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.
One Monday morning in 2012, Lilah Clevey started her usual commute from her boyfriend’s house in Ann Arbor, Mich., to her college about an hour away. She walked out the door to a classic Midwestern winter scene — the cloudy sky casting a gray hue on the already gray-white snow covering her car.
After wiping off her windshield, Clevey got in her car and drove to a nearby gas station, where she fueled up, bought herself a cup of coffee, and set back off in the direction of the highway. But as she pulled out of the gas station, she slammed into another car.
“I completely T-boned it,” Clevey said. “The car was a silver gray, so I like to think it blended into the skyline. But I also know a lot of it was also me. I was not being careful about it. I was young, I felt invincible.”
Clevey blacked out for a few moments. When she came to, she got out of the car and started making her way to the car she hit, which was about 30 feet away.
“I was really freaked out because her entire driver's side was slammed in. This was immediately terrifying because I knew [the driver] was sitting there and that meant [she was] probably hurt.”
To her surprise and relief, the driver, a woman a bit older than Clevey, was standing next to the car. She looked completely unharmed. Clevey, who had already been crying, began to sob.
“I was 19 years old. This was such a scary thing that had happened, and I was the one who did it. I was very apologetic, but I was also just like a baby in that moment,” Clevey remembered. “And this woman, this angel, instead of yelling at me, thinking I was entitled, thinking I was reckless ... she held me, she mothered me in that moment, which I really needed.”
After her tears subsided, Clevey asked the driver if she was OK. When she responded that she was fine, Clevey could hardly believe it.
“Because how could I slam into her driver's side and her be OK?” Clevey said.
It turned out, the woman had a prosthetic arm made of metal, which protected her from the impact of the crash. Clevey left that interaction grateful and amazed.
“I don't really believe in God, but I've had a few experiences that have made me question this. Slamming my car into a woman that happened to have a bionic arm is definitely up there,” she said.
Since that accident, Clevey hasn’t interacted with the woman whose car she hit. But she thinks about her often.
“I learned a lot from her. People make mistakes and it can mean a lot more to them — and they can take a lot more from it — if you treat them kindly in that moment. And she didn't have to, but she did.”
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 [email protected].
Copyright 2024 NPR