AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Time now for "My Unsung Hero," our series from the team at Hidden Brain. "My Unsung Hero" tells the stories of people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else. And today's story comes from Julia Weber. In 1989, Weber was 22 years old, fresh out of college and living in the San Francisco Bay Area. One afternoon, she was walking from her job in downtown San Francisco to a nearby bus stop.
JULIA WEBER: When, all of a sudden, the Earth started moving - the sidewalk below my feet was moving. And I thought immediately, am I hallucinating? Is this just happening to me? And then I very quickly realized it was an earthquake, as windows were popping out of the tall buildings above me, and glass was shattering all around me. So all of that fear was coming into my realization in that moment when this commuter and I locked eyes. She was in a trenchcoat, carrying a briefcase. And as the ground started moving, she took a step forward - this stranger - and put her arms around me, and I put my arms around her. And we just held each other while the horrors of the earthquake were happening all around us.
When the ground stopped moving, we separated, and she looked at me and said, are you OK? And I said, yes, are you OK? And she said yes. And then we continued on our walk to our respective places. I was walking to my bus stop. I made it home successfully. And when I got home, I realized what had happened, what I had been through, and immediately thought back to that moment where she grabbed me and I grabbed her - this complete stranger - and realized how significant it was that she held me and I held her through that terrifying few moments when everything changed and the ground literally shifted beneath our feet.
And I have thought about her over these many years and never saw her again and am awfully curious about whether she thinks of me because I certainly have deep gratitude and appreciation for her presence, for her warmth, for her kindness and for the connection we were able to make during that very, very frightening moment.
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CHANG: Julia Weber lives in San Francisco, Calif. You can find more stories like this at hiddenbrain.org.
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