My Hero

My hero is my grandpa Glade Nelson. My grandpa is the strongest person I have ever met. He was diagnosed with leukemia, skin cancer, and prostate cancer, and still lived to be eighty years old!
My grandpa was born at his home in Ferron in 1929. He was born a twin but his twin sister died at 18 months old from pneumonia. At the age of 12 years old my great grandpa was drafted into the coal mines and had to leave home, leaving my grandpa to take over the farm.
When my grandpa was young he was riding his horse in Ferron, and was struck by lighting when he was a teenager. It knocked him out and when he woke up he thought his horse was dead so he walked home, then a few hours later the horse came home.
My grandpa loved to tell stories about when he was in World war two over in Japan, where he was a cook for the army when he was sixteen years old. He cooked on the ship and on the base. He said that the ship ride over made him so sick that he couldn’t sleep.
When my grandpa and grandma got married my grandpa had five kids and my grandma had five kids, then they had five kids together equaling fifteen kids to support, but they still got through it. My grandpa now has forty four grandchildren and fifteen great grandchildren.
When my mom was younger, her little brothers went down stairs and started playing with matches. One of my uncles was scared of the match and dropped it, and the carpet lit on fire. He took the baby and hid behind the couch. When everyone else was out of the house my grandpa and grandma went back into the burning house to find my uncles. They were choking on the smoke really bad and couldn’t find them. Then they heard crying coming from downstairs, where the fire was the worst. They ran down there to get the kids from behind the couch. They made it out ok and luckily everyone was out, but they had to rebuild the house.
When my aunt Lisa was a teenager she fell through the cellar roof. After that my grandpa would tell us never to play up there, and then if we would he would tell us the story of her falling through the roof and that would make me really freaked out about the cellar. I thought that if I fell through the roof I would be locked in there and would have to eat bottled peaches until I died.
My grandpa worked as a truck driver hauling coal allover the country. My grandma and grandpa then bought a restaurant above the high school around when I was born. The entire family would help out by coming and working there whenever they were available. They had really good food and it was a second home for everyone. Then they sold it, and it became another restaurant, but it wasn’t as awesome.
After he retired he still worked every day in his wood shop creating and building new things that he would sell, give away as gifts, or just decorate the house with.
When he was around seventy six years old my grandpa’s eyesight started to get really bad and we had to help him with more things. My mom and dad heard about this doctor down in New Mexico that would do an acupuncture on my grandpa’s eyes to make him see better. So my parents drove my grandparents there. He had to get the acupuncture done for a few hours for five days. They came home about a week later, and my grandpa said he had a really good time and could see a lot better.
My grandpa always encouraged me to do my best and to shoot high. When I would get off the bus after school I would walk to his house for a visit and he would ask me how my day was and what I learned in school. He always said an education was important and to use school to the best of my advantage.
My grandpa was like seventy nine he came out and played basketball with me and my cousins. He actually beat us and he shot a three pointer. He then told us a really long story on how he and the people that he was with in the war and how they would play basketball to stay in shape and have fun.My grandpa is my hero, and he will always be inspiration for me throughout my life.