Heroes for My Son (2 page)

Father and son. Long-distance runners.

 

 

W
hen Dick and Judy Hoyt's son was born with cerebral palsy, unable to walk or talk, the doctors told them to just “put him away.”

No, they decided.

They'd push him, pull him, they'd carry him along.

But he'd never be left behind.

 

When the public schools said there was no place for Rick, his parents found a computer that would write his thoughts from the few head movements he could make.

At ten, he spoke his first sentence. “Go Bruins!”

 

In high school, Rick learned of a five-mile charity run for a newly paralyzed teenager.

Rick told his father they had to do something to send a message that life goes on.

Even though he wasn't a runner, Dick never hesitated.

He'd run the race, pushing Rick's wheelchair the whole way.

 

They finished next to last. It was a victory.

That night, Rick typed out these words: “Dad, when I'm running, it feels like my disability disappears.”

Dick's mission was clear.

He kept running, Rick always out in front.

234 triathlons, 67 marathons, 6 ironmans.

Rick Hoyt still can't walk.

But with his father, they both fly.
*

Inventors of the first superhero.

 

 

T
hey weren't good-looking.

 

They weren't popular.

 

And they were so poor that they used to draw on the back of butcher's paper.

 

But they were two best friends.

 

With one dream.

 

At the brink of World War II, in the midst of the Great Depression, two kids from Cleveland didn't just give us the world's first superhero.

 

They gave us something to believe in.
*

 

Television host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

 

 

H
is parents were so worried about his hay fever, they kept him inside for an entire summer.

 

He had nothing to play with except for a toy piano and some homemade hand puppets.

 

Freddie made the best of it. He had his imagination.

 

He didn't need anything else.
*

 

Found and preserved Anne Frank's diary.

 

 

I
n the spring of 1942, Otto Frank asked his assistant the most important question of her life: “Are you prepared to help us?”

 

Miep Gies never hesitated. “Yes, of course,” she said.

 

For two years, Miep broke the law—hiding and feeding eight people, including Otto's daughter, Anne.

 

When the Nazis burst in, Miep didn't deny helping the family.

 

She didn't apologize.

 

Instead, she tried to bribe Nazi officials into letting the eight innocent people go.

 

It didn't work.

 

And when the Nazis warned her not to return, Miep snuck back into the hiding spot.

 

Among the scattered papers and clothing, she noticed one thing the Nazis had dismissed—Anne's red-checked diary.

 

Never opening it, she placed it in a desk drawer.

 

When Anne's father returned after the war, Miep once again took him in.

 

When she heard that Anne was dead, Miep relinquished her duty as caretaker.

 

“Here,” Miep told Otto, “is your daughter Anne's legacy to you.”
*

Baseball legend. Hometown hero.

 

 

B
eing a baseball player made him famous.

Being a twelve-time Golden Glove winner made him rich.

 

So when an earthquake struck Nicaragua, he could have just written a check and gotten his name in the paper.

 

Instead, he got involved personally.

 

He funded three emergency relief flights.

 

All three were diverted by corrupt officials—which is why Clemente decided to fly on the fourth plane himself.

 

It was packed with as much food and medicine as he could possibly bring.

 

The plane crashed in the ocean, killing everyone on the flight.

 

But Roberto Clemente isn't a hero because the plane went down.

 

He's a hero because of why he got on board.
*

Record breaker. High-flying pilot.

 

 

S
he worked as a truck driver, stenographer, and photographer. Just to save enough for the flying lessons.

 

Six months after she learned to fly, she put away enough for a bright yellow, used biplane called
Canary
.

 

The following year, she broke her first record, reaching an altitude of fourteen thousand feet, the highest recorded at that time by a woman.

 

She wasn't a natural. She wasn't the best pilot.

 

She had to work at it.

 

But within her short lifetime she showed the world that the greatest flight we'll ever take is the one no one has tried before.
*