The Unstoppable Hero

by Brent Clevenger
Navan, County Meath, Ireland

My father is a truck driver and has been for over 30 years. He works 12+ hour days, weekends included, hauling scrap metals, toxic industrial residue, and other dangerous materials. Someone has to move these things, and I am glad it’s someone as reliable as my Dad.

One evening, my father brought my brother and me to collect our mother. We arrived at the local Eagles hall and were waiting in the truck when my father smelled something. He saw smoke coming from a house in the block behind us. He quickly drove around to the house. The smoke was apparent, and we saw fire when he opened the door and went inside. He came out with a woman and rushed back in for her children. He didn’t stop until all the children were out. When the firemen arrived, we went back to get my mother.

My father didn’t even mention it to Mom. We had to tell her what we had seen. My father said that nothing much had happened and not to worry. The next day, the story in the paper said that the people from the house were trying to identify my father to thank him. My father said they had more important things to be concerned with.

My father has a metal detector. He goes all over town to fields, bus stops, and parks — virtually everywhere to use it. He finds countless amounts of change, jewelry, and junk. The most valuable thing he ever found was a solid gold nursing pin, a badge given to nurses when they graduate. This one had an initial, a last name, and a date in the early 1920s. Dad did some research and learned that the rightful owner was now in a nursing home several hundred miles away.

The next Sunday, he drove to see her. She was overjoyed. The pin had been lost for over 50 years. The woman asked my father how much he wanted for the pin, and he refused any reward. But the woman became upset when he would accept nothing, so he compromised by accepting gas money for the trip. I am sure that he didn’t tell her how much the drive actually cost.

Any one of these events would make my dad a hero, but he never stops. I’ve learned from him that being a hero means doing whatever you can whenever you can. Since I moved away from home, my father has received a citation from the city for saving a man from a crash before his truck exploded. I can’t wait to hear what he does next.

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