In the early 1990s, Holly Deiaco-Smith boarded a plane at JFK airport in New York City. She was 19 years old and feeling excited about her plan to spend a year studying abroad in Nancy, a city in northeast France.
Within a few weeks of arriving in France, though, her excitement morphed into an overwhelming sense of isolation and loneliness. Navigating day-to-day life in a new country was much harder than she expected it to be, especially when it came to speaking French.
"I could understand the language somewhat, but I was terrible about speaking it. My accent was terrible. People could not understand me," Deiaco-Smith said.
Constantly fighting to be understood was emotionally exhausting, and she had little hope for the rest of her year. The only thing getting her through was the knowledge that a little piece of home was on the way.
"My mom had sent me a care package, and in that care package I knew she had sent Skippy peanut butter, which, at that point, I could not find anywhere in France. So this was really exciting for me. I had these visions of me digging my spoon in and eating my peanut butter right from the jar," Deiaco-Smith recalled.
Deiaco-Smith had to go to the post office to pick up the package. When she arrived, she tried to tell the attendant why she was there. But the attendant didn't speak any English and couldn't understand Deiaco-Smith's accent when she spoke in French.
"The more I repeated myself, the more frustrated I got and the more hopeless I felt. I was about ready to break down in tears because I just really needed that package from home, [when] in walked my unsung hero."
The person who came to Deiaco-Smith's rescue was a French woman named Chantal Jouve.
"She stepped in and she looked at me and said, in English, 'Can I help you?' And she spoke to the attendant, and within two minutes, the package was in my hands."
After helping her get the package, Jouve invited Deiaco-Smith to her house for dinner the following Sunday.
"It became a regular thing every Sunday to have dinner with her and her family. It was a safe place for me to practice my French without all those feelings from before, where I would feel sad [or] frustrated. I really felt like I was at home there."
Decades later, Deiaco-Smith and Jouve are still in touch. They exchange cards every Christmas and have visited each other's families.
"To this day, her act of kindness has influenced my life in many ways," Deiaco-Smith said. "I tend to pay attention a little bit more for people who might need help, and I offer kindness and offer that help to a stranger. And I'm forever grateful that Madame Jouve did that for me."
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
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