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 an unsung 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 Mars Masumoto. Growing up, Moss was vaguely aware that his mother had a

sister who had been separated from the family in the the state. The family never talked about her and assumed she had passed away. But one day in

2012, Moss got a surprising message from a funeral home worker named Renee. She was caring for a woman in hospice, a woman in her

90s named Shizucco. So she looked up in the 1930 census, found a Shizakol's name with my mom's name, and proceeded to phone me

so Shizakol would not die alone.

It was amazing for Renee to go through all that work when she didn't have to because she got the contract for this

Shezako Sugimodo who had no family apparently on the records and they were just going to take care of the body and she would pass away in a you know in a very simple way but it was Renee who said no she wanted to see if family could be reunited with this person.

When I told my mom and my aunt and uncle I said okay I want you to sit down because I have this news.

And I said, you remember Aunt Shezaco?

And they all said, oh yeah, yeah, she passed away a long time ago.

And I took a deep breath, and said no shesicles alive and then

everyone said no that can't be that can't be right and then I told him the story of what happened and they all paused and said we need to see her. We need to go see her.

Renee opened the door to a family secret and especially dealing with someone with a disability and in this case

intellectual disability.

For my parents generation and grandparents,

this was a secret that people had and it brought shame to a lot of people

and people were treated wrongly by becoming invisible and hiding these kind of facts.

...