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.

I would like to thank my unsung hero.

I do not know her name.

And all of a sudden I look up and this hand slides two warm chocolate chip cookies across the desk.

To this day, it was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me.

Today's story comes from Barbara Alvarez.

A few months before her daughter went to college, Barbara's husband unexpectedly died.

She and her daughter had been estranged from him, but the loss was still incredibly painful.

When Barbara arrived with her daughter at her college campus for Move-in Day,

the realization that she was now a single parent hit hard.

And as we stood in line watching all these other kids waiting our turn

to use the elevator to move our boxes and bins,

I was watching how many students had moms and dads helping them.

And I was just overwhelmed wondering how I was going to navigate all this stuff with my daughter

when I had always pictured that it would be a mom and a dad helping her, and here I was by myself.

Something must have shown on my face because this young woman, Jody, for whatever reason, took notice of us.

And she introduced herself as the dorms hall minister.

She led my daughter and me to an elevator in another part of the dorm, more remote,

and helped us load our boxes and bins, took us upstairs, helped us unload, took it all into

the dorm room, and then even gave us the strength that we lacked to lift and loft the bed.

Jody kept coming back to check on us and I just appreciated that she took notice of us.

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