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.

My Unsung Hero story is from a doctor I heard over 30 years ago.

He's a unung hero because he rarely got any recognition for his huge heart and his

unselfish actions. You mean the world to me and I can't thank you enough.

Today's story comes from listener Ken Wilcox.

In January 1993, Ken had just started a new job in Washington, D.C.

And while it paid well and gave me some prestige,

it really was a miserable job.

My boss in New York was a real tyrant. Also at the same

time so many of my friends were either getting sick or were dying from AIDS. One particular morning in January

after all the holiday decorations had come down and it was bitterly cold, I had gone out to a business meeting, but before I had left I had gotten a call

for my boss who was angry about something and I also got a call from a friend who was really

telling me that he was dying from AIDS. So I was walking

Wisconsin Avenue back from my appointment and I was just really feeling miserable and I just didn't understand what the purpose of life was.

The sidewalks were very busy and I was in a hurry so I was walking on the outside curb of the sidewalk.

And as I was walking a city bus came along and it came so close to me

that it brush, I could feel it, brush my right arm of my coat.

And suddenly an idea came to me.

And that idea was that I could wait on the next bus

and just lean a little further out and that bus could take me out of all of my

misery. And just as I had that thought.

...