JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Time now for "My Unsung Hero," our series from the team at the Hidden Brain podcast. "My Unsung Hero" tells the stories of people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else. Today's story comes from Patrick Furlong. When Furlong was around 13 years old, his parents got divorced, and his dad moved out of state. One day, when Furlong was a freshman in high school, he was getting ready for a formal school event that required a tie. But he realized he had no idea how to knot it, and there was no one at home who could show him.
PATRICK FURLONG: There were just these, like, tears of frustration that started to bubble up in my eyes, and I think they represented so much of the pain and hurt I was feeling in my life at that time. So I took the tie, and I think I shoved it in, like, a suit coat pocket. And as I was waiting to get into the event, I think a guidance counselor saw me, and he asked, you know, if I could come help him with something. And when we got out of earshot, he just asked me if I had my tie. And I'll never forget the loving, gentle smile he gave me as he tied it for me. And I think all he told me was, like, we're going to be OK. And we were.
Many, many years later, I'm living in LA with my family, and my son is preparing for his first Communion. And my son kind of calls for me in the bathroom and asks if I could come and help him tie his tie. And I'm starting to put the tie on, and as I look in the mirror, I just have this moment where I'm taken back to that bathroom, where I was in high school. I can see, like, the green wallpaper. I can see the lights that were above the mirror. It's like I'm back in that bathroom. And I'm realizing how powerful it is that I was so alone in that moment, that I didn't have a father to help me tie the tie and that all these years later, I'm getting to do that simple act for my child - that I'm getting to put the tie on him that my dad wasn't there to be able to put on for me.
And later that night, when I'm reflecting on that moment and I'm reflecting on the love of Mr. Archibeque, and I had this, like, vision, almost - this kind of prayer that felt really imaginative, where I was back in the bathroom with my son earlier in the day, and I'm standing in that same position, lovingly putting his tie on. And I could picture that, like, Mr. Archibeque was standing behind me...
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FURLONG: ...And that he had, like, his hand on my shoulder (crying). And I'm just looking into my kid's eyes, and then I'm glancing into Mr. Archibeque's eyes, who are just smiling at me in that same loving way and telling me, we're going to be all right.
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FURLONG: And it was just this really pivotal moment in my life, and I realized that I don't know that I ever got to thank him for that. So if you're out there, Mr. Archibeque, thank you. You have no idea what it meant.
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SUMMERS: Patrick Furlong lives in Los Angeles, California. He's now an educator himself at Loyola Marymount University. It's a career choice he says that was partly inspired by his unsung hero, Clyde Archibeque.
You can find more stories of unsung heroes and learn how to submit your own at hiddenbrain.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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