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

Loving this and therefore resurrecting it.

When DS was born, the labour was difficult and he needed to be resuscitated.

He was born just before shift change so once he was stable, the midwife who had supervised his delivery left us in someone else's care and went to do the paperwork before leaving for the night.

Once our admin was done, she came back to see how we were doing and then went off to do her time sheet. She then returned again by which time DS was beginning to deteriorate. She promised to phone to see how he was once she got home. Half an hour later the mw who was treating us was called out of the room to take a phone call...

Not only that but she came to visit me daily for the remainder of our stay whilst DS was in neonatal. Her visits were brief, without pity but full of compassion. Her visits were even more valuable given that apart from DH and a visit from my dad (who isn't local) we had no other visitors.

Just the memory of this lovely woman coming in and sitting on my bed for 5 mins a day makes me well up in gratitude.

I clicked on this thread and thought I must have started it when drunk or something!

CrushWithEyeliner, if you are still around, sorry for stepping on your toes.

Will change into a previous incarnation forthwith.

CrushedWithEyeliner x

What a great thread! Here's mine...

I was a young, single, pregnant 21 year old. I had just been turned away from the Benefits Office and I was homeless and hungry. An elderly lady took me to the cafe in Habitat and bought me some mushroom soup and a roll, then gave me 50 quid. I used the 50 quid to put a deposit on a rental flat and from then on, my life just got better and better.

I never got the chance to repay the 50 quid but I have never forgotten her. I can't eat mushroom soup without remembering her!

She is probably dead by now, but I would love the chance to repay the money, maybe to her family. Her name was Sybil Crabbe and she lived in Bristol. Does anybody here know of her or the family?

I was traveling back from the US to Mexico. I had enough pesos to pay for a bus in Mexico but was 1 dollar short to pay for a bus over the border. I asked someone if he could give me a dollar he did.

When traveling round a safari park back in Kenya we got a flat tire. My partner got out to change it, and a group of South African man stopped to help. Every other private vehicle stopped to ask if we were alright. Every tour group just drove past, in some case looking annoyed that we were stopped in the middle of the road.

When I was fairly newly pregnant with DS and before I'd found out I suddenly felt very unwell and hot in a shop in the city centre. I went outside, took my coat off and sat on a bench. It was a freezing January day but I felt like I was burning up.

A newspaper vendor from across the road came running over after a few minutes and sat next to me. He asked me if I was ok and told me I should really put my coat back on or I'd freeze. I told him how awful I felt and he went running back over to his stand and came back with one of the bottles of posh water - his words - that they were giving away as a free gift with the paper that day and sat chatting with me about his DD and GCs until I felt well enough to go and get on the bus. I have never forgotten how kind and concerned he was. And I found out shortly afterwards through my job at the time that nearly all of the newspaper vendors had problems with alcohol, drugs or homelessness and they were employed through a charity. I did go and look for him a few times, to thank him again, but never found him. I hope he is ok.

i started a new thread about this as i didn`t realise this was here. Reading through all these is really making me cry. Very emotional.

i was 8 years old and was out riding with my dads friend i had only owned my pony for about 2 weeks and really didn't have a clue a very novice rider.
we were going along this sandy canter track which lead from the main road all the way through the woods.
my df left me at the back of the line and my pony for no reason decided to take off in the opposite direction full speed gallop. my df didn't even notice id gone. i can remember screaming in terror with tears streaming down my face we were heading straight for the main road and i couldn't stop. then out of nowhere two men riding western in their cowboy hats galloped out of the surrounding trees and grabbed my pony brining her to a stop!
they were my knights in shining armour and if it hadn't been for them i dont know what would have happened. thanks guys thats was 16 years ago and i still remember how glad i was to see you bursting out from the trees to my rescue!

Ooh I'd like to add mine to the collection.
When I was very small (about 4 or 5) I smiled at an old lady who was selling plums in a market in germany; she gave me her last bag of plums. It taught me the power of a smile.

When I was 20something, my dad lent me his car, saying airily that the tyres would need changing at some point . Well I set off on a 150mile journey and about 20miles in the back tyre blew on the motorway and I was lucky I had got to the hard shoulder ok. A BMW driver saw what happened and changed the tyre for me (in his pristine white shirt and tie!) And sent me on my way - I was so flustered I never really felt I thanked him enough, but he was a complete star.

I like doing RAOK to pay it back too.

I am mortified that I have only just thought of this.

Last year I was having a difficult time in real life and finding MN too hard to take. A lovely poster (who incidently I haven't seen around for ages ) galvanised a collection and my door bell rang heralding a massive bunch of flowers. I was barely over the shock when it went again and it was the biggest hamper of chocolates I had ever seen. All from some of the lovely people who post on here and the card with them meant everything. It said From your friends at MN.

Thank you again to you all .

This thread is lovely!

