A funeral home employee opened the door to a family secret

On this week’s “My Unsung Hero” from Hidden Brain, a funeral home employee uncovers a long-held family mystery.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Time now for “My Unsung Hero,” our series from the team at Hidden Brain. “My Unsung Hero” tells the stories of people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else.

Today’s story comes from Mas Masumoto. Growing up, Masumoto was vaguely aware that he had an aunt who had been separated from the family in the 1940s. Her name was Shizuko Sugimoto. Shizuko had an intellectual disability, and as was often done in those days, she became a ward of the state. The family never talked about her, assumed she had died. But one day in 2012, Masumoto got a surprising message from a funeral home worker named Renee Johnson. Johnson was beginning the process of making funeral arrangements for a woman in hospice, a woman in her ’90s named Shizuko Sugimoto.

MAS MASUMOTO: So she looked up in the 1930 census, found Shizuko’s name with my mom’s name, and proceeded to phone me so Shizuku would not die alone. It was amazing for Renee to go through all that work when she didn’t have to ’cause she got the contract for this Shizuko Sugimoto, who had no family apparently on the records, and they were just going to take care of the body, and she would pass away in a – you know, in a very simple way. But it was Renee who said no. She wanted to see if family could be reunited with this person.

When I told my mom and my aunt and uncle, I said, OK, I want you to sit down because I have this news. And I said, you remember Aunt Shizuko? And they all said, oh, yeah, yeah. She passed away a long time ago. And I took a deep breath, and I said, no, Shizuko’s alive. And then everyone said, no, that can’t be. That can’t be right. And then I told them the story of what happened, and they all paused and said, we need to see her. We need to go see her.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MASUMOTO: Renee opened the door to a family…