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 story is about a group of unsung heroes.

He just pulled up a chair and we talked, I'd say for about 90 minutes.

I don't know if she really understands or appreciates the full impact that she's had in my life and still continues to have.

Today's story comes from Terry Hill.

When she was four years old, Terry and her two younger siblings, Julie and Mikey, were left in the car by themselves as their father ran into a donut shop.

This was 1968 when leaving children unattended for a short time was common.

What happened that day would become a story Terry has told and retold her entire life.

I was in the backseat. My sister was two. I was in the backseat.

My sister was two.

She was in the front seat.

And then my little brother, who was one year old, he was in the front seat as well, but he was crying.

So I said to him, play car car, Mikey, because I thought that might distract him.

So he had his hands on the steering wheel and he's moving them around playing car

because none of us were in car seats. That just wasn't a thing back then. So I guess moving the

steering wheel, he somehow hit the gear shift and put it into neutral and the car started rolling

backward just slowly at first down this incline toward a two-lane highway at the bottom.

So I see the cars whizzing back and forth and I tried to get us out by lunging over the bench

seat to open the door. It was a two-door car. And of course, the door was too heavy for me, a four-year-old. So I look back. I remember praying.

I look forward again. My dad is running out of the donut shop, but right in front of him is this

young guy, like late teens, early 20s. He runs to the car. He gets the door open. He scoots my brother over and he puts the

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