A poem to a hero
(Editor’s note: Islander Joe Hernandez was an Urban Search and Rescue Medic who responded to New York City after 9-11.)
To the editor:
I posted this on LinkedIn recently. The poem attached was written by my daughter when I got back.
She now serves as the executive director for the Stepping Stone Shelter for Domestic Violence in Michigan City, Indiana:
Some heroes live to tell their tail,
some die before they even know why they made a sacrifice
some even go on to write books and songs
some leave behind a legacy of life.
I’ve heard many stories of path ones who have lived
and I’ve listened closely to the fairytales that won my five-year-old heart But nothing could compare to the images I witnessed, the pictures I saw in the eyes of my father’s heart when I saw him walk-through those doors of depth after that wretched day.
I saw the tear stream down and I saw his soul crying in a hole.
on September 11, Cinderella and Snow White no longer mattered.
It was my daddy that captured my soul. Someone who knew not what he was walking into when he did but that didn’t matter to him. It was just a call of the job it was a call of duty that he’d never forget nor forsake and a day that would live on forever and his brothers namesake. My daddy, my hero, the one I now share with the world.
To my daddy, my hero, love your little girl,
Kalah Jeanne Hernandez
Joe Hernandez
St. James City