The Oxford definition of a hero is a “person who is admired by many people for doing something brave or good,” and that’s a big box to check. But we’d like to include a few more adjectives to this description, such as selfless, humble, strong, nurturing, courageous, idealistic and empathetic, because doing so allows us to more properly name a group of heroes that have been forged in the fire of a global pandemic: Cullman County’s health care workers.

In today’s special section you’ll meet just a few of them — all of the special section newsprint in our warehouse couldn’t contain them all — health care workers ranging from paramedics to PRNs, from educators to emergency responders, eight people who perform acts of heroism with every shift, and who represent the hundreds who walk the line, our line, between life and death daily.

When the global pandemic struck, many of us had time to adjust to a new way of life. Not so for our health care workers. Facing immediate and unending surges, they had to jump into the deep and figure out not only how to keep themselves afloat, but the thousands of patients sinking before them.

Today, life is more normalized for us all and the pandemic, arguably, has made our heroes even stronger. Fire does that to iron. But the sacrifices remain: long hours, risk of exposure, missed holidays, vacations and life events with family — these are burdens that many of us will never know.

The special section in today’s newspaper is titled Community Heroes, and we couldn’t have come up with a better headline. This is what you are — all of you who care for us when we’re sick, who keep us healthy and who train a new generation to do the same.

Thank you.

Thank you for carrying our burdens, for giving of yourself, for being our heroes.