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 is my therapist, Sarah.

I said, it's okay.

I still love you.

You're still my best friend.

So if she hears this, I just want to say, thank you.

Today's story comes from Mary Louise Kelly.

She's a co-host of NPR's All Things Considered.

One evening some time ago, Mary Louise was walking home from her favorite bookstore in downtown Washington, D.C. She was clutching three new books.

I read so much for work that I just love the rare pleasure of getting to read something

that's what I want to read. And so I had bought three books all for myself. And I was

walking out of the bookstore so happy, excited to wander home about a 15-minute walk back to my

house and crack one open. I get to, I think, the second corner. And I'm waiting for the traffic

light to change, and it's taking a little while before it gives me the walk sign. So I pull my phone out of my pocket, send my mom a text about something I'd been

meaning to tell her, send my husband a text to say, I'm walking home. I go to slide my phone back into

my pocket, and my wallet was gone. My wallet wallet which had been in the same pocket, tightly

zipped up, my wallet which contained my visa card, my American Express card, my driver's license,

a spare house key, my entire life. And I look around and think, oh, oh unpronounceable word that I shouldn't say on air.

Oh, no.

But the good news is I am only, I'm inside of two blocks from Kramer books where I have just used this wallet to pay for my purchases.

So it can't have gone far.

...