To ask what's the nicest thing anyone has done for you?

This is just what I needed today. My bag turning up to visit me just before Christmas when mum was diagnosed with cancer and I had retreated into myself is mine. Mad busy time of year and horrid weather but she drove over an hour to see me. I love her

@NumbersStation that made me all emotional. What a lovely mum.

Amazing thread

Just after my son was born the business I ran with my husband collapsed. We had to close our warehouse and make all the staff redundant. We lost everything. Our home, our assets, our savings, our main income. Suddenly we had to start again from zero.

Fast forward a couple of years and we had managed to pull ourselves up again but things were still tight. That particular month I hadn't been paid by a client who owed me a lot of money.

I walked to the village with my little boy to buy some food. Bought bread, eggs, milk then went to get some money from the cash point to go buy fruit and veg. And no money came out. As I was explaining to my son that we would wait for fruit until I got paid and my son was starting to cry I heard an old lady behind me saying "Excuse me!" quite loudly. Exasperated, I turned around expecting some kind of chastisement about my crying child.

There stood a small, frail-looking woman, aged around 80, holding out a five pound note. She told me to take it and buy my child some fruit and a cold drink because it was such a warm day. I refused but she and her husband were insistent. I cried, thanked them and took it. We bought fruit, and a bottle of water and even had enough left for my little boy to have an ice lolly.

I often think about that lady and wonder if she knew the shame I felt at taking the money and my deep gratitude that my son didn’t go without thanks to the kindness of a stranger.

Dh gave me a baby when he really really REALLY didn't want children.

Once when DH was working abroad and I had a toddler and a baby. I had had a rough day and it was evening but I hadn't eaten. DH phoned and we talked briefly about our day. Half an hour later a takeaway curry turned up at my door and I nearly sent it away thinking it wasn't for me. How ever it was my favourite indian and the penny dropped just before he left. DH had ordered it as a surprise for me. I will never forget that. It seems like such a little thing but meant so much at the time.

I was riding home from a shift at a job I hated, it was pouring with rain and I was in tears.
Put the bike in the garden and walked in to the smell of my favourite takeaway curry. My wife had it all slid out with candles on and she hugged me and thanked me for carrying on providing for us even though she knew I hated that job. She told me I would get a new one soon enough. She was right.

Will never forget that.

@Pricklypear12 much better thank you! I've been clean and off the streets for six years now.

Once on a camping holiday a dreadful storm totally destroyed our tent. A family in a camper van nearby gave us the key to their house and let their neighbour who was looking after it know. We used their phone and got booked in to a caravan park for another week.

The campsite were great too, and refunded the money for the nights we couldn't stay.

After my mum died my ex colleague texted me every single day for at least six months. Just little texts ‘are you watching Masterchef?’ or a cute cat photo. It was her way of looking out for me. It really helped.

Thank you for this lovely thread!

Mine is a small thing. Was in a coffee shop when my first born was only a few weeks old. He wasn’t a good sleeper, and I was completely exhausted. An elderly gentleman came over to my table and put 20p in my hand, and said “he’s a beautiful baby, cross his palm with silver for luck”. It made my day. I’ve still got the coin, my son is nearly 6 now.

This isn't the nicest thing, but it's something that sticks out.

When ds2 was a baby I was having a real bad time, he was a nightmare baby. I'd nipped out to Sainsbury's for a few things, it was one of those days where I'd struggled to even get out the house, I had the baby in a sling and older child in tow.

I got to the self checkout and realised I'd forgotten something, left my shopping and told the member of staff I'd be back.

When I got back she'd scanned and packed all my shopping for me.

Made my day at the time.

When I had PND after my second son was born I broke down crying on a neighbour I didn’t know very well. After that she brought round a roast chicken, took me out for coffee regularly, and would take the baby for an hour or so to let me sleep. She’s a good friend now. I try to pay it forward and be kind to others.

When i was about 12 and name brands started to become important at secondary school, there was no way i was ever going to be able to get the latest trainers in fashion. We were very poor. My best friend was from a very comfortably off family, and had been bought the latest trainers by her parents. As we were getting changed for PE one day she very casually just put her trainers in front of me and took my no name equivalent and just put them on. I,don't remember a word being said but those trainers were mine from then on. We stayed best friends for the next 8 years then life took us in different directions and We've lost touch but I'll never ever forget that silent moment of pure friendship. I think about it often and how much it meant to me and it still moves me to this day, 30 years later.

DH was always doing kind stuff for me. But if I am thinking outside of his care, then the lovely colleague who sent me an unexpected bottle of gin when DH died, via Amazon Prime. It was so kind and made a huge impression. She said someone did the same to her when her dad died, and she wanted to pay it forward. I have had the chance to pay it forward too - my SiL lost her granddad last week so I sent her a nice bottle of gin.

Lovely thread!

I have many nice things to recall, but one favourite is when my vicar came round to visit me when I was ill and utterly wiped out with flu and fatigue. We'd been chatting on messenger and I’d mentioned I had a pile of washing up and couldn’t face tackling it, but I really needed to. He asked, then offered, then insisted on coming round to do it for me, and duly turned up at my door 20 mins later with sleeves rolled up. I was hugely embarrassed as the pile of washing up was just about all my crockery but I had been far too ill to manage it! He did the whole lot, insisted I go and lie down, and then when he’d finished stayed for a cup of tea and said some prayers with me, and at the end he gave me a blessing, which wasn’t usual for him when we prayed together informally but was actually really important to me at that time, and he seemed to have picked up on that.

Fast forward a few years and I’m cooking our dinner while he is changing our baby's nappy - we'd been good friends for several years, but things changed that afternoon and he is definitely a keeper!

I used to be homeless and a street prostitute in London. One night I was beaten up, robbed and left miles from where I needed to be. Two young men found me crying at a bus stop and asked what was wrong. They then bought me coffee and chips and drove me back to where I was meant to be. They played me their favourite cheerful music in the car to make me feel better too.

And when my beloved dog died I broke down in marks and spencer. Properly. It was my last straw as she was my everything. My everything.

As I stood sobbing in a corner, an elderly couple came up. She wiped the tears and runny nose and he held my hand and told me I’d know better days.

Their kindness was a beautiful thing.

i went home after a dreadful relationship. World falling apart, broken, old, homeless. You get the picture. My mam said I was never to old to be her bairn and this was my home.

That Christmas I was feeling super sorry for myself. And woke to find she made me a stocking like I’d had as a child and hung it on my door. Gold chocolate coins, shiny apple, tangerine in tissue paper. A little trinket. Nuts.

And I wept like a fool. It was such a beautiful thoughtful thing to do and it is my favourite Christmas gift ever.

I love my mam. 💕

Sitting in a cafe with a friend a few years ago, I started telling her about my recent miscarriage. The tears silently fell and I couldn’t stop them. As I looked up, a waitress made her way over and with a squeeze of my shoulder gave me a lovely cup of hot chocolate. Such a simple gesture but one which meant the world to me in that moment and I’ve never forgotten it.

I was on a long haul flight after my DP had died unexpectedly. I was in a bit of a haze of grief, and fell asleep crying. I woke up and the lady next to me - a complete stranger - had taken my hand.