I know a man at my Church who was crippled saving a man's life in Vietnam. He is always friendly, always smiles, always bears up under his misfortune and I never forget to shake his hand.

I had a Maths teacher who needed leg braces to walk. According to a counsellour I talked to, he'd had a rock-climbing accident, and had only recently learned to walk again. He took it all quietly, according to her, and I'd never heard him even mention anything about it.

An acquaintance of mine at school is a great example of this. His parents are heroin addicts who gave him up when he was a baby. He was adopted by a family that abused him badly until they were turned in to social services when he was in the fifth grade. The abuse resulted in him becoming very Bipolar. He then spent the rest of his life until this point (he's eighteen) in group homes, because no one wants to adopt or even be a foster parent to a kid when they older than ten and Bipolar. Despite all of the suffering he's gone through, he is a very pleasant and funny guy, unless he's in one of his negative mood swings, and even then he never does anything worse than punching an inanimate object.

This troper's best friend at school has Asperger's Syndrome, Bipolar Disorder, OCD and God knows what else. She had leukemia as a child, was in a myriad of accidents that could have been fatal and is slowly going deaf and blind. She also has a genetic skin disorder that resembles eczema- and it's all over most of her skin. Despite this, she is one of the most cheerful, happy people I know and I'm honoured to be her friend.

The man this troper loves definitely qualifies: Mistreated and raped as a child, his dreams systematically ruined by the people he trusted, betrayed by pretty much most of the people he has met, raped and almost killed by a serial, right now NEET because of external circumstances... And still cheerful, random, with a tremendous artistic streak, and impossibly kind, gentle and generous, and with an overarching imagination. He admires this troper because he says the troper is very smart, cunning and kind. This troper just blushes and lowers his head in shame, because he doesn't think he has his lover's sheer willpower and unshakeable faith in the good of people. No wonder this troper has fallen head over heels like a meteor for the man.

I have an acquaintance, affectionately dubbed "Hat", whom I speak with every morning. He has a rather nasty affliction where in he's in a state of perpetual bleed-out that is managed with plasma-torch cauterizations and jumbo-transfusions. There've been several complications with his returns home from medical care ranging from discovering that a scalpel the staff had accidentally left in him had been prodding his heart to chasing his pet into the woods and subsequently being attacked by wild dogs, in addition to the occasional stroke. Throughout all of this, he still manages to draw rather cute doodles, exchange bad puns with me over my morning coffee, and wait-up to speak to the light of his life, a woman he calls "Alice". Despite all that he has against him, he asserts that Alice won't allow him to die and often makes half-hearted jokes about his situation. Admittedly, I kind of love this guy though I can only show it by mailing him the occasional package of baked-goods.

My mother ''is'' this trope. She's dealt with the death of two brothers - one only a few months old - both parents, numerous friends and family, my dad's cancer and eventual death, anorexia, severe depression and panic attacks, poverty, a mentally ill father who walked out on the family and left my gran to bring up the kids alone, divorce, and the suicide attempts of one of her children, and yet she's one of the kindest, bravest and strongest people I know, does everything she can to try and make her colleagues' lives better, and although she gets down sometimes - who wouldn't? - she manages to be philosophical about it all and never acts like the world owes her a living, or that HumansAreBastards. She is one of the reasons why I still have some faith in humanity.

This troper's grandmother. She was in a concentration camp during WWII for most of her childhood, came with her family to America and was dirt-poor, failed college, not because she wasn't smart but because she still wasn't that good at English. Her husband died of cancer sixteen years ago. She's caught up in an inheritance war with her siblings and cousins, most of whom spent their lives judging her. All three of her children (this troper's mother and both her uncles) have rejected her as part of the family, except one daughter-in-law who always tries to boss her around just because she's old. All but two of her grandchildren pretty much disregard/ignore her, even though gives us EVERYTHING we could ever want (she is trying to spend all her money on us to keep the rest of the family from getting it when she dies) and most of this troper's cousins are all ungrateful little shits. This troper's grandma lives entirely alone, without even a pet to keep her company, all alone in a huge old house. She never complains about any of this. On a happier note, though, this troper's college is literally right next door from her grandmother's house, so she plans to live there and will DEFINITELY give her grandma the company, attention, gratitude, and love she deserves. ;w;