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.

I would like to thank my unsung hero. I do not know her name.

And all of a sudden I look up and this hand slides two warm chocolate chip cookies

across the desk.

To this day, it was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me.

Today's story comes from Sunita Kramer. One summer day some years ago,

Sunita signed up her then seven-year-old daughter

for a week of art camp at Rutgers University where Sunita works.

She was excited to have her daughter with her as they got to the train station for that

commute to campus.

We parked a car in the parking lot and walked to the train tracks.

Unfortunately, in New Jersey, especially at our train station, there's a large gap between the train and the platform and

something that I have to always think about when I step on the train to step

over this large gap and it was a really crowded day that day and there are some trains that go to New York that are express trains and others that stop at every stop.

And we needed the local train. And so I had to drag my daughter through the crowd to get onto the train and I think I was anxious I was wanting not to miss the train and be late and I pushed through the crowd took a lot longer than I thought and

Instead of patiently letting her get on the train first. I stepped on the train first and pulled her behind me and as she was stepping over the platform she tripped and fell into the gap. And it's something that I have a lot of

difficulty talking about because my whole life flashed in front of my eyes because my daughter is

so important to me. Thankfully she didn't actually fall completely into the gap

because there was a stranger that was standing

there on that crowded platform and in an instant as she was falling into the gap, just as the doors were closing, grabbed her hand and

shoved her into the train, and a second later, we were both lying on the floor in the vestibule of the train because they

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