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.

Hi, Shankar. My unsung hero is a Frenchman.

She had given me exactly what I needed in that time.

I was fortunate enough to survive with the help of this man, this doctor,

who went out of his way to help save my life.

Today's story comes from Eleanor Heganbotham.

It was New Year's Eve of 2022 and her first one alone.

Eleanor's husband of 62 years, Erland, had died in June.

That afternoon, she went to the post office to drop off some holiday cards.

When she returned to her car, it wouldn't start.

She thought of calling roadside assistance, but then realized it would probably

take a long time for help to arrive on a holiday. So she went back to the post office and asked

the people inside if anyone could help jump her car. Right away, a woman volunteered and came

outside with her friend. And they were working and working and working and nothing.

It was totally dead.

So then another car pulled in, actually a man,

and he went into the post office,

and when he came out, he saw that we were standing around,

perplexed, you know, working on it.

And he said, oh, I can help. So he tried and he couldn't help either.

And when another couple of cars came and finally we had four cars in the parking lot, all of them

...