The Small Act of Courage That Led to 50 Years of Marriage

On this episode of Our American Stories, Lori Coan was on her second date with a boy she wasn’t sure about when something happened that changed her mind—and her life. A group of troublemakers tripped a girl with polio, sending her sprawling in front of everyone. Most of the students laughed or looked away. Lori’s date didn’t. He jumped up, helped the girl to her feet, and gave her dignity back in a moment when it had been stolen. To Lori, that simple act of courage said more than words ever could. That boy would later become her husband, and together they built a marriage lasting more than fifty years. What began as a small act of kindness in a high school cafeteria grew into a lifelong partnership grounded in respect, compassion, and strength.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Hibib and this is our American Stories.
Up next, a story from Lori Cohen about how she
met the love of her life. Laurie is a writing
student of our frequent contributor Leslie leyland Fields, and we
thank her for turning us on to this story.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Take it away, Laurie. In nineteen seventy two, the cafeteria
of the high school was loud, always with an undercurrent
of muffled conversations, high pitched squeals of newly pubescent girls,

(00:48):
and the scraping of aluminum chair feet across the linoleum floor.
There lies in my brain the familiar sounds and smells
of that catheteria. Those pistachio colored plastic lunch trays with
their tidy compartments clattered as students smacked them forcefully against

(01:08):
the large trash can to collect the remains of our
pizza burgers, paired oddly with corn and orange yellow salad.
I was about to have my first public date with
the senior of my dreams as a sophomore. My pulse
raced and my stomach fluttered in anticipation of our time together,

(01:31):
Me with it senior through musual friends. We met on
a blind date the previous weekend. Not having much experience
with upper classmen, I did my due diligence by stalking
him in the hallways before her date. When I first
met him coming out of a classroom, I thought to myself, Huh,

(01:53):
not my type. I was used to choosing my dates
by how much they resembled the nineteen seven These rock
stars I admired with long hair and those who carried
themselves with that bad boy swagger. But after the date
I had to say, there was just something about him.

(02:17):
I eagerly accepted his lunch date for the following week.
He was clean cut, perhaps shorter than me, wearing white
Adida sneakers with red stripes, paired with cuffed, straight legged
navy pants and a buttoned down light blue shirt cuffed

(02:38):
at his wrists. He sported the ever stylish rod's belt,
smartly displaying the classic shutgunshell at the buckle. As I
looked down at my hip hugger bell bottoms enhanced my
friend's sewing skills, reframed with Indian themed cloth, expanding them

(02:59):
to the appropriate elephant bell size. My white knit body
suit and my grandfather's overside plaid shirt, I thought well,
might as well try something different. I was hoping that
my hesitation in his wholesomeness might turn out to be unfounded.

(03:23):
As we carried our lunches to a nearby table, a
group of loud, rowdy kids was congregating. One of the
boys nodded toward me as I passed by. How do
you know those guys, Gary asked as we scooted out
the chairs at the lunch table. They hang out with Steve,
I said, I more intimately knew them to be my

(03:45):
brother's druggy friends. We were sitting at a table that
was parallel to the exit of the lunchline, giving us
an unextracted view of the entire cafeteria. We watched as
this one girl made her way through the line, fistachio
colored tray in her hand. She turned to find a

(04:06):
seat after paying the lunch ladies, and as she did,
she skirted the table near the group of rowdy boys
who were acting out by indiscriminately yelling random things at
those passing by and punching on each other. I didn't
know the girl, but had seen her in the hallways,

(04:28):
as had everyone. I guess she kept here herself for
the most part, Rarely did she make eye contact as
she left along, always close to the wall for support,
dragging her leg behind her because of the clans. I
later found out she was one of the few remaining

(04:49):
people our age who had in fact gotten polio as
a child. Well, I'm ashamed of this now, and I
don't believe it was on purpose, at least least for
most of us in high school at the time. We
just didn't go out of our way to befriend her.
In fact, we didn't really acknowledge her at all, selfish

(05:15):
and the narcissism of adolescence. I'm sure now that our
lack of empathy left her feeling perpetually isolated and different.
Whether it was deliberate or not, we may never know
for sure. But as the girl exited the lunch line
and near the boy's table, Bruce, my brother's friend, stuck

(05:37):
his long legs out in the middle of the aisle,
tripping her with great fanfare. The food careened upwards, pizza
burger flipping over in the air as if in a
trapeeze act, and landing with a splat on top of
the gyrating orange yellow salad. Suddenly, all the background noise

(06:00):
and the crowded cafeteria came to an abrupt stop. As
the girl fell to the floor. The corn sprinkled unceremoniously
amidst her ringlets, landing against her upturned face. It seemed
that everyone in the cafeteria had heard the co motion
and the clattering of the lunch tray, and they turned

(06:23):
to stare at her in dead silence. As the sound
returned to the cafeteria, I remember hearing the slow rising
roar of awkward laughter. Bruce, the one culpable for the mishap,
was standing, clapping, pointing with the light, shouting she's down,

(06:45):
She's down. I sat with my own pizza burger, paralyzed,
trying not to stare. It was then that it happened.
Gary Rose looked at me and said, be right back.
Just like that. This clean cut manchild with his Adida sneakers,

(07:10):
button down shirt and Rod's belt, left our table as
if he had been summoned by an unspoken call of duty.
He grabbed a handful of napkins and bent down in
front of the girl. He gently wiped the food off
her brow. He cupped her face with both hands and

(07:32):
with his thumbs wiped the tears from her eyes. Supporting
her by her arms, he helped her stand up and
carefully walked with her to the safety of a more
private corner. He spoke quietly next to her as they walked.
I couldn't hear what he was saying, but she was

(07:52):
looking gratefully up at him, and she smiled at his words.
Then he went back through the lunchline to replace her meal.
He carried the lunch out into the cafeterian silence. While
I'm not sure if the others in the room, my
eyes were solely focused on him. He brought the girl

(08:15):
her lunch, bent down and spoke quietly in her ear
again as she smiled and nodded. He stood and lasered
his sight on the offending group of boys who had
gone back to their loud and rowdy behaviors. He walked
quickly and directly, which caused most of the group to
step back. He grabbed Bruce by the front of his

(08:38):
shirt and a fist, forcing their faces only inches apart.
There was no yelling because he spoke so calmly and quietly.
I'll never know what was said in that moment, yet
I was able to see Bruce's face pale and the
rest of the group of his peers suddenly just walked away.

(09:00):
Gary released him, and Bruce sat there now alone and quiet.
Gary then looked directly at the girl eating her lunch
and gave her a quick nod of his head. Again.
She smiled at him. He turned then and sat down
next to me, saying, how's the pizza burger and gave

(09:21):
me a wink. In that moment, I said to myself,
I'm going to marry this boy. I was fifteen at
the time. We've had fifty four years together since that
day when two girls in the cafeteria needed a hero
and found one.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Any special thanks to Lourie Cohen for sharing this story
about how she met the love of her life. Where,
when and why? And what a story Laurie told, And
we've all been there in high school. I love the
way she described that meal on that pistachio plastic tray,
a pizza burger, corn, and an orange jello salad. Sounds

(10:08):
great and well. She talked about this young girl who
suffered from polio and how she regrets that she didn't
go out of her way to befriend her or to
reach out to her at all, and then came that
agonizing act of cruelty by Bruce tripping this young girl.
And what happens That boy named Gary just immediately gets up,

(10:29):
as if summoned by some unspoken call of duty, and
Laurie thinking I'm going to marry that boy someday fifty
four years later married. The story of the Cafeteria Hero
one Laurie Cohen's heart. Here on our American Stories