4 Answers

I nominate my wife.
Born in a third world country, raised in a one room shack on a busy street in the middle of a city, she left school before completing junior high school so that she could help her mother feed their large family. Married at 18 and soon pregnant, she threw her drunken husband out after he had stolen the money she had saved to pay for the birth of their son and went to work in a “sweat factory”. Then leaving the son with her mother, she went abroad to Singapore, Canada and later the US working as a nanny, housekeeper and later as a caregiver for the elderly. For 19 years she worked and lived with some very affluent families, and all her money went home to her family to support and to pay for schooling and college for her son, mother and many nieces and nephews.
We met, married soon after and she went home to meet her now adult son, his wife and two grandchildren. I met her there nearly a month later for a short honeymoon, but soon we had to return home for work. She built her son a very nice home with a room for her mother and living quarters for us when we visit. This past spring I sent her home for a month so she could bond with her new grandson. Nearly all her wages still go home as well as an average of 250 pounds of goods each month for their support.
Though I sometimes wish we could relax and enjoy my retirement, she is their hero.