Don Delos

In modern society, many people don’t have a relatable hero. When we were children, there was always someone who we wanted to become. But we always had someone to look up to. Like we looked up to superheroes as the ultimate savior, then it was firefighters and policeman, now heroes are people like celebrities or athletes who do great charity work. Not to take anything away from these types of heroes, but my case is different. I am very blessed to know a man who is the gentlest of souls and most caring at heart, my grandfather, Donald Delos. Every time my family would travel down to Cape Cod, my grandpa’s one job would be to make his grandchildren laugh. He would do so by performing random magic tricks involving a magic hat, cards or coins. But, in earlier years he would show his support and lovingness by driving 3.5 hours to watch my football games. Also, he would always send me an email and ask how my game, he couldn’t make, went. And win or lose, he would always tell me he is proud of my achievements. This is a kind, gentle but firm man who is a hero and he has taught me many many things and if there were more people like him in this world, then it would be a much happier place.

My grandfather is 74 years old and has had an extraordinary life. It all started out when he was growing up in Amsterdam, New York with his loving parents Rose and Alfirth Delos and his one brother Alfirth Jr. When he was in high school, he met and fell in love with Mary Lou (my grandmother) in the tenth grade in which they have been together for 56 years. Due to the lack of jobs when he graduated high school in 1957 in which he decided to join the Navy and served on the Aircraft Carrier the USS Roosevelt for two years. In that time he visited places like Rome, Greece, Italy, Morocco, France, and Portugal. Furthermore, his life after the military was chocked full of achievements. Some of them are with his career as a special agent of Internal Revenue of Service Tax Fraud and Organized Crime in which his job was to prosecute tax evaders and people in organized crime. Another, was his 30 year career as a manager of electronic components for the company IBM in which he handled 20-30 million dollars worth of contracts. But, his most important accomplishment was December 30th of 1972 when he saved a human life. It was the life of his son, my Uncle Dave’s friend who fell through a frozen lake and was drowning. My grandfather heroically dove in and grabbed the boy by the leg and pulled him out and proceeded to give him mouth to mouth to save his life in which he did so. He was later given a Liberty Mutual Life Saver Metal by the IBM company.

Undoubtedly, my grandfather is overall a great human being. His values in life are to always be honest and to understand alternative points of views, to be firm but fair in dealing with people. His primary goal of life was to raise two wonderful sons with his wife and to live a happy and rewarding life. However, he has had some hardships too. One of them was losing his father at a young age and also not seeing his sons when he was travelling for work a lot. When I asked him over the phone what his hardships were in life, he paused in thought. Not because he didn’t have hardships, but because, “there’s a lot of things that can be hardships, but it’s the way you handle them that determines the outcome.” His words.

Pretty much every time I talk to my grandfather he gives me great advice on how to handle certain situations or tells me inspiring life lessons. And it is as a result of him being who he is, that I have grown as a man. He has taught me so many things that I myself will pass on to people because his wisdom and kindness should be in everyone. An example of his kindness is when I got a parking ticket one time and I didn’t want to tell my parents about it so he took the blame on his record and paid the ticket himself. After numerous thank yous, all he said to me was that I can thank him by doing something kind like that to my children or grandchildren one day.

This extraordinary man has lived such an amazing life. He has taught me to be the kind at heart with everything and to live a pleasant life full of happiness, laughter, friends, family, and joy. I will leave you with this last thing, when I was getting all this information from him, I asked him what makes a successful life. His words are to following. “To turn struggles into opportunities. To laugh a lot with your family and your partner and your friends, because if you can find humor then you can get through life easily.