After 15 years, Megan Atherton reunites with her ‘Unsung Hero’

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.

Most of the people who share stories of unsung heroes for this series don’t have a chance to reunite with the people who helped them. But Megan Atherton recently had a chance to do so after a story about her unsung hero, Toni Cranston, aired on All Things Considered in late September.

In 2009, Atherton and her roommate had just been evicted from their home. They were planning to drive from Annapolis, Md., to Atherton’s hometown of Pittsburgh in hopes of finding a place to stay. But not long into the drive, their car broke down, and they didn’t have enough money to fix it. Toni Cranston was at the repair shop and overheard their predicament.

“She offered to take us to Pittsburgh. The only caveat was that her cat had diabetes, so she couldn’t leave just then. She had to go home and give them the medication that they needed in the night,” Atherton remembered.

Cranston took the two young women in. She bought them dinner and let them spend the night at her home. The next day, early in the morning, she drove them to Pittsburgh.

After that, Atherton and Cranston lost touch. But nearly 15 years later, Atherton still thought about everything Cranston had done for her. She couldn’t remember Cranston’s last name, but when Cranston’s niece heard Atherton’s story of her Unsung Hero, she reached out to her aunt.

“My niece kept saying there can’t be two Tonis in Ellicott City with a diabetic cat,” Cranston said.

Atherton’s unsung hero had been found. Years after the two women first met, the team at Hidden Brain got the women together in October to catch up via video call. Within the first few minutes of chatting, and with tears in her eyes, Atherton expressed just how much Cranston’s help made a difference in her life.

“There’s really no way to adequately convey my depth of gratitude for what you did for us. That was really like the inflection point of my life [and to] have that opportunity where I was just so incapable of picking myself up, you just came in and were just there,” Atherton said. “If there’s one thing I regret, it’s that I know I was so lost I know that I didn’t convey that [to you].”

Cranston repeatedly tried to downplay what she had done and instead focused on what Atherton had been going through at the time.

“When you’re going through something that difficult in your life, you can only see what’s directly in front of you. And I had nieces that were your age and all I could think about [was] ‘Oh my God, what would happen if those two were sitting on the curb with their cat, no place to walk to, nobody to come get them,'” Cranston said. “It kind of seemed like a no-brainer at the time to get these kids someplace safe where they can get help.

Cranston also complimented Atherton for how far she had come over the past 15 years.

“You’re the one that did all the hard work. You should be very proud of yourself [and] what you accomplished,” she said. “You had the strength to use what was there, not being embarrassed by it or upset by it, and work your way out of it. And that takes a lot of character.”

Atherton thanked Cranston for her kind words, then went on to say:

“Your nieces and the love that you have for them kind of got multiplied because you saw me and my friend [struggling], and that love for your family really gave you that strength you and that willingness to kind of spread [that love]. I think that’s such a virtuous cycle… your family and your family bonds actually make you stronger, even beyond your family into your community. And that’s just lovely.”

Cranston nodded in agreement.

“And that foundation of family and friends make [situations] like us meeting a no-brainer,” Cranston replied. “You know, there wasn’t really a whole lot of debate in my head of, ‘Should I do this?’ And that can be traced right back to how you were raised and your friends and your family. I bet there’s a lot of these kind of stories out there, we just need to find them.”

This was only a small excerpt from Atherton and Cranston’s conversation. A longer version will be released on the My Unsung Hero podcast.

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.