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 do not know the full name of my unsung hero. She came straight up to me, she looked me in the eyes and she smiled.

So whoever you are, thank you so much. Today's She came straight up to me. She looked me in the eyes and she smiled.

So whoever you are, thank you so much.

Today's story comes from Tulika Prasad.

Her son, Vedant, is nonverbal and autistic.

One day, in September 2016, Vedant was struggling.

He had just found out that his special needs school could no longer serve him.

A few days earlier, his speech therapist had also decided that she wasn't the right person to support him.

Needless to say, it was a difficult time for both mother and son. But life had to go on, so that afternoon, Tulika and Vedant went to the grocery store.

While we were out in the checkout lane, my son suddenly grabbed my hair. You know, if he grabs your hair, it's literally impossible to undo it. And he was putting my hair in all directions,

and I was wincing in pain and I could

literally feel all eyes on us as you would expect in a situation like this but there was this one

person this lady ahead of us in the checkout lane who turned around looked at us very gently and asked me if she could unload my car, just help me out a bit.

And I nodded. I was still struggling with my son. So finally, my son calmed down, left my hair and let me go.

I moved ahead to make the payment for my purchase.

And the cashier said that the lady who had unloaded my cart had also made the payment.

So I went and said, thank you.

And then I offered to pay her, but she firmly refused.

She said, I have a child with autism, I understand.

And then she offered me to walk me to my car.

I was kind of hesitant, but then I agreed something about that lady.

...