The Story

My hero has wisdom beyond her years. I can think of nobody better to write about. The point of this project is to do something special to honor our heroes, but this story has an equal chance of being important to others. In writing about my hero, I only hope I can make this story feel as real as it did when she told it to me.

Diane Leusky has a passion for gardening. Every leaf on every tree in her yard is always green when I pass by her house. She lives in my neighborhood, and so I know her very well. There is an aura around her that makes her seem ageless, and thus, timeless, and I did not know that she was sixty-eight until recently. She was born in Coatsville, Pennsylvania, in the year 1944. Her hair and eyes are both brown. Mrs. Leusky is currently married and has a few cats. An average person you say? No, Mrs. Leusky stands out among millions of others for what she’s done to help others.

Paulina, a girl with a family from Mexico born in the United States, was and is today an exceedingly bright girl. She is about eleven, around my age. The only trouble Paulina ever had in school was due to the fact that she had a hard time learning more about our native language, English. Around the time Paulina was in third or fourth grade, Mrs. Leusky joined the Blue Ribbon mentors, a program designed to see that children got help with life skills. Little did Mrs. Leusky know that she would be much, much more than just a mentor to Paulina. I had the opportunity to meet Paulina and she was very kind and had good manners. We were able to spend the day together. We baked, ice skated, painted in water color, gardened, and made jewelry from scratch-string and beads! Imagine my surprise when Mrs. Leusky told me that I had inspired Paulina’s desire to play the piano! I’m dismayed to admit that I didn’t really understand how much she enjoyed all of the activities until she wrote me a beautiful thank-you note. I was so excited when I saw that she barely misspelled a single word!

I think I should start with something that links Paulina and Mrs. Leusky. Like courage, self-control, and overcoming fear. Paulina was afraid of dogs when I first met her, and she’s really gotten brave since then. It was about three months after that I learned she had a little difficulty learning to swim.

Mrs. Leusky had been afraid of water for over thirty years when she learned that Paulina was in the same boat. It started when she went camping with an old friend. They headed out for a seaside cliff miles out in the countryside. Her friend had planned for them to jump off the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. Gray rocks formed an incomplete circle around the sand and when they jumped off, they hovered for a moment, then safely fell into the lukewarm water below. The experience was so thrilling that Mrs. Leusky and her friend entertained themselves for hours by throwing themselves off the rocks and landing in clouds of white, bubbly sea froth. However, on one of their last jumps, something went terribly wrong. Mrs. Leusky couldn’t find the rocks she had jumped off only minutes ago. It was getting dark and the water got colder. She tried to swim back toward the rocks, but the undertow current snatched her and dragged her down under the blue waves.

 Mrs. Leusky stayed calm and tried to find the surface. There it was, bright and wavy, reflecting the sun. And whoosh! She was sent tumbling helplessly beneath the waves. Her conscious body fell through the water like it was thin air, dizzy and lacking oxygen. Bright white light, black rocks, and crystal clear water hurtled through her vision like a bullet. Mrs. Leusky couldn’t breathe! In a blind panic, she thrashed among the waves and sandy bottom, fighting for air. She began to tire. Slowly her efforts grew weaker and weaker until all she could do was float beneath the treacherous waves. A blackness began to take over her, easing her mind with its bittersweet promise of rest. And then her arms were wrapped limply around someone’s neck. Mrs. Leusky gasped for air as she was pulled from those dark clutches of eternal night and into the bright world by none other than her friend. Luckily her friend was training to be a lifeguard and remembered how to save a life.

Years later, long after she had given up any hope of ever conquering her fear of drowning, Mrs. Leusky was faced with Paulina’s fear. For the sake of another, she bravely swallowed her fear and helped teach Paulina how to swim. Following Mrs. Leusky’s example, Paulina found the courage to learn how to swim. She did very well when my mom, Mrs. Leusky, and I went with her to a pool during the last week that local pools were open. We coaxed her to go off the big water slide with me twice!

I don’t know if this story will have a happy ending, but I’ve done my part to make it so. My hero is wise, kind, and brave and she leads a perfectly humble life. Mrs. Leusky has impacted my life in so many ways! It’s hard to use words to explain how. But if I had to explain, I would say that she’s probably the closest person I know to being perfect. I admire how much she’s sacrificed to help others and still be kind to those who don’t really need any help. I hope that one day I will grow up to be a good person like Mrs. Leusky.