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Elaine

by Kelsea from Innisfil

My hero is my grandma. Her name is Elaine Wheaton. I chose my grandma because she raised 7 kids and 2 grandchildren on her own. She had to raise them on her own because my grandfather left her, and she chose to do this by herself. She also raised her two grandchildren along with her own, as her oldest daughter was not ready to be a young mom at that time. Even with all these struggles in her life she was a survivor of Ovarian cancer.

My grandma was born in Parry Sound, Ontario, and lived in many different towns as a young girl as her father was a principal and had to move around every few years. My grandma has a twin sister who lives in Alberta. She also has a brother and sister who live here in Ontario. Before getting married in 1950, my grandma went to business school in Toronto, and worked for a bank for several years. This is where she met my grandfather and began to start their family.

My grandma was born on September 11th. She died on Friday, January 5th 2007. She died at the age of 77 after a long fight with diabetes. My grandmother enjoyed having visits with all of her grandchildren, all eight of them, and will surely be missed by all.

I think my grandma is a hero because she didn't give up when she was fighting cancer and that is how she survived. My grandma was very brave and had a lot of courage. My grandma always found ways to work around a small income, with raising all these children on her own, like when she went grocery shopping she would never buy more then she needed. She was a very strong person to be able to do these things on her own, as most people today have a hard time with one or two children to raise as a single parent.

My grandma inspires me because she was a strong person to overcome these illnesses. My grandma is a hero to me because cancer is a hard disease to fight, but she did survive cancer, and lived for eight more years to show us just how strong of a woman she really was. She was brave and had a lot of courage. I hope I can be as brave as her one day.

Page created on 5/26/2008 12:00:00 AM

Last edited 5/26/2008 12:00:00 AM

The beliefs, viewpoints and opinions expressed in this hero submission on the website are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs, viewpoints and opinions of The MY HERO Project and its staff.