Heroes are chosen for many different reasons. Too few of us pick people who truly show heroism, instead plumping for people we admire for their sporting prowess, intellect or artistry. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if you truly want heroism, someone not just being brave because they have to be, or as a side-effect of their own fight for life, or even through the love of a parent for a child, then you should look to Marian and Barbie Fisher:

One of the girls who died in Pennsylvania’s Amish schoolhouse massacre asked the killer to shoot her first in an apparent bid to save the younger girls, a woman who spoke to the victim’s family said Friday.

Rita Rhoads, a nurse-midwife who delivered 13-year-old Marian Fisher as well as another victim, said Fisher appealed to Charles Carl Roberts IV to shoot her first because she thought it might allow younger girls to survive.

Rhoads said she did not know whether Fisher in fact was shot first. Roberts shot 10 girls ages 6 to 13, killing five of them and then himself in Monday’s rampage. (Watch “shocked and sad” Amish express forgiveness — 2:46)

Fisher’s 11-year-old sister, Barbie, appealed to Roberts to shoot her next, Rhoads said. Barbie survived and was in Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia recovering from shoulder, hand and leg injuries.