I have been blessed to have many heroes and sheroes in my life. These brave and gallant people have been a constant source of inspiration and motivation to me.

I recently was called on to say my goodbyes to one of the most important women in my life, my grandmother Tina Mack, who we affectionately referred to as Citty, the Arabic word for grandmother.

No, she was not really my grandmother but rather a step-grandmother. My real grandmother died at the young age of 38, when my mother was but a mere teenager and my grandfather, the late Eli S. Mack, Sr. remarried. For all practical purposes, Tina Mack was the only grandmother I've ever known and was as much a mother to my own mom as one could hope for.

No, she was not of Lebanese descent either, but she not only gracefully accepted the moniker "Citty" but the responsibilities of the role as well. She was a true inspiration in my life because she was a pioneer.

Though a relatively young woman in her late forties at the time of my grandfather's death, she never remarried, turning her efforts instead to the role of raising a biological daughter (Carol Pellerin), an adopted daughter (Judy Gustafson) and four step-children acquired in her marriage to my grandfather, Olga Renard, Eli Mack, Jr., Arthur Mack and my mom, Alice Aun.

Tina Mack was a gutsy but quiet and powerful leader of the women's movement far before it was fashionable to declare oneself as such. She led in the singular best way anyone could lead- by example!

She broke through business barriers in a time when no woman ever even considered taking such a risk. After all, in the fifties a woman's place was in the home. I'm not sure Citty ever even considered what she did to be a risk. It was more a matter of survival for a widow who had no wealth and huge financial responsibilities.

She ran my grandfather's jewelry store, Victory Jewelers before she sold it off to Lexington Jewelers. She then turned her attention to building a business of her own, opening one of the first kindergarten and day care centers in the midlands of South Carolina in 1957. She later expanded to other locations as well.

Literally thousands of South Carolina children have passed through the friendly walls of Tina's Kindergarten and Day Care Center over the years. She was an educator at heart, enjoying the process of teaching pre-school kids reading, writing and arithmetic, a novel move in those days for there were no such things as pre-school programs in South Carolina in the fifties.

Her prowess in business earned her "Woman of the Year" honors in 1981, but her heart was more devoted to teaching than the business side of the pre-school industry. She was always an educator at heart. In her dying moments, her daughter Carol tells me she was slipping in an out of consciousness, teaching her kindergarten kids math.

And even in death, Citty continues to instruct and tutor others as she donated her body to the Medical University of South Carolina for research so that others might benefit from her unselfish life.

The late Dr. James S. Liverman, another of my many heroes growing up in Lexington, SC, once told me "Boy, if you plant peas, you get peas." Tina Mack planted lots of peas. Her scores of off-spring and their prodigy coupled with the thousands of kids she taught in pre-school have gone on to become teachers, authors, writers, preachers, doctors, lawyers, medical professionals, politicians, businessmen and women, sales and management professionals, governmental workers as well as dozens of other professions.

If it's fair to measure one's success in life by the amount and the quality of the fruit that the tree has yielded, then Tina Mack was a legend before her time.

I memorialized her before hundreds of family and friends on what was to be her 96th birthday, May 17. As the heaven's tears moistened the soil outside the friendly confines of St. Stephen's Lutheran Church in Lexington, SC, those of us who gathered on the inside were warmed by the reflections of a gentle giant in business and education. She was a true shero and I will miss her so!