Something About Sheritta #5

Who is your hero and why?

It’s going to sound terribly cliché, but when I really think hard about it, I have two heroes.

The first is my mom. She was a single mother, raising a little girl with some help from her parents, but for the most part, she was fiercely independent and still is. I remember her doing things that were normally the “man’s job” because they had to be done. Stuff that I would rather give my husband to do, like mowing the lawn, taking out the trash, replacing garage door torsion springs, etc., my mom would have to do herself. I recently wrote a novel that really shifted the way I look at my mom and the struggles she went through without a husband. She didn’t find love again until I was in high school, so the majority of my life, I saw her stand alone. Never a week goes by when I think to myself “My mom would have done it this way” or “This is something my mom would do, so I should be able to as well”. As often as she frustrates me, I see more of her coming out in my personality all the time. Even today, I’m listening to some 80s music that her and I used to listen to and it brings back fond memories.

My second hero is my husband, in the sense that he saves me so many times that I am forever indebted to him. He’s been my rock, my foundation, my leaning-post, my sanity for the last ten years (five dating, five married). There have been times in my life when there was no sunshine, no light at the end of the tunnel (or if there was, it was an oncoming train). But he never fails to come in and bring me out of a funk with his goofiness. A few times, he’s stopped me from making terrible decisions that could have caused me some real harm. When I say I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him, I’m not exaggerating or being dramatic. He’s held my pieces together when all I wanted to do was fall apart. No man could tolerate me the way he does and I’m forever blessed that I get to be his wife and lover.