"She was living in a small college town at the time and taken to a nearby hospital, where staff attended to her and took away her shoes to prevent her from fleeing. They eventually left her unattended and after a few hours, Stacia decided to leave. Without telling anyone, she slipped away undetected. Shoeless, she walked until she reached a nearby road, where she stuck out her thumb for a ride."
""I was very obviously lost," Stacia remembered. "Not lost in the sense of, 'I didn't know where I was,' but lost in the sense that I had no direction or purpose and I had just gone through a traumatic experience." That's when her unsung hero appeared. A woman in a convertible slowed to a stop in front of her. Stacia noticed that the backseat was filled with canvases, which suggested the woman was an artist a detail that put Stacia at ease."
In 1978, a 21-year-old woman named Stacia struggled with severe depression and attempted suicide. Hospital staff removed her shoes and later left her unattended, so she slipped away and walked shoeless to a nearby road. She stuck out her thumb and an artist in a convertible stopped, her backseat filled with canvases. The woman asked, "Where do you want to go?" with no judgment or expectations. Stacia felt immediate relief, spoke about calming topics like nature, music and art, and rode with the woman for about 40 minutes before being dropped off. The woman's acceptance left a lasting impression nearly fifty years later.
Read at www.npr.org
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]