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.
Recently, Lavonne Schaafsma was in downtown Chicago, visiting from Michigan. She spent a few hours in Millennium Park, people-watching. On the way back to her car, as she reached for her keys, she realized her purse was missing. She started to panic. Her purse held her ID, credit cards, medications and hundreds of dollars in cash.
"I started to feel anxiety, first in my legs, then in my gut and then right on top of my chest," Schaafsma said. "I couldn't think straight."
Schaafsma retraced her steps. After about an hour, she stopped in front of a Millennium Park gift shop.
"And I don't know why, but I decided to walk in and just see if maybe someone had turned in my purse," Schaafsma said.
She went up to the cashier and asked if anyone had brought in a black purse. The woman's eyes widened; she said someone had.
"At that moment, all of the tears and sobs came out," Schaafsma said. "All of my anxiety came out. And she said, 'Wow, do I have a story for you.'"
The cashier said that about half an hour earlier, two women had come into the gift shop with a black purse, shaken by what they'd experienced. They had spotted the purse on a park bench near the store, but they noticed a man rifling through it — and immediately became suspicious. They walked up to the man and asked if it was his. He mumbled that his wife had lost it.
"And they just didn't believe him," the cashier told Schaafsma. "So, they actually pretended that it was theirs and they wrestled it out of his hands."
Purse in hand, the women hurried to the gift shop and went inside. They waited for about half an hour to see if the owner would return, but when no one appeared, they left the purse with a security guard. Five minutes later, Schaafsma walked in.
Their gesture was a small moment of awareness — and a decision to act.
"These women who I don't know saved me hours and hours of work canceling credit cards. They rescued me from massive anxiety," Schaafsma said.
"I never got to thank them for their courage and noticing something was off and intervening on behalf of a stranger who wasn't even present."
Today, Schaafsma often asks herself how she would have acted in that situation. Would she have noticed something wasn't right and stepped up to help?
"What act of kindness am I willing to do on behalf of someone I don't know?"
"So, if they happen to hear this story, I just want to say, 'Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.'"
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.
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