This story comes from the My Unsung Hero series from the Hidden Brain team, which highlights people whose small acts of kindness made a lasting difference. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
In 1978, when she was 21, Stacia was living through a severe depression and survived a suicide attempt. She asked that only her middle name be used because she was sharing private details about her mental health.
After the attempt she was taken to a hospital in a small college town. Staff removed her shoes so she could not leave, but at one point when she was left alone she slipped out the door. Shoeless, she walked until she reached a road and stuck out her thumb.
A woman in a convertible pulled over. Stacia noticed canvases in the backseat and felt a little calmer, assuming the driver was an artist. The stranger asked a simple, nonjudgmental question that Stacia has remembered for nearly five decades: “Where do you want to go?”
That question — offered without pressure or expectation — eased her. She did not want to rehash what had just happened; she wanted to go home. She climbed into the car and the two of them talked about calming things: nature, music and art. After roughly 40 minutes the woman drove Stacia back to her home. Stacia never learned the stranger’s name and never saw her again, but she never forgot how that single act of compassion felt.
“That single generous act of compassion has stayed with me ever since and it shaped the life I went on to live,” Stacia reflected.
In the years that followed, Stacia pursued a career in human services, working with high-risk teens, people with disabilities and their families. She made it a practice to meet people where they were and to treat them without judgment — the same simple acceptance she had been given on that roadside.
She is candid about not being perfect over the decades, but she adopted that roadside moment as a guiding principle. “I’m not going to say that throughout 40 years I never made a judgment or jumped to a conclusion,” she said. “But I made it a tenet in my life that that’s not how I wanted to be treated and I don’t want to treat other people like that. And that’s the way I want to feel I can contribute in this world.”
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast with new episodes released every Tuesday. To share an unsung hero story with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to [email protected].