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.

Thank you so much for the chance to tell you about my unsung hero.

I just left there feeling like there was hope

for my situation and my kids.

I can never thank you enough for all you've done for me.

And I'll never be able to repay you.

Thank you.

Today's story comes from listener Ellen Wyoming Deloy.

About 15 years ago, Ellen was in graduate school in Portland, Oregon.

She regularly used the city's light rail system as part of her commute back and forth to her

classes. One night, she was one of just a few people on the train as she headed home.

And I remember when I got off at my exit, I was one of very few, if not the only person,

to get off at the station. The station bears noting in that it was a little bit of an enclosed

space and when you got off the platform, you would have to walk up a set of stairs to get to street level.

And so I was just walking and I noted no one else around me.

And as I'm ascending the steps, I get about halfway up.

And then the train, which usually just does a short ring to indicate that the train is about to depart the station, started to do a really violent, persistent, ongoing ring, like as if someone

were banging a doorbell 20 times in a row.

And it finally made me stop because it was so strange.

And I stopped and I turned and I looked.

And at about the same time, I saw two things.

...