AILSA CHANG, 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. And a note that today's story deals with the topic of sexual abuse.
It comes from Nora Durkin. In 2001, Durkin decided that she had to tell someone about a secret that she had been carrying for more than a decade. When she was a child, Durkin says, she was sexually abused by an adult. So she picked up the phone and called 311, the nonemergency number in many communities across the U.S.
NORA DURKIN: And I am anticipating that the person on the other end is going to have the most negative, underdeveloped response because that's what I was used to. So I'm anticipating a dead-end. So she picks up the phone. She says, 311, how can I help you? And I said, I'm calling because I want to report a crime that occurred when I was a child, and I don't know how to go about this, so I'm starting here. And her response right away was, oh, honey, that's horrible. Tell me what happened. And I went into the details, and it was so hard to go into the details.
She was just say - oh, my gosh. I can't believe that happened to you. This is so sad. Oh, this is terrible. And then I'm like, yeah, this is terrible. This was terrible. You're right. So it was like validation just pouring from the other end. And, again, that is not something that I was hearing from the people in my life. I said, so what do I do? And she said, well, you got to file a report, so that's the next step.
If she could hear me now, I would thank her for believing me. And that kid inside me that was so traumatized and so scared - it was, like, heard that day and nurtured and, like, squeezed with love. And I have held onto her in my memory for over 20 years. And I am eternally grateful for just this gift that she gave me that day.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CHANG: Nora Durkin of Oak Park, Ill.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, you can receive free confidential support by calling the National Sexual Assault hotline at 800-656-HOPE.
You can find more stories of unsung heroes at Hiddenbrain.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.