Anecdotes! I see one!

I have learned the hard way that I don't really understand anecdotes in news writing. Nor do I know how to formulate one, listen for one, or put one on paper.
    I'm lucky enough to be able to see one after reading the textbook. An anecdote, as relayed by the textbook, is a recounting of an entertaining or informative incident within a story.
   Well, reading The Boston Globe today, I think I found one.
    The story is about a woman--a woman who is the head of a commission for snow control in Boston. The beginning of the news article doesn't introduce it that way, though. It says:

  Joanne Massaro learned about working under fire a lifetime ago, toiling in the 1970s as a self-taught cook in a Washington restaurant run by Claude Bouchet, a French chef who served presidents and powerbrokers.

Yeah. That's pretty cool. I'm actually interested in this woman's life before I even know what the story is about! Yay for writing! And then, the anecdote moves towards a sadder ending:

Now Massaro faces an entirely differently kind of pressure cooker: The girl who grew up in Hyde Park and dreamed of being a chef is Boston’s commissioner of public works. For the past four winters Massaro has overseen snow removal, a key city service that has come under fire since a blizzard dumped more than 2 feet of snow and some side streets remained impassible for days.

And without knowing this woman, I empathize with her. It sounds like she went through a lot, struggled, maybe forfeited some dreams and to do what? Pick up snow around Boston? 
   Yup, anecdotes work.