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.
Hello.
My unsung hero story is from a doctor I heard over 30 years ago.
He's an unsung hero because he rarely got any recognition for his huge heart and his unselfish actions.
You mean the world to me and I can't thank you enough.
Today's story comes from Justin horner.
In 2011, Justin was driving down a busy freeway in Portland, Oregon when his tire blew up.
He had a spare, but he needed a jack, so he made some big signs that said he needed help, put them in his car window, and waited on the side of the road for 3 hours.
No one stopped.
Then right around the time he was about to give up and try to hitchhike, a van pulled up and out.
Bounded, I guess what I would call my unsung heroes.
It was a migrant working family, agricultural family that was in Oregon picking fruit.
And they didn't speak any English, save for their youngest daughter who was probably like five or six.
She spoke a bit of English and they just immediately set about helping.
They came over, he unloaded his jack, and it was pretty obvious from the get go that the jack was going to be too small.
But the man was just like undeterred.
The man seemed to know exactly what to do next.
First, he went back to his van and returned with a saw.
Then he found a big log on the side of the road and cut a section out of it.