Vint Cerf and Bill Gates. Without them I wouldn't have a job or a job where I can browse the internet all day.
so cliche...but my dad immediately came to mind when i read the thread title. if i grow to be half the father he was/is to me....then i'll feel i really accomplished something.
My Dad. He is a perfect example of what a man should be. Always respects my mom and won't let anyone talk about her. Now that they are older he caters to her ever need. Came to this country with nothing 30 years ago and has worked at a Fortune 500 company, worked at the Premier Cancer Center in the US, and now owns his own business. Sponsored numerous family memebers to come to the US and taught them you need hard work to make it here. Always has an interest in what his children are doing When times were rough he went to school to study Nuclear Medicine and worked a crappy job at a convenience store to make sure we could keep going to Catholic school and so we would never notice that things had changed after he got laid off. Is sad when he has not heard from me or my sister in a few days. My dad is awesome. I would be happy if I end up as half the man he is.
My mother in-law and my sister. My mother in-law for giving the doctors a big "**** you" when they told her she had two weeks to live in 2000. My sister for being so strong after losing her baby a month before he was due two years ago. She's given birth to a beautiful baby boy (almost a year now) and is pregnant with another child. She could've given up that day due to the grief and her age (38), but she didn't. I love them both terribly.
My mom. She raised four kids on her own after my father died when I was 3. She was the strongest person I have ever known. Nelson Mandela. There is no other public political figure in my life time that is even close. Coming out of prison as an old man, to peacefully lead his country through what could have so easily been a blood bath as white minority rule became black majority rule in South Africa.
Honestly, I instantly thought of your mom and what you told me when we were in the car together when I heard the news that she had lost my nephew.
My parents, and this guy: Weldon "Juke Boy" Bonner. One of the greatest blues musicians ever to come out of Houston's Third Ward.
My Grandmother. She has been the rock for our family my entire life. I recently found out she left home at 13 with her 3 younger siblings and raised them all as if they were her own kids because of an abusive stepfather. She worked in a small bakery over off navigation and the owner let her and her brother and sisters live in a small one bedroom apartment up stairs. Then she raised my mom. She damn near raised me and my sisters, and at 75 she still watches my daugher after school everyday. She's so awesome and the only person I'd consider a hero.
