The Anonymous Hero

by Timothy Paterson

you could do it, and now the rest of the nation will know as well.

  When Jerry got home from school, the first thing he did was to ask his mother to drive him to Grandpa Jack’s house. He would not tell his mom why, but he insisted that he had to go. When they got there, Jerry ran inside and found Grandpa Jack sitting on the couch drinking coffee and reading the newspaper.

  “Guess what, Grandpa?” said Jerry. “I did it. My essay was chosen as one of the top five finalists, in the national competition. Out of over four hundred thousand essays, I wrote one of the five best papers.”

  Grandpa Jack’s eyes lit up and he had a big smile on his face. “I knew you could do it, Jerry,” said Grandpa Jack. “I have had faith in you all along. When will they announce the top essay?”

  “On Monday, May 25th, at the White House.” said Jerry. As Jerry said the date aloud, he suddenly realized that day was also his Grandpa Jack’s one hundred and ninth birthdays. “But, I can’t go. That’s your birthday,” said Jerry. “I’m going to stay here and help you celebrate”

  Grandpa Jack’s smile disappeared and he said, “The heck you will. I can celebrate my birthday any time. I am going to Washington with you and watch you accept that scholarship. I would not miss it for the world. Heaven help anyone who tries to stop me.”

  The day before the final competition, Jerry and over twenty of his relatives flew to the nation’s capitol. That afternoon, they did some sightseeing and saw many of the nation’s most historical sites.

  The next morning, the family headed to the White House, where the final competition would take place. Each of the finalists drew a number out of a hat to see what order they would be reading their essays to the judging panel. Jerry picked the number five out of the hat, so he would be the last one to read his essay.

  As the actual competition got closer, Jerry started to get nervous. He loved writing the stories, but he was not too fond of public speaking. When he told his Grandpa Jack how nervous he was, Jack told Jerry that he would be sitting in the front row. “If you start to get nervous, just focus on me and forget the rest of the people in the room.”

  When the competition began, Jerry sat on stage, off to the side of the podium with the other finalists. As the other students read their essays, Jerry listened to them, thinking “These essays are really good.” and he began to doubt his own chances of winning.

  The closer he got to his turn at the podium, the tighter his stomach felt. He was very nervous. When he heard hi name called, Jerry felt like he was going to get sick. For a moment, he could not move his feet. He told himself that he could do it, and he stood up and slowly walked up to the podium.

  As Jerry looked at the panel of judges, and the other important people in the audience, he got more nervous. Then, he noticed someone sitting in the back corner of the room that he had not noticed before. It was the President of the United States.

  Jerry started to perspire and his hands began to sweat. He could not speak. He felt like he was going to faint. He forced himself to look at Grandpa Jack. Jack had a big smile on his face. He gave Jerry two thumbs up. That was all it took, to boost Jerry’s confidence. He had the courage to begin.

  “Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, family and friends, and Mr. President. It is an honor for me, just to have made it this far in the competition.”

  “The title of my essay is ‘The Anonymous Hero”. Jerry took a deep breath and then began reading his essay.

  “When I thought about all of the people in my family, I couldn’t decide on just one of them as my hero. In one way or another, they are all my heroes.”

  “My older brother is a star quarterback for UCLA’s football team, making him a sports hero. My mother is an emergency room nurse and my uncle Bob is a firefighter, which makes both of them heroes.”

  “Several of my family members have served in the military during wartime; my father during Desert Storm, My grandfather in Vietnam, My great grandfather in Korea, and my great, great, great grandfather in World War I. All of them are definitely heroes in my book.”

  “With so many heroes to choose from, I didn’t know what to do. I decided to look up the word ‘hero in the dictionary to see what definitions fit my family. I immediately ruled out one of them, because nobody in my family is a sandwich.” That comment got a few laughs from the audience.

  “The definition that I finally decided on was: ‘A person of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his or her brave deeds and noble qualities.’”

