< They had 3 suitcases and faced 5 flights of stairs. That's when a stranger appeared

April 8, 20248:59 AM ET

They had 3 suitcases and faced 5 flights of stairs. That's when a stranger appeared

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ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Time now for "My Unsung Hero," our series from the team at Hidden Brain. "My Unsung Hero" tells the stories of people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else. Today's story comes from Alice Claus. In June of 2021, she and her sister flew to Budapest for their uncle's funeral. It was a long journey with multiple layovers. COVID-19 travel restrictions were just beginning to ease, and they weren't sure whether they would even be allowed into the country. When they finally arrived, they were tired and stressed. They got into a taxi with three big suitcases and headed to their rented apartment.

ALICE CLAUS: And we get to the apartment, and no check-in instructions have arrived. The owner is not available. And the phone number is not valid. And when we tried to call the helpline for the app, it had such a high volume that you could only chat with a bot. And then we quickly realized that we were so tired, there was no way we could wait for assistance. So I decided to try to find an apartment nearby. And the third one that I texted said, yes, my apartment is available. You can go and check in. Here's the code.

So we grab our suitcases, and we start rolling down the sidewalk. And we go about a block and go around a corner and look up at the five staircases that have to be climbed in order to get to the street where our apartment is, which is quite a bit higher than where we are. And we just wanted to cry. And just then, this young guy walked by with his girlfriend. He looked at us and said, do you ladies need help? And we definitely would have said no normally. And we looked at each other and said, yes. And he just grabbed our suitcases. And, you know, it took him several minutes to run up. And then he ran back down and grabbed the other suitcase and ran up. And we tried to pay him. We tried to thank him. And he just waved it off and said, no big deal; have a good day, and went on his way.

When we finally got into our apartment, we found out that it was on the fourth floor with no elevator. And the only way we had energy to walk up the stairs was because this nice young man had taken our suitcases up the big stairs for us. And we opened the door and just collapsed with exhaustion. That trip, that day was so stressful. The travel was so stressful. And this one young man just made such a difference in our day. And so our unsung hero is the athletic young man in Budapest, Hungary, in June of 2021.

SHAPIRO: Alice Claus lives in Bath, Ohio. You can find more stories like this on the "My Unsung Hero" podcast.

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