"Most people are good": how the words of a stranger have become a family mantra

This story is part of the My Nesung Hero series, the hidden brain team. Present stories about people whose kindness has left a lasting impression on someone else.

One day in March 2014, Caitlin Shetterly climbed into a flight to the west coast to tomorrow. While everyone sat on their chairs and prepared for take -off, Shetterly began to talk to the man next to her.

She was recently pregnant and felt vulnerable, and he seemed to notice that she was restless. So he shared what was in mind: since the terrorist attacks on September 11, she told her, the flight made it nervous.

“I always scare myself a little while we get something to happen,” Shetterly said. “So I said something like:” Do you Are you nervous? ”

The man said no. Then she leaned over, with her face full of compassion and told her something she still tells her children today.

“He … He looked straight into my eyes and said,” Most people are good, “she recalled.

For Shetterly, it was like a reset button. She felt her body relax.

“This calm was just washed over me and I felt totally giving up the anxiety I felt about the flight,” she said. “It was so strong for me.”

When Shetterly got home, she told her husband, Dan, about the words of the stranger. In the years then, the phrase became a family touch stone – a mantra of force in difficult times.

“We used this line to completely model how we teach our sons to think of the world and think of strangers and think of courage,” she said.

In 2023, when a gunman killed 18 people just 30 minutes from their house in tomorrow, he heard his husband in their younger son’s bedroom, trying to comfort him. “Most people are good,” she heard saying.

“This line, those four words, have totally transformed us and how we react to the tragedy,” said Shetterly.

Today, she shares those words with people who seem overwhelmed – to remind them that there is kindness everywhere, even when we are afraid.

“I said it in the car’s car’s car. I said it to other friends. I just say it as a casual thing, with no, a kind of overlapping music Steven Spielberg,” said Shetterly.

“I just hope that one day, people remember me by saying that. And I feel they try to pay it forward. And I hope it will continue before.”

My unspoken hero is also a podcast – New episodes are launched every Tuesday. To share the story of your unknown hero with the hidden brain team, record a vocal memory on your phone and send -o to [email protected].