d had enough and wanted to pursue life on his own, creating his own dreams.

Soon thereafter he met his wife. They married and settled in a small town in Ontario. She was fluent in English and encouraged him to get more comfortable with the language in this area of fluid bilingualism but our hero struggled to do so. He was too proud to struggle for words during conversations.

He and his wife bought a home and home ownership brought on new challenges. He had to teach himself handyman skills in order to make this house a home. Not an easy thing to do for a hero who did not know how to put a nail in the wall. But he learned. He got better every year and eventually found a passion in carpentry.

After some years, the hero started his own family and became the dad to two little girls. He worked hard to give them all that they needed and more. The little girls knew that they were this hero’s weakness. As the girls learned to speak English at school, they would come home and read with him and it became easier. Of course the girls grew up and mangled the hero’s heart. They made decisions he didn’t agree with but always supported. He loved them regardless of the mistakes, words, and choices they made and reminded them always that we are the only ones who can set our own paths.

Because of his hard work, over the years the hero took on a new position as a carpenter in a wood mill. This required the hero to certify for this new position. In his 40’s the hero was able to graduate with a certificate, his first graduation and in his second language.

Presently, he and his wife celebrate their 36th wedding anniversary. He works in a gold mine doing difficult manual labor, work others half his age would never attempt. At 62 he raises two young grandsons and carries the weight of that responsibility and the burden it brings. He doesn’t pretend to know all the answers or to always say the right things, but he perseveres through the hurdles life brings him.

This hero’s nemesis is life. He may not have leapt over tall buildings, but he faces them. He doesn’t have laser beams that come out of his eyes but determination. And he may not have a spider sense but a sense of pride and his cape… well… he wears that everyday, his love. This hero is better then all of the comic book heroes because he is real. He’s my dad.