I was wandering in a hungover state of mind though the town centre on a busy Saturday morning. I thought a road was a pedestrian only zone so wandered blindly into the road to get to Primark . Little did I realise there was a bus RIGHT THERE and would have run me over if a young teenage boy dressed head to toe in black with horrible ear piercings hadn't pulled me back by pulling my t-shirt, so vigorously we ended up in an awkward heap on the floor.

I suffer from a really bad back which goes into spasms sometimes without warning. I was struggling out of my local Tesco, nearly weeping in pain trying to push my trolley when an older man with white hair in a ponytail, appeared next to me and helped me. He was chatting to me, saying his back was bad too but it was ok as most of his work was seasonal. He had a bit of a tummy, and a happy smiley face and a white beard. He gently steered me by the elbow to my car and I said "it's the driving that hurts my back." He sympathised and said "hmm, for me, it's the chimneys"!

Totally made my day!

Oh I love this thread!!
Recently I had my purse stolen, abroad, from a church. It had all my money in it as I'd only just arrived in that country, plus cards, and most importantly my train tickets for when I got home. I had nothing and was there for 10 days. What was worse was that I'd had to get an overdraft to afford holiday money in the first place, so I literally had nothing. Random members of the congregation gave money to the priest to give to me, it all spiralled as more people heard what had happened and wanted to help too, and when I added it up it was almost as much as I'd lost! It turned a disaster holiday into a good holiday, and I even had some left over which went to charity once I'd got home. I can't believe the kindness of those people.

When DS was two he shut his finger in the front door and it was hanging on by the skin only. I threw him in the car with a bag of peas tied round said finger with a muslin nappy and drove. Being school run rush hour, every road around Wandsworth Common was jammed.

I whizzed down one road on the wrong side and came to the lights. A chap (himself taking his DC to school) came to my window to ask what was wrong. I managed to tell him that child and finger weren't completely together and he basically ordered me to get DS, sit in his car, parked my car (leaving note for the over zealous wardens and police) and drove us to St. George's A&E. He then took his children to school (now late) and reappeared in the waiting room where he sat and refused to go until DS had come out of surgery 2 hours later. Once DS was out of recovery, he went to get lunch/drinks, and waited with us until DS was discharged that evening. Drove us home, then went and collected my car.

Almost 13 years later he and his wife, and children, have remained very very good friends. Before that day I had never seen one of them before.

I ran away from a job in the middle of the night. I rang the doorbell of someone's house who had their light on but they answered and wouldn't help me. I found the train station and a lady gave me all the money she had so I could get home. Home was 200+ miles away. I got to London Victoria but BR wouldn't help me so I walked the streets of London at 3am. The guard at the coach station gave me money for a coach home. I always remember the woman but not the man so much as I dated him for a while and then he hit me so I don't have fond memories of him.

When I was newly married, (and moved down to the South East from Scotland), my car broke down on the way to work. Recovery came and took the car to the garage and dropped me at the station, to get the train to work. I bought my ticket and phoned my DH to let know what had happened.

As I was on the phone, the train came into the station. I hopped on board and settled down for the journey. When the ticket man came to check my ticket, he said I was on the wrong train! Instead of getting a slow train to London and stopping at the village station I'd have to change at, I'd got on the fast service that didn't stop until Victoria in London!

I sat back thinking "Ah well, I'll have to go to London and back out again. I'm going to be really late for work now". A few minutes later, the ticket man came back and said "Quick, follow me!" I jumped up and ran after him all down the train.

He got the train to stop just for me at this little village station and then it shot off again, up to London.

It wasn't until later that I realised what a major thing he'd done for me. It saved me a lot of time, and I wasn't too late for work.

Shortly after my second child was born, I found a bag in my porch. Attached to it was a note that siad something like "Breast feeding mothers should make sure they keep up their intake of dairy products. Here they are." Inside was a home made cheesecake. This had come from somone who was quite a new friend and she had deliberately not rung to bell for fear of disturbing anyone. This might not sound life changing, but it was... we are now best buds.

When we were buying our "forever" house my dh and I fell in love with a house. The lady who owned the house was in when we looked around and we had a little chat with her about how her family had lived there 40 years and been very happy.

We put an offer in although we had been told there had been lots of offers already, and when the estate agent phoned to tell us our offer had been accepted he also told me that ours wasn't the highest offer, but the lady had really liked us and wanted us to have the house.

We have lived here nearly 6 years now and living here has made such a big positive impact on our lives, I often think of that lovely lady.

I'm disabled and walk on crutches. When I first fell ill I lost a lot of weight so was very thin. One day I was out with a friend in Manchester. I was struggling to walk to the cinema, so we decided it was easier for him to go on and get tickets while I carried on walking at my own, painfully slow, pace. A man came out of a shop and ran up to me, thrusting a carrier bag from said shop into my hand, saying, "I thought you could use these!". He went off before I could see what it was.

