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 unsun hero is the kind stranger who helped me get to my grandfather's funeral.

And he just says, today you tomorrow me.

And I never...

Thank you very much for changing my life.

Today's story comes from a listener named Rebecca. We're not using her last name for

privacy reasons. In 2010, after eight years of living with a husband she says was abusing her, Rebecca realized she

needed to leave him, but didn't know how. So she called the crisis hotline and got connected

with a counselor named Nicole.

Nicole helped Rebecca accept what had happened to her marriage.

I knew something was wrong. I knew that my husband shouldn't be treating me the way he did and being physical and

violent with me but I didn't, you know, when you were being abused abused the abuser is so manipulative that they really

make you believe that it's your fault and she really helped me understand that what was happening to me was not okay, that the fact I wanted to leave him was the right thing to do.

And she let me know that no matter how afraid I was

and how dark things seemed,

that she was going to be there for me,

and she was going to walk with me through this process.

Rebecca and Nickel talked on and off over the next few months.

In the late spring of 2011, they met one last time.

And I had moved out and I was living on my own and

you know it was hard and and I just remember I was sitting on her worn brown leather couch that she

...