What is a hero?

Growing up my idea of a "Hero" was someone who I wanted to become.  Someone everyone admired for what they could do that most of the public could not.  My hero's growing up were Nolan Ryan, John Wayne and Steve Martin. They were what I aspired to become.  I had no idea really what they were like in person, if they were nice or kind in addition to being Hero's.
  When I was sixteen my parents offered to watch a fifteen year old Down Syndrome Boy whose mother worked for them at their office. We spent three hours watching him for her as she attended some meeting.  This boy was a Whirlwind!  My younger brother and I followed him around, telling him to be careful, don't touch, watch out!  It was exhausting!  I can't give a better word for how I felt that night.  I was so thankful when it was done.
  His mother was sixty five when she dropped him off at our door step.  We watched him for three hours. Three Hours!! I was exhausted and I was sixteen.  Now, at the tender age of fifty two, I can't even imagine how she did it or possibly still does it.  He was not that high functioning of a Chromosome 21 diseased person.  
  When she left I told my dad that she was a "Hero."  I don't think he completely understood what I was saying, but I knew. My dad's idea of a hero was Clyde Beatty the lion tamer or Doc Severinsen the trumpet player.  This woman was a "Hero."  She probably didn't think so, she probably thought she needed to get up the next day to take care of her son and do their routine for living. I can guarantee that she never thought of herself as a hero, only as a mother. My definition of a "Hero" has changed since I was a boy.  Now I believe it to be "a person willing to put the needs of others above their own." I wish I could remember her name.  His name was "Carl." Some "Heroes" are nameless, just like in Arlington Cemetery.