My Hero

A Nigerian proverb says: "Every once in a while, someone comes along, and your life is never ever the same." This is what happened to me about a year ago. As is with my life these days, I met this person online, through his mother's blogs, tweets, photos, and convos. And this person has become my hero, the epitome of the kind of heroes I want to write about in my books.

My hero's three years old. For half his life, he's been battling cancer with the courage of a lion, the acceptance of a Buddhist monk, the grace of a swimming swan (he adores ducks), and a smile that makes you tumble into love with him at first sight. Through all the invasive surgeries, anguish-causing drugs, and indignities that go hand-in-hand with hospital stays, his smile hasn't wavered and neither have his courtesy, manners, joie de vivre, and laissez-faire attitude.

He's kind and understanding of his exhausted mother, praises her and thanks her, and doesn't throw tantrums at the hospital staff who have to, by necessity, cause him pain. He's completely faithful to his gray, shaggy bunny, giving and receiving love with all his being. Every chance he gets, he's exercising his body and his mind, to climb higher, to learn more. He's the next generation's Greenie with a love of green spots in urban spaces. A quack, a caw, a patch of green grass, and trees with flowers, that's all he asks of this earth.

Every once in a rare while in your life, you get a glimpse of paradise, be it a place, a thing, or a person. My hero is he. My thoughts are frequently of him. Maybe some day, I'll meet him and tell him how much he's meant to me. But even if I don't meet him, it's OK; I'll never forget him. How can I? He's enriched my life forever.