Hero Mama

When David Spears was killed in Vietnam in 1966, he left behind a wife with a 9th grade education and 3 small children. His wife, Shelby, didn’t know how to cope with her grief or help her children cope with theirs. After the funeral, they never spoke about their loss and Shelby turned to booze and other men for comfort. When she realized what it was doing to her children, she turned things around by getting her GED, LPN certification and finally her RN degree. Hero Mama is a moving tribute to her written by her middle child, Karen Spears Zacharias. It tells of the family’s struggles and triumphs. It moved me to tears more than once. The end of the book tells of the author’s journey to find out exactly what happened on the day her father was killed. While I understand her need to discover this, I found the details a little long.