Hinko

I have a hero. My hero is my grand dad. His name was Henrik, but they called him Hinko. He doesn’t live any more. He is my hero, because he had a hard life. In his family there were eight children and the whole family was working hard every day on the garden or field or in the wood. Also very young children in the family had to work. They didn’t have a lot of money, so they didn’t have nice toys and a lot of chocolate. Their sweets were apples and pears, and they got oranges or bananas only for birthdays or Christmas. But they were happy and they loved each other very much. Here is one story a reason more why my grand dad Hinko is my hero.

When this happened, he was very young. I think my age, so eleven or twelve years old. His family had a house, made by his father and it was built from wood and stone. They had also some cats and a dog called Lota. Their house was in the middle of the village in they had some neighbour houses very near.

One night when all people the village were asleep in one of house near grand dad’s house blew out a great fire. Nobody knew why and how the fire started. Grand dad’s room was in that side of the house which was close to the fire and soon grand dad’s house was as in fire too... Lota was barking at the fire and grand dad woke up when his room was full of smoke.

The whole village was alarmed in a second. My grand dad didn’t run out of the house as people normally do at the moments like this. He knew that in one of room close to his was his baby sister. He ran to her room and he didn’t see anything because of the smoke. But the baby was crying. So he found her listening to her crying and took the baby in his hands. Henrik put his baby sister in his jacket, to protect her from the smoke and hot fire. The fire was getting bigger and bigger. Henrik didn’t know what to do. The fire hurt my grand dad’s legs and hands. He was also very sleepy, because of the smoke. He also didn’t see anything, because of the smoke and the hot flames in the air. He found the way from the room, but the fire was also there. He was frightened, but he was brave as well and he decided to escape and save his and his sisters life. The only way out was through the front door where the fire was also getting bigger. Hinko knew that if he stood there for only a minute more he could never get out at all. So he closed his eyes and ran through the fiery front door. The fire burned his hair. But he came out alive with his sister in his jacket. She was alive too and not even hurt, but still crying very loudly – which was a good sign of life..

My grand dad was very brave that night. He could have died doing what he did but he decided to save his baby sister. One man died in that fire, their neighbour Janez Kalan who was an older man and he couldn’t save himself. From my grand dads’ family nobody died. Hinko and his father went to hospital. The baby sister was safe and sound. Hinko stayed there one month and his father three weeks. They also lost some chickens in that fire, but their neighbours lost a cow.

He’s not just my hero; he’s my family’s hero too.

I think that he is a true hero, because he couldn’t have run out the door, knowing his baby sister was in the burning house. She was grateful to him all her life.

Mercedes Polajnar, 6.b, Primary school Trnovo, Slovenia