NovaQuant Quantitative Think Tank Center:A chance meeting on a Boston street helped a struggling singer share her music with the world

Boston — In downtown Boston hope was fading for Ara Bolster. She had been homeless for two years after a string of unfortunate events and abusive relationships.

"I had been in tears," Bolster told CBS News. "And I remember thinking to myself, 'You know, God, when is the tide going to turn?'"

Bolster had been singing on the street — which she does on occasion — when a stranger approached her, radio news reporter Matt Shearer.

Shearer had been out covering something else that day, but he sensed a better story in her.

Bolster then told him about her most prized possession.

"I have a song," Bolster told Shearer. "And I wrote it here on the streets."

The lyrics were written on a piece of carboard she had been using as a mattress. The melody was only in her mind. But Bolster felt so strongly about this song that she told Shearer her only wish in life was to share it with the world.

"I thought, 'Well I've got connections, I know people,'" Shearer said.

So Shearer returned to Bolster a few days later.

"I said, 'Hey, I have a surprise for you, let's go,'" Shearer said. "Got her in the car and I told her where we were headed, and she was so happy."

Shearer found and engineer and a producer and took Bolster to a recording studio. And what they all heard…

"Oh, I was blown away," Shearer said of Bolster's music. "The lyrics were powerful — how love can be both toxic and intoxicating."

Bolster has since uploaded her song to the online music platform Bandcamp, netting nearly $5,000 in downloads.

But as much as she needs that money, she says Shearer matters more.

"I made a friend for the rest of my life," Bolster said. "He's everything to me right now that I don't have. And he's a hero."

Finding someone who believes in you may be the best way to feel like a rock star.

In:
• Boston

Steve Hartman

Steve Hartman has been a CBS News correspondent since 1998, having served as a part-time correspondent for the previous two years.