From Hidden Brain Media, I'm Shankar Vedantam. This is my unsung hero, stories where one person reached

out to help another in a time of need.

Over the past few days we've been marking

Teacher Appreciation Week with stories about educators who made a powerful impact

on the lives of their students.

My unsung hero was a teacher's assistant named Max in the spring of...

He would refer me to books and stories and I really became an avid reader at that point of money. I still remember that day in the hallway of just my teacher being like I know

what's going on and you're going to be okay.

Our final episode is from Anika Khan, who has a story about her high school English teacher, Flossie Lewis.

I remember Flossie, I was 15 years old at Lowell High School. She was a very tough teacher,

but she walked up and down the aisle, she engaged students, she, you know, you go to class

and you know that you're going to get one-on-one interaction with her. And when she had to make a point, she would stand

up on a table or a desk, and she would make that point. And it was the highlight of my entire high school experience.

In 2016, 35 years after taking her class, Anica and Flossie reconnected.

When Flossie discovered that Anika had started writing a book,

but it set it aside, she encouraged Anika to finish it.

And she offered to become her editor.

The book was about Anika's mom who had just passed away.

Anika would mail Flossie pages of the book and Flossie would mail back her

comments written in the same tiny handwriting that Anika remembered from high school.

Anika felt comforted by Flossie's feedback.

So in 2022, when she started to write something new,

...