From Hidden Brain Media, I'm Shankarvedantam. This is my unsung hero, stories where one person reached

out to help another in a time of need.

I would like to thank my unsung hero.

I do not know her.

He just pulled up a chair and we talked.

I'd say for about. I can't even express to you how much you've changed my life.

Today's story comes from Stephanie Cole. When Stephanie was a teenager, she got her very first job.

It was around the winter holidays at a department store in Los Angeles.

There I was in my black skirt, my white blouse,

and ready to go the first day.

And I had been trained but very, very quickly.

And as it's true in a department store during Christmas, it was just bustling.

You know how it is at Christmas when everybody's out shopping and everybody's in a hurry and all these people around this woman comes up to me with

I think a Christmas tree ornament she wanted to buy and I freeze. I just freeze.

All of a sudden, I can't remember anything.

I can't remember how to run the cash register.

I can't remember anything about the transactions.

I am just absolutely frozen and probably very close to tears. Just, I so wanted this to go right and it was going so wrong.

She looked at me and paused and with such a kind expression on her face

said, it's all right, take your time, I'm not in a hurry. And that was the release.

All of a sudden I could breathe, I could wait till somebody else could help me, it was

going to be okay. She looked me straight in the eye and she just exuded compassion. It made such an impression that all these

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