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 Unsung Hero was my...

Max saw me, came over and asked how I was doing and if I needed help.

So whoever you are, thank you so much.

Today's story comes from Vivian Curran and took place about 15 years ago.

When I was a young mother with my three-year-old son who was wild from the get-go. He had no sense of

self-preservation or preservation for others or their belongings. So I didn't take him out in

public very often. But one day, I decided to take him to a public park.

And there we were sitting in the sandbox with another nice little girl and her mom sitting nearby.

And of course, my son picked up a big pile of sand and threw it straight at the other little girl.

I was horrified.

I leaned over to my son and said, Benjamin, what do you do now?

And he said, I helped clean her up, which he did.

And then I said, why do we not throw sand? And he said, because it could hurt other people and other people don't like it. And then I said, and what are you

going to say to your friend? And he said to her, I'm sorry, I won't throw sand at you again.

And in the few seconds that followed, I assumed the girl's mom was judging me.

Because that's what most moms did to me when I was out in public with my wild son.

This mom turned to me and said,

that was masterful.

That's it.

She said, that was masterful.

...