Has a random act of kindness stayed in your memory forever?

When I was wandering around a slum part of Kampala (remind me there is a reason why Lonely Planet list hotels as "budget"), some nice local man asked me what I was doing and when I told him I was looking for somewhere to eat he took me through a maze of corridors to some flats where there was some unadvertised "restaurant".

The next day when again lost in Kampala a woman asked where O was going and then not only took me to the bus station but made sure I got on the right bus.

This didn't happen to me, but happened to dh instead.
Many years ago when he was about 18 he and some friends went on a cycling holiday to Ireland. They cycled all day and then drank all evening. And so on.

One night dh drank far far too much and so did his friends. They were cycling along and dh just lost momentum and the bike keeled over with him still attached to it by the pedal clips. His friends didn't realise and cycled on to the camp site. dh lay, quite happy but perfectly immobile, in the road. And then a VW beetle rounded the bend and came to a stop. 2 women got out and managed to work out from his drunken ramblings which campsite he was staying in. He was refusing to leave the bike. So they bundled him into the car and one woman drove him to the campsite while the other woman (quite old) cycled his bike behind the car back to the campsite.

I think he was amazingly lucky to meet such generous people.

What a lovely thread.

Mine isnt much compared to most of these, had been out shopping with ds who was about 6 months, got back to the car and realised that I had a flat tyre - having had it replaced at the garage the previous day. Dp was at work, and I had no idea what to do, apart from cry - a 4x4 pulled up next to me, 4 guys got out, 2 changed my tyre, the other 2 chatted to ds and made him laugh. It was so kind of them, really restored my faith in people.

mine is so small I'm not sure it counts but it has lived with me. when I was 6 months pg with dd2 and dd1 was 18 months we thought (for some strange reason) it would be good to go to Australia. on the flight, as you might imagine, I became somewhat frazzled. i was already having a bit of an identity crisis anyway - a sort of "omg I am ruining my life, I have no idea who I am. all people see when they look at me is frazzled mum of one, soon to be two" type thing. on the flight I was exhausted, stressed, uncomfortable and all this was blowing up in particular in my mind, as I'm sure you can imagine. I walked down the plane to go to the loo and there was some sudden turbulence which made me stumble. a man held out his hand to steady me. but - so much more than that - he asked me if I was ok. and he looked at me. not my bump, not at my situation, but right at me. and there was so much care coming over in his voice - not sympathy or "omg glad I;m not in her shoes" but genuine care. It's really hard to explain - but I;m welling up now, 6 years later! just the idea that a stranger cared mattered so much. I guess I was hormonal etc etc but it was a moment I'l never forget.

when OH was in a bad car accident the driver behind not only gave details as a witness but followed him home in the car (about a mile, mile and a half). He could see OH was shaken (car was a write off) and he wanted to be sure he got home OK.

I have also done one or two things that give me a warm feeling - too balance all the things I feel bad about....

Lovely thread, and I am laughing at the funny British tradition of offering cups of sweet tea to combat everything.

Once when I was about 17/18 and very stupid I was walking home alone at about 1am when a police car stopped
and called me over. They asked where I was going and I said home. They then asked if I realised there was a man following
me on the other side of the road. I was so shocked as I had no idea and never realised. They gave me a lift home.

When I was 14/15 I was at the hospital after my nan had taken an overdose and it was late so I decided to go home.
We lived only about 2/3 miles from the hosptial and my dad gave me money for a cab. I decided I wanted to walk to clear
my head and was about half way home when some lovely policemen in a van stopped and asked why I was so upset. I had
a chat with them and they dropped me home saying that see all policemen aren't bad.

Another time when dh was driving me to a job interview (was dp then and pre-children), a cyclist rode right in to the passenger
window where I was sat and glass went everywhere. He was going far too fast and didn't stop at a place in the road
where he should have. I was in shock and after screaming, started to sob. Dh got out the car to see what had gone on and
talk to the bloke and I got out clearly upset and shaking. A man from a coach across the road came over to see if I was ok
and gave us his full support, he was actually a former fire fighter and said the cyclist must have be going so fast
to break the window as it often took them a couple of times to break windows or cars with their hammers. He took me over to
the coach he was driving and made me a cup of sugary tea and chatted to me. He was so lovely and kind and by the end of it
I'd stopped shaking. He said it was the shock making me shake and kept asking me how I was. So nice of him.

