From Hidden Brain Media, I'm Shankar Vedantam. This is my unsung hero.

Hi Shankar. I would like to talk about my heroes.

Hey, I wanted to share my story about an unsung hero.

My unsung hero is the man in the Panama hat on the flight to Boston.

As the plane near touchdown, my dog...

And if I could see them today, I really wish I could thank them. I have a feeling that they have no idea how much they did for me.

Today's story comes from Terry Powers.

In 2018, just before Christmas, Terry lost her mom Doree. She was 72. A few days later, Terry went to the grocery store to pick up a few things.

And I was of course feeling lots of emotions, but there was this numbness that prevailed over everything just so I could get through

the day and take care of the tasks I needed to take care of. So I go to the check out and the cashier greets me with how are you and I just couldn to say fine or good and brush it off like that. I just felt I needed to say,

you know what, I'm not doing great. My mother just passed away. And she

responded, expressed her sympathy, and we finished up the transaction.

So I turned to get my bag to leave and the young man who had bag in my groceries

looked me right in the eye and said,

can I give you a hug? And so I said, yes, and we hugged and that was it just a hug but it wasn't just a hug this man

stood there and observed and listened and then reacted and gave the one thing that is the most beautiful expression of comfort and caring that you can give another person and

it was the most healing hug I think I've received in a long time and it made such a difference for me that day

and I think about him often and what a warm and giving an empathetic person he is and I want to tell him

thank you so so very much for making a difference for me that day with that one simple

powerful gesture. Thank you.

Thank you. Terry Powers of Fredericksburg, Virginia.

She tells us that one of the lessons her mom taught her

...