Someone was just very kind to me

I was struggling one day at work - my third day in a brand new job - and my colleague, a staff nurse, was really laying into me, as was an auxiliary and they were both laughing at me between shouting . All of this was in front of a patient.

They told me after she would have been annoyed by me , and so I went in and apologised on the basis of what colleagues had said, in floods of tears.

God rest her soul, she gave me a huge hug, told me I had nothing to apologise for , told me to take a chocolate. She was a lovely lovely woman. She died about ten weeks later . I think I will remember her kindness forever, she still comes to mind quite often.

As a patient myself twice at the end of last year I think the nicest person I came across was a domestic from Latvia , I was standing in the shower bawling my eyes out when she came into clean. She helped me wash, dried me off and got me back into bed. She was lovely. I'm due to go back to the same ward this spring and hoping she is still there.

Sitting here in floods at all your tales. Not that long ago I was 8 months pregnant and on a supposedly 4hour train journey with toddler DS1 who was kicking off. Journey became an 8 hour one due to delays and it was the worst kind of hell. DS1 was screaming and crying, nothing was working, so I crouched on the floor of the vestibule with him thrashing around there so as not to disturb the other passengers too much. I was crying too at this point, it was so awful.

So many kind people stopped - a lady brought me some tea. A parent brought their own small son to see if he would distract my DS. Another lady gave DS her "emergency banana" All of it just made me cry more of course but they were so so lovely.

Genuinely wasn't trying to put a downer, as I said lovely thing to happen.

I guess if someone paid for my lunch I would immediately ask for their details to pay them back (I'm sure he would've refused abywah) rather than go off and feed my kids. They can always wait a couple of minutes even if crying or moaning.

My 2 year old lost her favourite teddy the day before Christmas Eve, panicked I found one on eBay and sent a desperate message to the seller offering more money if it could be posted by special delivery on Christmas eve, he did - it cost nearly as much as I paid for the teddy and he wouldn't accept anymore money, lovely lovely man whose kindness won't be forgotten.

Yesterday I realised at a shop checkout (having run through a big shop) that I'd lost my purse. The woman behind me offered to pay. I couldn't accept as it was over £30 but loved that she offered.

Two years ago I was having a very bad time (still am a bit but still...)

Three days before Christmas, someone put £100 in an envelope in my letter box, with a note (in capitals) saying:
SPEND it on treats for the children and you and may you have a very merry Christmas.x

I think I know who it was (a very lovely neighbour who is very fond of the children and who had hard times of her own when younger).

I did spend it, but each month I saved £10 and put it back in the envelope. I wondered about offering it back but I might have been wrong or she might have been offended so I used my 'xmas fund' the next year that i'd kept in her envelope. I still have my 'mad money' (emergency fund) in that envelope, tatty as it is now.

I cried and blessed her for her kindness. The money helped of course, but it was knowing someone cared enough that was the real gift.

Here I am outing myself again
But here's my story. I suffer from anxiety and one day decided to get a train with my toddler to see a friend, first time alone on a train with DS. Get to the station and there's no lift so I'm dragging a pushchair plus a toddler up the stairs when a man appeared, carries my pushchair across down the steps and onto the train for me. Getting off the other end again a lovely man and woman help me get it off the train at this moment my toddler decides to make a break for it, I grab him getting in a flap and a lovely elderly lady comes up, says let me hold him while you sorted your stuff out, at this point the man had popped the pushchair up for me. Once up she distracted and talked to DS while I got him into the pushchair and safely off the platform. A minor thing to them probably but the help those people showed me that day I was so grateful for especially as I was so close to panicking and letting my anxiety take over.

Just before Christmas, I was in M&S with DS, queuing to order our turkey. The old lady in front of us dropped some of her money and DS dashed around to pick it up for her. She insisted on giving Ds one of the pound coins. When I tried to politely refuse, she insisted he take it and tearfully told me how lovely it was to see that there were still kind people in the world. I walked away from the exchange feeling very teary eyed.

These are beautiful stories. I got sudden severe abdominal pain on a train and got off the next stop teary and feeling faint. I crouched down on the platform to stop the faint and an old lady, without a word, came over and held my hand until it passed.

I was once waiting at a taxi stop and a lady was sat next to me, she answered a phone call and it was very obvious it was very bad news. She started to cry (properly sobbing). So, god knows what came over me, instinctively put my arm around her while she finished her phone call. Theres a little cafe right next to bench so i got her a tea and cake, we had a chat, her mum had just passed away and she had just left a hospital appointment where she found she had miscarried. She looked so distraught and desperate. It really upset me to. In the end, 30 bloody mins later, one taxi showed up. We shared and i paid. She offered me the money but it just didn't seem right, she needed comfort and to be supported. I just hope she's ok and things are better for her now, i think of her alot and wonder how she is. Sometimes you dont really think you, just act and i try and act how i would like people to treat me.