  “After reading that definition, I knew that there was only one choice for the subject of my essay. That person is my great-great grandfather Jack Taylor.

  “Jack Taylor wasn’t a military hero, at least not on the battlefield. He was too young for World War I, and he was too old for World War II. He did not save any lives, at least not any ‘physical lives.”

  “After talking to several people, and doing a lot of research, I found out that Grandpa Jack was more of a hero than I had ever realized.”

  “Jack Taylor was born on May 25th, 1900 on a farm in rural Indiana. He was the oldest of eleven children. At the age of fourteen, he became the man of the house, when his father went to fight in Europe during World War I. One year later, his father was killed in battle, and Jack became the head of the household permanantly.”

  “Jack worked twelve to sixteen hours per day, six days per week on the farm. He was determined to help his mother keep his family together. At night, he read textbooks and learned as much as he could. Even though he had dropped out of school to help support his family, he hoped to go to college some day, and become a teacher.”

  “When Jack was nineteen, he took a college entrance exam and passed with a very high score. He was accepted at a teacher’s college near the farm. His church agreed to pay his tuition. Jack would never be a sports star in college, as he had no time for sports. He went to classes, and he worked on the family farm. He managed to find a few hours late at night, to study. On Sunday, he taught Sunday school at his church, and he never missed a Sunday service in his entire life.”

  “ Instead of complaining about how bad life had treated his family, and what his family didn’t have, he thanked God each and every day for what little food and clothing they had, and the good health that his family did have.”

  “When Jack graduated from college, he got a job at the local high school, teaching English. A year later, he married Alice Bradford, a young lady he had met in college.

  Since they had very little money, they lived with Jack’s family. This way, Jack could still take care of his family.”

  “In 1924, Jack’s mother died, leaving seven children under the age of seventeen still at home. Jack and Alice happily agreed to take care of his siblings. Jack leased out some of their farmland to neighboring farmers. With that income plus Jack’s salary, the family barely had enough money to pay bills. They raised most of their food on their farm.”

  Jack and Alice hoped to start a family of their own, one day, but they put those plans on hold, so that Jack could keep the promise he had made to his mother, that all of his siblings graduated from college. Shortly after Jack’s youngest brother started college, Jack and Alice welcomed their only child; my great grandmother into the world.”

  At this point in his essay, Jerry looked at Grandpa Jack to see if he was upset that Jerry was saying all of these personal things about him. Jack had a big smile on his face, which let Jerry know that he approved of Jerry’s essay.

  “Jack continued to teach English at that high school, until the school board forced him to retire at the age of seventy-five. He had taught there for fifty years. He was so loved and respected by his former students that several hundred of them showed up for his retirement ceremony, to pay tribute to this great man. He was not only a great motivator, and excellent role model, but a great friend.”
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  “Even though the high school told Jack that it was time for him to retire, and take it easy, Jack wasn’t ready to retire. He started teaching English as a second language at a community college, to new immigrants. He kept that teaching job for twenty-five years. He finally retired at the age of one hundred years old.”

  “All of this would have made him a hero in my eyes, but the more I talked to people, who knew Grandpa Jack, the more I learned about this selfless, caring man.”

  “When Jack was fifteen years old, his mother almost died from internal bleeding, because of a blood shortage. From that day forward, Jack donated a pint of blood every eight weeks, like clockwork. Last fall, The Indiana Blood Bank, presented Jack with a certificate marking the seventy-five gallons or six hundred pints of blood that he had donated in his life. Though this was a world record, Jack asked that they not make a big deal of it.”

  “Jack preferred to remain anonymous when he helped someone in need, which is why most of his extraordinary feats of heroism have not made the newspapers. Every person that I spoke with was reluctant to tell me of Jacks good deeds, because they knew Jack wanted them to remain anonymous.”

  “For over eighty years, Jack has been actively involved in many organizations, including Habitat for Humanity, Boy Scouts, Boys and Girls