In my eyes Randy Burns was a hero. He fought battles in the hospital and in the Navy. After he served for the navy during the Vietnam War, he faced many challenges in his later years. Still young to be having so many problems. He had two children and four grandchildren, me being one of the grandchildren. First, he was an electrician in his very early years. The main reason my grandfather is my hero is because he was the kindest person ever met because through all of his struggles he had never once lost his temper with one of his loved ones

Randy Burns first survived an open heart surgery, I was very young but I still remember going to the hospital every weekend to visit. It was a miracle he survived the odds he would live through the surgery were little to none. When he got the open heart surgery he was only 61. But, that wasn’t the only medical problem he would face throughout his lifetime. So like 2 years after the open heart surgery when he was 63 he had a spinal stroke-it is very rare but it can be a complication with the aneurism he had. He was outside and all of the sudden couldn’t move and the ambulance had to come. Once taken to the hospital he was already paralyzed from his mid waist down. This affected his hands and arms as well he would never be the same.

Facing these issues changed his life, every morning he had multiple nurses come. The struggles he faced just like normal everyday things. He had a lift to get him in and out of the bed into his wheelchair. My grandmother's whole house had to be handicapped. Although he tried to live a fairly normal life going out to dinner and he even once went to Disney with his whole family including myself. Disney was the farthest he ever traveled after the injury.

On November 17, 2016 my hero died. That’s almost one year now and he is still my hero although he is gone. In fact, he will always be my hero because I will never forget him. My little cousin may but I hope I can remind them of how great of a man he was. In the hospital he was very loopy and out of it because of the medication he was on. He would fall asleep and then be awake 15 minutes later. The last thing he ever whispered to me was that he loved me and he wasn’t able to even say this in a normal voice because of how hard it was for him to breathe. He was an amazing person and a hero in my eyes and the eye of others, not only was he in the Navy but he was a survivor and a fighter till the end.