Hidden Brain - My Unsung Hero: Wendy McDowell's Story

Episode Date: January 15, 2022

It's 1979, and Wendy is eight years old, crying alone in an airport. Then she sees a woman in white walking towards her.In a few weeks we'll be running these episodes exclusively on the My Unsung Hero feed. Please don’t miss any of these wonderful stories —  subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

From Hidden Brain Media, I'm Shankar Vedanta. This is my unsung hero. Stories where one person reached out to help another in a time of need. My story is about a group of unsung heroes. He just pulled up a chair and we talked at the fair about 90 minutes. I don't know if she really understands or appreciates the full impact that she's had in my life and still continues to have. Today's story comes from Wendy McDowell. When Wendy was very young, her parents separated.

A few years later, when she was eight years old, they arranged for her to travel from upstate New York, where she was living with her mom, to North Dakota, to visit her dad. No one in Wendy's family was able to fly her back and forth, so it was decided that she would be shaperoned by a family friend, a 19-year-old she had never met. We're calling her Kim. Their flight out to North Dakota was uneventful. On their way back to the East Coast, Kim and Wendy landed in Chicago for a layover. They discovered that their connecting flight was cancelled. And that's when Kim made a choice that Wendy still struggles to

understand. She booked herself on another flight headed home and left Wendy to fend for herself. flight headed home and left Wendy to fan for herself. She left me in the Chicago O'Hare airport as an eight-year-old with no flight, no plan, no adult in charge of me just literally walked away. I really have no idea how long I cried by myself in the airport. I remember just feeling so desperate. That feeling that we've all had, that feeling of being a kid and looking around every single face is a stranger's face, and just how terrifying that is. So it was like that, but there was no one coming for me. I remember this woman walking over to me and she was wearing white. I remember she was wearing white.

And I think I remember her being slender and kind of tall and very, very comforting. Her presence was just immediately comforting and she made me think of a grandmother. And she came and she sat next to me and I just remember being immediately feeling a sense of safety because someone was with me. And she just really, really gently spoke to me and asked me where I was going and where was my mother. And she just very calmly asked my permission to kind of take charge. And she said, if you trust me, I will take care of you.

I have to fly to Pittsburgh, but I will fly to Burlington with you because you can't do this alone. And I'll need you to give your mother's phone number to me so that we can call her. and I just remember her checking in and saying, do you feel safe? Does this feel safe to you? And no one had ever checked in with me about my safety, how I felt, it was just a really amazing thing.

So I did give her my mother's phone number. And so she called my mother and told her that she was coming and my mother said, no, I'm coming there, I'm coming there, she didn't want me getting on a airplane with a stranger. And this woman convinced my mother that I would be safe with her. And I told my mother that I felt safe. And she indeed, she took care of me. The woman booked her a new ticket, walked her onto the plane, and sat next to her for the two and a half hour flight home.

Wendy was so focused on getting home that she can't remember where the woman went from there, or whether she even got to say goodbye. The older I've gotten, the more I've been thinking about her. Just knowing that she did all of that for a stranger, something that maybe didn't feel huge to her, just completely redirected my life because I don't think I have ever been treated as badly as I was by the person who left me. And it's a story that I've told my son

because I want him to know that people can choose to be beautiful and helpful and provide security and that people like this are out there, so I just appreciate it. More than words can really express. Wendy McDowell lives in Albany, New York. In the years after that experience, she was inspired to become a school psychologist, a job she's done now for more than 25 years. If you liked this episode, please be sure to head over right now and subscribe to the My

Unsung Hero Podcast. We've been running some of these episodes in the hidden brain feed, but we're going to be tapering this off soon. Please don't miss any of these wonderful stories. Head on over to my unsung hero right now and hit follow or subscribe. I'm Shankar Vidantam. See you soon. you