This story is part of the My Unsung Hero series, from the Hidden Brain team. It features stories of people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else.
In 1999, when she was 23, Roxanne Olson left her home in Eureka, California to pursue a dream job, as a assistant producer on a cross-country reggae tour. But partway through the tour, she got some terrible news — her father had died of a sudden heart attack.
“I was young enough to not even understand that death was part of my world. And so it was a crazy shock,” Olson remembered.
Olson was able to get a plane ticket home, but when she arrived at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, things went awry. Someone had ran through security with a bag, forcing the shutdown of part of the airport.
“It turned out it was over 6,000 people evacuated from the O’Hare airport that day,” Olson said.
She remembers standing on the sidewalk, surrounded by thousands of strangers as helicopters flew overhead.
“It was the most crazy, surreal thing to be happening on this day that my dad [had died],” she said.
After hours of waiting, Olson and the other travelers were allowed back in. But the airport was in complete chaos.
“I didn’t know where to go, who to call, what to do. And it kind of felt like everybody was busy just running around,” Olson said.
As she stood there, feeling more and more overwhelmed, a woman approached her, pushing an empty wheelchair.
“And she walks up to me and she says, ‘I’m here to help people like you,'” Olson said.
Relieved, Olson got in the wheelchair. As the woman navigated them through the airport, Olson told her about her father’s death, and her attempts to return back home to California.
“And she just seemed to understand my problem — she talked to whoever the right people were, and she got me on the very first flight out.”
Olson made it home that day. She says she’ll never forget the woman who made it possible.
“There was something about me that she just saw that I was broken and needed help. And she saved me.”
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
Transcript:
ARI SHAPIRO, 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. Today’s story comes from Roxanne Olson. In 1999, when Olson was 23, she left her home in Eureka, Calif., for a job on a cross-country music tour. Then her father died of a sudden heart attack. Olson rushed to Chicago’s O’Hare airport, where a security threat delayed her trip home.
ROXANNE OLSON: Somebody ran through security with a bag, and they had to shut down the whole section of the airport and evacuate us. It turned out it was over 6,000 people. And we’re all standing out there on the street, and I just remember helicopters overhead. And we stood out there for hours. You know, it felt like the most crazy, surreal thing to be happening on this day – that my dad is dead, and I’m standing out there in Chicago.
When they finally let us back into the airport, I didn’t know, you know, where to go, who to call, what to do, and it kind of felt like everybody was busy just running around. And I was standing there in the midst of all this chaos when this woman comes up to me. And she’s pushing a wheelchair, an empty wheelchair. And she walks up to me, and she says, I’m here to help people like you. And she had a name tag. And it was something like Angela or Angelina, but all I remember is thinking it said Angel.
And she navigated me out of all of that chaos and through some back area of the airport. And I told her my story. I told her about how I was trying to get to Eureka, and my dad was dead. And she just seemed to understand my problem. And she talked to whoever the right people were, and she got me on the very first flight out.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
OLSON: And that was the – you know, that was it. I made it. I made it home that day. You know, there was something about me that she just saw, that I was broken and needed help. And she saved me. And I know that if she helped me that day, she probably helped a lot of different other people too.
SHAPIRO: Roxanne Olson lives in Santa Cruz, Calif. And you can find more stories like this on the “My Unsung Hero” podcast.