My friend came back to find me crying and laughing at the same time, wondering why I was now carrying a bag full of chocolate bars!

Earlier this year my Father was in hospital 2 days after recieving a lung cancer diagnosis and I walked in to visit to find my Mother laying on the floor by his bed having a seizure. I couldn't breathe properly for a minute but the elderly wife of the very ill man in the bay next to my Dad put her hand over mine and said "you have to be strong for your Dad." For a minute I put my other hand over hers and got so much strength from her. Her husband was not much longer for this world and she managed to find some time for me.

I will never forget her.

Not sure if it quite fits, but the thing that gets me through sometimes is a letter a student wrote to me once. I had been teaching her at summer school, she was part of a group of lovely Spanish kids who had been paid by the govt to come over here and learn English.

I have since lost the letter, a wanker ex binned it with all my stuff, but it was so nice. She said that i had made her see that growing up didn't mean having to give up being fun and that she was less scared of growing up because of me.

She obv didn't know how much that meant to me, as I have so little self confidence and it made me so happy to know that I had helped her. I so wish i still had that letter but the memory of it always makes me cry/smile.

the wee auxiliary on the gyne ward where i was recovering from a fairly major procedure was my angel in disguise - sick as a pig post operative, reaction to the general, miserable as could be, was out of it when the card for dinner options came round for 3 days. Day four, missed the cards again but was feeling better - must have looked wistful as the meal cart came round - lovely lovely auxilliary asked me if I was hungry and hustled off and made me sandwiches from her own stash & went and got me a can of cola from the hospital shop.
felt like crying with gratitude. I probably did a bit.

When I was travelling alone last year, on the train from Guangzhou to Lhasa, I woke in the night feeling terrible (it was altitude sickness). I managed to stagger to the bathroom but when I came out I suddenly went blind and completely lost the ability to walk. This kind Chinese man saw that I was in trouble (I was clinging to the wall, I couldn't move), helped me onto a bunk, and went to fetch the train guards. He also woke up a friend who spoke a little English and could translate for me, since I don't speak any Chinese. The guards were obviously rather worried about me but my sight came back fairly quickly so they just gave me some oxygen and left me to it.

The next day the whole carriage had apparently heard that I was ill - people kept coming to check that I was OK, and a lovely girl gave me some herbal medicine. My saviour from the night came back to take my picture, and gave me his address and phone number in case I ever needed anything. I'll never forget how kind they all were.

When I was in hospital after having a mastectomy in 2001, I was feeling very sorry for myself a couple of days after the operation; hair was manky and I just felt totally rotten and scared. A lovely auxiliary nurse came to talk to me and offered to help me to have a bath and hairwash. I felt so helpless and weak, so it was wonderful to have someone to do this for me. She told me that this was the sort of nursing she signed up for, rather than all the form filling and other bureaucratic stuff that they mostly had to do. I was discharged before she was on duty again, but I'll never forget her kindness.
Nine years later, in hospital again for two major operations, I was having a weepy episode, as I was in so much pain, and they hadn't brought the meds round yet. An angel of a woman in my bay, who had been told the day before that she was going to die soon, as they couldn't do anything to help her with her brain tumour; she was the first person over to give me a hug and some reassuring words. She passed away a few weeks later. I'm filling up just thinking about it, I'll never forget her.
During the same time, a lovely person from another forum, whom I'd only met once briefly, made a 150 mile round trip to come and see me.
My fab former workmates came to see me regularly in hospital, and when I came home. They once brought round a picnic to my flat, including drinks, napkins, plastic cutlery and paper plates, even a tablecloth.

What a lovely, heart-warming thread. So often,you only ever seen to hear about how badly people treat each other (I guess it's the something good, tell one person, something bad, tell 10 rule), so it's nice to read so many tales of people reaching out to help complete strangers.

My own is the lovely BA Cabin Service Director who moved me into Business Class when I flew from Singapore to Sydney at six months pregnant and suffered agonising back-pain. It was impossible for me to sit comfortably in economy and the only thing that relieved the pain was to lie down flat. I was in tears, exhausted and emotional, and thought I'd end up having to stand most of the flight.

Lovely crew made me a cup of tea, rubbed my back and got me a hot-water bottle to help relieve the pain. Flight was absolutely packed but they managed to sort out a seat in Business and I was able to lie down for the rest of the flight. CSD checked on me every so often to make sure I was okay.

I was so, so grateful for their time and thoughtfulness.

One more was in the same tescos mentioned above. I had forgotten my purse and was standing at the till with all my shopping when a mum from DS's school offered to pay for it for me. I didn't know her at all as her DD was in yr 6 when DS was in reception, she just recognised me from the playground. So lovely of her, i paid her back and gave her some chocolate.