Once many years ago, I pulled a family out of a burning car somewhere in Wyoming. Last week I received a telephone call from a woman who could not stop crying as she told me that one of my stories had saved her son from committing suicide. In closing she called me a hero.
That got me thinking about what a hero really is. Was I a hero because I pulled a family from a burning ear If so, how could I be a hero just because I wrote a story that saved someone"s life
Today I look up the word "hero" in the dictionary to see exactly what it meant. It read "a person who does something brave". And also "a person who is good and noble".
That statement impressed me more than the part about being brave. So I thought about something very important. And I remembered what happened to me years ago.
After my marriage of twenty years ended, I was in such a condition. I was within hours trying to get up enough courage to end the pain and misery. When I returned home, someone had sent me a card in the mail which told me how much they would appreciate me as a friend. That wonderful card probably saved my life. That person, without even knowing it, saved a life and became a hero.
The many stories I kept writing in the following years saved the life of a teenage boy. In turn that makes the person who sent me the card a double hero. I suppose that is why I fight so hard to help the children now living in orphanages. Most children come out of these institutions with a very hard and bitter attitude against the world. The gifts we send them let them know that they have not been forgotten. Hopefully, most of them will never hurt anyone because of the kindness shown to them by those of us who cared. If it works, we will also become "heroes". What does the underlined word "it" in Paragraph 5 refer to (No more than 15 words)