Thank you all for cheering me up after a crappy couple of weeks. I think that we all need to remember these random acts of kindness, and like others have said, pay them forward.

I'll never forget being 17 years old and running away from home with my new baby, and the 2 elderly ladies who took it in turns to help me take care of her on the train. They were so kind and encouraging, and made me feel like less of a failure. They never knew just what a massive difference they made to me at a time that I so desperately needed it💜

My kids are wondering why I'm crying too..

Lovely thread. First shop with 2 week old bf baby, obviously decided she was starving and needed a feed just when I was trying to load and pay for the shopping! A brilliant lady at the next checkout loaded my full trolley and packed it away for me in my bags, so I could hold DD. That lovely lady saved me from having a mini breakdown. It was Lidl in Slough so if that lovely lady happens to read, thank you so much.

I once asked someone at a supermarket for a pound for the trolley in exchange for one pound in smaller coins. The older man was really nice, refused to accept the small change and told me to buy something for DS.

A complete stranger offered to push my car out of traffic in Picadilly Circus when it broke down.

I've also done some nice things for others.

It all makes it a better world. :)

Earlier this week I caught a bus to a place I don't normally go and asked for a return but the driver sold me a single which I didn't realise until I went to catch the bus back. I would have has enough money for a return but didn't have enough for two singles. I was about to step off the bus and walk to a cashpoint so I could afford the fare when a lovely woman came and gave me the difference.
She was wearing a lanyard from the place where I have just started working so when she got to her stop and was passing I tried to stop her and tell her to come and find me in x department but she said not to worry. Just need to pay it forward now!

Gorgeous thread!

I've told this before, but its not something I'm going to forget ever!
On the weekend of ds1's fifth birthday party we had a major car malfunction.
Thankfully someone told me there was an oil slick under my car as I'm not very observant and I might have done it even more damage!
Still had a massive bill and no car for the weekend which would have meant having to cancel the party.
Dh's boss told him to use one of the company cars for as long as we needed. Party saved!
A few weeks later an anonymous envelope was handed to me after church, it simply read 'Cigars and family, for car repairs'
It covered most of the bill.
I don't know who gave us the money, but it really was appreciated, especially as it was the run up to Christmas!

When I was heavily pregnant on crutches with severe SPD in the City of London so many people were really kind. I sat on a bench crying as I could go no further and some builders stopped and gave me a lift in their van. Most people are nice. We just hear about the awful ones.

Lovely, all of these. And this is so needed right now, with inhumanity on the upward curve

*her

A few years ago during very bad weather I was coming home when I went over on my ankle on some ice breaking it. I was also 5 months pregnant and immediately went a bit hysterical from the shock and fear of something having happened to the baby. A wonderful woman picked me up off the ground, put me in her car and drove me to the local Drs where my husband met me and from there took me to hospital.

She was so kind, so reassuring and went out of her way for me. I'll never ever forget it. My only regret was as shocked and upset as I was I never got here details. I've posted about it before always hoping that maybe someday she'll read it and realise what a godsend she was to me that day.

When we were adopting our dd, we had to have an accountant give a report on our financial status. He wouldn't accept any fee. Our doctor had to do medical school on us, he wouldn't accept any fee.

We had so many experiences like this during our adoptions. People were so generous.

Pippilotta - your story grabbed me right in the feels.

Pinkiponk - I have a wallet story as well! Long story, but one night a woman pretending to be pregnant and begging me for a lift to the hospital stole my wallet. I had to have everything replace - driver's licence, bank cards the lot. Many months later, I received my wallet in the post. Someone had found it and posted it to the address on my driver's licence. This was my old address as I had recently moved. The new owners of my old house then tracked down my new address, and posted the wallet to me. There was even still some change left in it!

Aww I like these.
When I was heavily pregnant I was fringing the 400 mile journey from my terminally ill mil's house to home.
I was following the satnav on my phone and suddenly realised that the phone had taken me off the motorway at the wrong place and I was completely lost. To add to it the battery on my phone was down to 10% and I was only half way home.
I stopped at a garage and went in to see if I could buy a charger. They didn't have one to fit.
Tired, hormonal and already emotionally drained I burst into tears in the car while trying to work out where I was on a map.
There was a knock on the window and I looked up to see a a big, burly trucker who handed me a bottle of water, a bar of chocolate and his phone charger, the same type as mine.
I was so relieved I just cried harder and could hardly get the words out to thank him.
I think I scared the poor man but he will never know just how much of a difference he made that day.

Our new next-door neighbours are lovely and it turns out, so are their friends. Mr NDN had an operation a couple of months ago so he lined up a friend to help shovel the snow while he recovered. Big dump of snow, friend showed up and cleared NDN's pavements and front path with his snowblower, then proceeded to do ours.