‘You’re doing such a good job’: A stranger tells mom just what she needs to hear

This story is part of the My Unsung Hero series by the Hidden Brain team. It features stories of people whose kindness left a lasting impact on others.

In 2015, Emma Carlson Berne had just given birth to her third child. She loved her role as a mother, but she often felt consumed by it, as if her life would never return to normal.

One day, when her baby was about three months old, she decided that her entire family (her husband, her two young sons, and her newborn son) needed to get out of the house and go to a restaurant.

They got out of the car with a diaper bag, books for the children to read, a seat for the baby and snack bags ready. She was ready to nurse the baby again as soon as she stepped onto the sidewalk and Berne knew she had to go inside.

“I was already feeling pretty shaky,” he recalled. “So we all pile into the restaurant. We’re very messy, very noisy.”

Her baby was struggling under the blanket trying to breastfeed her and she was worried she was about to cry. Bern began to feel hopeless.

“I feel like I’m getting a little teary-eyed because even though we’re doing this, it’s really hard,” she said.

Soon his unnamed hero appears: an old woman who reminds Berne of his own mother.

“This woman came up to us… and stood there looking at us. And I was getting ready to say how cute the baby was,” Berne recalled. Instead the woman let them all in.

“‘What a beautiful family,’ he said.”

Then he looked at Berne’s two young children, ages 6 and 3, who were sitting quietly next to the table.

“And he said, ‘It’s not easy to sit at a desk for a long time,'” Berne said. The woman was seeing her older children in a way that few others did, as they were no longer in their infancy stage. “Nobody noticed them anymore.”

Then the woman returned to Bern.

And he said: “‘Look at you, Mom. You’re doing a great job.'” The woman then gave them one last smile and left.

Almost 10 years later, Berne is still touched by the woman’s thoughtfulness and remembers it often with friends and family. If he could talk to the woman now he would say:

“Thank you for seeing us all. And thank you for seeing us.” I. Ben is someone who is not seen very often in these early days and sometimes feels quite invisible. And I never forgot that.”

My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — New episodes are released every Tuesday. To share your unsung hero’s story with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to [email protected].

Copyright 2024 NPR