JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Time now for My Unsung Hero, our series from the team at the Hidden Brain podcast. My Unsung Hero tells the stories of people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else. Today, we hear from Kristi Reeves. In 2022, Reeves learned by email that her divorce had been finalized. It wasn't unexpected news, but it still hit hard. So she headed to the mountains for a hike. On the trail, she asked a couple coming down if she was almost to the top. The man told her that it was just a little farther.
KRISTI REEVES: But as he was speaking, I looked at his wife, and I said to her, your face does not match his message. And she looked at me and said, it's not just around the corner. It's a hard hike. And then she said, good for you for doing it alone. Those words undid me, and I started to cry. And I said to her, I just found out that my marriage of 33 years was finalized today, and I needed a bigger perspective, so I want to get to the top.
She looked at me and she said something I will never forget. She said, do you need a hug? And then I said something that I did not expect, which was, yes. So she walked over to me and hugged me in the middle of that mountain for at least 30 seconds while her husband stood looking on with tears in his eyes. I think she had to pull me off of her. But she looked me in the eyes and she said, you keep going. You get up that mountain. You can do this.
And I was different. I felt stronger. I felt more capable. I felt like I could do it. I will never forget her kindness and her willingness to be vulnerable and ask a perfect stranger if I needed a hug. I will never forget it, and they will forever be an unsung hero in my life.
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REEVES: If they were standing in front of me today, I would say I made it.
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REEVES: I sat up there. I could see that life was so much bigger than this one experience. Thank you for your love and your generosity, and I promise to give it to as many people as I can to pay that forward.
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SUMMERS: Kristi Reeves lives in Provo, Utah. She later learned that her unsung heroes were Elysa and Topher Calder (ph), also of Provo. You can find more stories of unsung heroes and learn how to submit your own at hiddenbrain.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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