All those people were so nice and helpful and really made me think more of human nature.

I was having a down in the dumps day and Surfermum popped up on MSN. We were chatting and I told her how I was feeling. She was really supportive. I went offline and did stuff around the house. Next thing the phone rings and it's Surfermum telling me to look outside. She driven from her home and left a bottle of wine and a bar of chocolate on the doorstep with a message to cheer me up on it. It was so kind and thoughtful of her. It started me off crying again - but in a good way She's a sweetheart.

bumpity bump - come on ladies - let's keep us all smiling - great thread!

when i was in the very early stages of pregnancy i was working FT and i felt exhausted and rotten

One day, when i felt spectacularly bad, my colleague insisted i had a nap whilst she fielded all my phone calls and made sure no-one disturbed me

Also, all the people who gave their seat up for me on the tube when i was PG

am pleased, am afraid in my job you see mostly only the 'shit happens' side of stuff, this thread has restored some of my faith in human kindness!

Shit happens, but in most of my really crap times someone came to my aid, gives me faith in humankind.

VS what a terrible things to happen to you, thank god for old ladies and neighbours

For me I received numerous small kindness in one day which completely puts paid to the 'all Londoners are rude and selfish' theory.
Dh working in London during half term so DD, DS and myself went along for a bit of a jolly. Took tube to Science Museum and my brand new sandal fell apart making it impossible to walk. Found a heel bar and asked if he could fix it - he didn't think so but applied a strong glue to tide me over til I could buy a new pair, he wouldn't let me pay. Someone else told me where I could pick up a cheap pair of sandals close to the tube station and every set of stairs we met that day we had someone to help lift the buggy. IME Londoners are kind and helpful. The worst were the other parents with prams in the science museum pretending they didn't see the queue for the lift.

Another MNer crying ehre!

There have been a few in my life I can think of straight away.

First one I was met of my school bus by three 'friends' who then proceeded to assault me, everythign from whipping my hands with canes and breaking my knuckles to slashing my face with glass and rubbing mud in it to 'show me'. (Apparently one of their boyfriends ahd said I was pretty), I'd been with them for about an hour, had no chance of leaving and they dragged me across a bridge where an old lady saw us and asked if I was okay. She chased them off and took me home.

Another time when pg with DS I was walking DD to nursery and I fainted, falling on top of her, about four different people tn the street I was walking down came and and picked us up and one of them drove me to the nursery and then to the doctors to my midwife.

Lastly when I was being attacked by my XP my neighbour had seen him come home drunk and came and knocked on my door, took my DD to their house and warned my XP that they would be back and expected me to be ok.

Virgin train buffet staff who were concerned that I couldn't afford to get a drink for DS (some misunderstanding, not quite sure how it happened!!), so brought out two bottles of mineral water and insisted on giving them to us for free

When DS and I were in hospital for prolonged jaundice, a lovely nurse who had previously done breastfeeding counselling work spent a lot of time talking and helping me out, even though technically DS wasn't one of her patients.

Lady on Dublin flight who offered to carry me bags as I was dealing with DS having a screaming tantrum when he woke up when the flight touched down.

Message withdrawn

There are lots of nice people about.Last time I went to London with my mother I automatically went on the underground (with 2 small children in tow).I didn't think about her getting elderly until we were crammed on the platform like sardines. I knew there was no point letting a train go because it would be just as bad by the next one, but neither was I sure that she would cope standing up-however as we got on a young man instantly stood up and gave her his seat-we were so grateful.

When I was backpacking in Australia I had a bust up with my friend and ended up on my own, and was devastated (slightly embarrassingly so - I passed out in the bar!). This Aussie lad I met in a hostel (he was on holiday) took me back to his flat, let me stay in the spare room for a few days until the only other person I knew in Australia, who lived in teh same town, was back. He showed me round and I met his mum and aunt.

When I was getting an onward coach, my friend wasn't free so he came and picked me up, drove me to the station and waved me off on the coach. I was so grateful for being seen off, it was like having family around and he didn't expect anything back off me in return. His name was Jonathon and I often think what a lovely thing that was to do for a stranger.