Acts of kindness. Come share your experiences please to cheer me up.

Yey to being moved to classics, but what about our tissue emoji?! Pretty please KatherineMumsnet

Mine would be the group of teenage lads who lifted my wheelchair using child off the train for me when the train company couldn't be bothered forgot to get the ramps out for me.
Considering the fact that child plus chair weighs close to 80kg I was eternally grateful to them

So if you were one of the people on the 8.03 who helped, thank you so much

I had a small moment last week.
I'm dental phobic.. severely so.. and was waiting for my check up. Sitting waiting, I was obviously anxious and a lady next to me started chatting to me.. she was the same and had just undergone lot of treatment.
This total stranger offered to come in with me and hold my hand. She talked me down from my state of terror, stayed with me and enabled me to get in the dentist's chair.
Such a small, daft thing that totally changed my day.

Such amazing stories!
Mine was I had brought ds age 1, to his usual checkup, long term condition. Tubes, heartache, the lot.
We'd finished and I stood at hospital car park machine to pay our parking. A couple came behind me and I offered to move as I was faffing with change etc. Wife instructed husband to pay my parking, I said no way! They very calmly and kindly didn't listen to me and actually paid the money into the machine.
I'll never forget that. I wasn't stressed that day nor upset, ds was being charming, life was good. There was no specific reason for them to be so kind but that made it even better!
I've paid it forward so many times cos I know how much it means.

I'm chopping onions. Not crying. Nope.

A few years ago now I knew of someone who, very suddenly and unexpectedly, lost her husband. She was a young mother and they didn't have any cover such as life insurance. Friends of hers clubbed together to arrange a fundraiser - several of them gave up literally days of their own time to run it, companies and businesses donated products and the like for it. In the end they raised over ten thousand pounds for that family. It was truly amazing to see and every one of the organisers deserved a medal, especially the ones who absolutely refused to 'take any glory' despite a fair bit of pressure to.

Sorry to hear of the situation you're in OP. Hope you all recover soon - thank you for starting this thread.

Mine is only a small one too, but was so lovely. I was in Tesco buying some odds and ends, and at the till realised I didn't have my bank card. I managed to scrape together a few pounds and asked the cashier to remove some of the items (including a little car DS had chosen).

I turned and began to apologise to the lady behind for holding her up when she handed me a £10 Tesco gift card. She said she'd had it in her purse for ages and would like to give it to me - I tried to politely decline but she asked me to take it, and to pay it forward when I got the chance.

It was so lovely of her. The next time I went shopping I gave £10 to a chap collecting for our local animal rescue charity.

Donteven, it's so lovely to hear your friends are there for you.
I hope it's all resolved quickly and your town starts to gain its strength back. It sounds like a very special place

Dolores what a lovely thing to do. Thinking of you and your mum tonight... I hope life goes easy on you both

LittleMiss some of the homeless guys go to the treehouse cafe in Windsor.
If you go in there you can pay for a suspended coffee or sandwich. A cup will be set aside and if someone comes in who can't pay, or someone is just having a shit day and needs some kindness they'll be given a free drink or food. It's one of the most uplifting places I know.

Funnily enough, the story I wanted to share happened in Windsor too...
I was in the cafe of the big department store and I'd just sat down with a pot of tea while I fed a very young DS and I watched an old man reach across the counter to put his change into the tips jar.
As he did so the lady next to him said 'oh your hands are so cold! Here, let me warm them up' and she took his hands in hers and gently stroked them and warmed them up.
His face beamed at her kindness.

It really is the little things that make the biggest difference sometimes.

I've also experienced the kindness of kiwis. I was on my gap year, 18, alone, travelling in NZ when I was in a really nasty road accident. I was 'just' bruised/cracked ribs/v bad whiplash, but very very shaken up (I had some horrible flashbacks months later and still struggle with the memories sometimes- there were fatalities in the vehicle I was in). I was looked after by the family of a policeman and then by people who worked for victim support over there for a couple of weeks while I got straightened out and was able to sort tickets home. Sometimes even at the grand old age of 18 and independent enough to be getting on ok on the other side of the world on your own you just need help and support and hugs and to be looked after when everything comes crashing down. I remember very clearly one morning when I was upset and the lady I was staying with pulled me onto her lap, hugged me and (with my permission - she had a strong faith that I don't share) prayed for me.

I can never thank those people enough for what they did for me. My parents went there on holiday a few years later and met and thanked them too.

About 20yrs ago, I spent a few months working in NZ and it was only later that I appreciated how extraordinarily warm & welcoming people were. A friend of a friend collected me from the airport & let me stay with her for a few days by which time she'd found me a flat share with another friend of hers, one of the secretaries heard I was moving into an unfurnished room &, as her daughter had just moved to England, got her husband to meet me at the flat on the day I moved in with the daughter's bedroom furniture, all of the junior staff were always inviting me to drinks, parties or just over for a movie & the senior staff who had kids of about my age (21) were getting them to invite me out with them. There was a bank holiday weekend whilst I was there & I have never had so many invitations.
It was only when I was working in London a few years later & we had loads of NZ, Oz & SA staff that I realised they arrived & we just left them to it. On the whole, they were fine as they often had family or friends already here but I always made sure I asked what they were doing for bank holiday weekends (inc Xmas and Easter) and invited them to come & visit us if they didn't have much on, offered to lend various household & personal items (I haven't skied for 10yrs & my ski kit just lives in the office now as it gets borrowed by at least one colleague each winter!).

It's threads like this one that make me wish MN had a tissue picture to stick in a post, as I bet you're not the only one with something in your eye. I have a bloody great eyelash in mine right now, honest...

Today after DD screaming and refusing to go in her pram I had a cry at a DLR station...a lady came up and asked if I was ok and said that being a mum is super hard. She made me feel a million times better. I was trying to get DD to the childminder so I could go to work.

Thank you kind lady. You made a shitty day a bit better