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Thomas Langford

Plano, Texas

Nine-year-old Thomas is a third-grader at Weatherford Elementary in Plano. He's played soccer, basketball and baseball for six years, and claims the Dallas Stars, Mavericks and Cowboys and the Texas Aggies as his favorite teams. He also duels with "Yu-Gi-Oh" cards and loves video games.

tony gallucci, 30 November 2002

Signs of Courage

My big sister has the greatest courage. She has seizures that try to ruin her life. All of her life she has had seizures every day . When it happens, she laughs, looks scared, and then goes very stiff. It happens for a long time, and when it is over, she still doesn't know where she is or what she is doing. After she takes a long nap, then she is back to normal again.

Even though she lives near us, she has her own apartment. She goes to school, and takes care of her pets. She has had to make many changes in her life because of her seizures. She cannot drive, and she spends a lot of time with our family. She cannot take showers by herself, and she does not use cooking knives when she is by herself. Except for that, she goes to school and has her own apartment, and tries very hard to be a regular person. When she is having a seizure, I help her, and make sure that she is safe.

She is just one person, and most people don't know her. I think that most people know someone like her though. She has huge problems, and she keeps having a regular life. That is a big sign of courage from her. When I see what she can do, it makes me more brave. I think that other people are more courageous when they see someone with problems being more courageous.

The best sign of courage is when someone has huge problems and overcomes them. It is a sign of courage to face your problems.

Victoria Langford

Plano, Texas

Victoria enjoys writing (the evidence of which is obvious below), and acting out scripts. She's another Langford soccer player with six years of playing time under her belt. Victoria is a 10 year old fifth-grader at Plano's Weatherford Elementary.

tony gallucci, 30 November 2002

Signs of Courage

It was early afternoon, around four o'clock on a Tuesday. Looking around the living room, I remembered that Easter was barely past. There were boxes of Easter bunnies and decorations still piled on the living room table. My older sister started to yell and tell me to hurry downstairs that a tornado was coming. Thomas and I got very scared and did everything she told us. When my mom got home with my two other sisters, we had blankets and flashlights and batteries and pillows ready to take to the basement. My mom talked about hail and took us downstairs. Two tornadoes came, and we stayed in the dark basement for a long time. When the wind got loudest, my mom prayed the Our Father very loudly. We prayed with her because we were so scared. We knew that she was praying to help us not hear the storm.

When the storm ended we found out that we were safe, even though our home had been ruined. For several weeks, we did not have electricity or water or phones. In a lot of ways it was a fun way to play, but then it was hard to be cold and wet all of the time. Nice people would bring sandwiches and cold drinks. They brought a lot of coffee to my mom and our neighbors. Everyday she would cut wood from all of the trees that fell on our house. One day a nice group of men came with electric saws and cut all of the trees from our home.

Every night we would cook dinner on the barbeque pit, since we did not have power. Sometimes my mom would drive to a different part of town and call her clients. Every day the police kept helicopters flying over our neighborhood to keep us safe. One day newspaper reporters came to talk to us, and my sister was on the front page with all of the tornado damage. All day the police would keep roadblocks up to protect us, and at night they would walk through the neighborhood with bright lights to keep us safe. Those were the only lights we had, after my mom blew out the candles, and the fireplace went out.

Almost a month after the storm, we still didn't have power or telephones. My mom threw away almost all of our stuff because it was ruined. Then we packed up the leftovers and came back to Texas where she was from. She was so brave because she never let us know that she was scared. Now I know that it was just as scary for her. The police that protected us for so long were brave and stayed out in our neighborhood all night every night to protect us from criminals. My brother and sisters and I were brave because we went away from our home and our school and our best friends. We came to a new place, and we did not complain. The storm was terrible, and it made a lot of changes in our lives. We showed signs of courage in starting over. All of the time, something bad happens to someone, and they have to start over. The starting over is the greatest sign of courage.