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

I was visiting my friend, she had her new baby in a sling and I had dd in a buggy, dd was about 6mo, her dog ran off and was hit by a car, my friend was a pieces, and I had only just arrived and had no idea how to get back to her house, a couple in a house nearby had seen the crash, they took my friend and her dog to the vets, and a young lad who was passing walked me and the babies back to my friends house because I didn't know the way, we were about 30 mins away from home and he had to go totally out of his way. I don't know what we would have done without these people.

I once fainted in the street in Camden. A nice lady came running out of a cafe, picked me up, dusted me off and sat me down with a huge pot of tea and stern instructions NOT to move until I was feeling better.

Dh is very good at RAOK, far too many to list here. Sadly when he was severely depressed, he lost this part of himself. I knew he was on the mend when he was late to pick me up and explained he'd had to stop on the way because he'd driven past a biker who had managed to fall off. Dh turned round and went back to help - seems the guy had managed to trap the hem of his jeans under the bike stand so was completely helpless and unable to get out.

When dh explained why he was late, I was THRILLED because I knew he was getting better

When I was 15 my dog was about 10 weeks and I took her out a walk up past a main road but there was a huge grassy hill upfrom it so I let her off the lead (admittedly stupid)and she ran off the hill and straight down towards the road by the bus stop and there was a bus coming, a random man just lunged toward her and grabbed her whilst he thudded towards the ground he basically saved her life.

I thanked him and later saw him at the bus stop on crutches, he had badly hurt his hip bone in the fall I think I said thanks to him every time I saw him.

I will always remember the kind German tourists who seeing me sitting down on the spiral staircase inside the tower of Saint Pietro in the Vatican City, offered to help me down the stairs. I am prone to claustrophobia and am also scared of heights and spiral staircases. I got up to the cupola ok but coming down some other tourists behind me were a bit too boisterous for my liking. I had a minor flap and was unable to move so I sat down on the stairs where I was. There was space for people to get past.

Everyone else just streamed past me but these tourists stopped to check I was ok. In the end I realised if someone else had been sitting there I would have hated them so embarassment made me get up.

The other kindness I remember was a few months ago: I caught a train without a seat reservation and plonked myself in any old seat. I had to give this up but the person in the seat next to me gave up his seat for me as I quite frankly looked like death warmed up. He stood in the corridor for over an hour until a seat became free.

Thank you so much to the people concerned .

My car had broken down on the dual carriageway when DS was about 3 months old.

I was stood there, holding DS, on the hard shoulder waiting for the AA.

Someone else pulled up in the layby. Turned out he was a car mechanic. He and his pregnant girlfriend had been driving on the opposite carriageway. They saw me and pulled off at the next junction then turned round to come back to me.

He fixed my car (turned out to be something very simple) and I was able to drive off.

Lovely, lovely people. They had seen me with the baby and decided to come and help.

I was walking to pick up my Dcs from school, pushing the pram with DD4 in, it was very cold and I heard a voice calling me. When I turned arround, there was this nice lady urging me to take the gloves she was handing me. She had just seen me through her window and thought I could do with something warmer on. I thought this was the kindest thing to do to someone you do not know.

What a lovely thread!

I was in Great Ormnond Street with ds 2 days old. He couldnt stop crying all night and the nurses were really rushed off their feet (except to offer formulae - but that deserves its own thread lol). Anyway the women looking after her granddaughter next door came in and took ds for a while so that I could have a break. I will never forget that kindness - i had felt so alone and she and such a difference

DarksomeNight - its outrageous that you were fired for that. Well done you.

My father uses crutches and can't walk or stand without them. He dropped one when out and about. While struggling with one crutch and trying to make his way towards a nearby tree to lean on and sliding the dropped crutch along the ground, a bus stopped and the driver leapt out, ran over the road and picked it up for him.

A driver once stopped and remonstrated with my ex boyfriend who was walking me home from the pub and had got a bit physical (grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me against the wall). I am still very grateful to that guy even though I wasn't in any real danger from the exbf who knew fine well how much trouble he would be in if he did hit me.

When I was 8 my brother and me were cycling down a big hill and I fell off. (We were racing a tractor - kids) The tractor driver stopped and sent my brother home while he stayed with me til my stepdad came to get me. Stepdad was out for the day so he went to get his car and took me to the hospital and waited til my mum came. Bless.

I have also done some good deeds, though perhaps stupid. Was au pairing in the US and driving to get the children on a school run - now remember mums I was 19 and a bit naieve(sp?) A big fat African American Man had broken down in front of me at the lights and he was a builder doing work at the school I was going to which was up a truly mountainous hill which he would have had to walk up. So I took him >with one of the children in the car
I had no idea picking up hitchhikers was illegal, and in my defence he wasn't really a hitchhiker and was lovely, and SOOOOO grateful to me. I got fired though as the mum found out and went ballistic.

I don't regret it though.

Only just seen this lovely thread! When I was 19 I was travelling around SE Asia with my then boyfriend. Must have been slightly nuts, as we'd decided to hitch hike from northern Malaysia to Singapore. It was pretty slow going, till a really nice car pulled up and asked where we were going. I said that we wanted to get to the main road a couple of miles away so that we could then hitch straight down to the next town and from there, on to Singapore.

When the driver got to the town, he said that it was such a pity that we were missing some of the best bits of his country, so could he give us a tour?! From about midnight to 2am the three of us had a fantastic time exploring the city of Melaka while the rest of the city slept. Finally, he said that we must not carry on that night, as it was now too late, but dropped us at a hotel and said that we should carry on in the morning. We were knackered, so we thanked him, said goodbye and went inside to get a room.

We had our best nights sleep in weeks and, in the morning, headed downstairs to pay. The receptionist looked confused and said "But you've already paid it!" Our friend was waiting in reception, and having already settled our bill, asked if he could treat us to breakfast at a nearby restaurant before we carried on hitching. We were glad to see him again, and insisted on treating him. As we ate he gave us an envelope: inside were two luxury coach tickets to Singapore, leaving that evening, a short list of things to do in Melaka, and spending money to pay for the rest of our time there!!! He said that his daughter was about my age, and he hoped that if she ever went travelling she'd also be treated with kindness by strangers.

I'm still amazed at how breathtakingly lovely and unbelievably kind that gentleman was, and wish I could let him know that every time I think about acts of kindness, I always picture him - the ultimate example.

My Mum taking me and my sister through London with three massively heavy suitcases when we were little. First time in the city and we were all scared and she had to leave us at the bottom of a very tall flight of stairs while she carried each of these suitcases up to the top. Young man in a suit came along and ran up the stairs with all our luggage (he had to make three trips) and pointed us in the right direction. Such a small thing but I have always remembered it.

Any one who stops and helps me get my buggy and children up the stairs when I am travelling.

i love this thread.

have just remembered a recent thing that happened - we had just arrived in America, and still had a hire car. I was driving around, constantly lost (I don't mind that, I was just finding my bearings), when my tire literally blew and the car swerved, I had to steer it to the side of the road.

I had my dc's in the back, it was ROASTING hot, there was a week's worth of shopping in the boot, it was about 5pm and I needed to get home. Needless to say I didn't have my mobile charged up. I was about to go and knock on the door of a nearby house for help, but I didn't even know who I'd call! Anyway, I was getting a wee bit panicky, that kind of frustrated teary way, and the dc's were getting upset, when two lovely hispanic gentlemen approached me, and hardly saying anything they just went about the business of changing my tyre. They barely spoke any English, and when they were done I was thanking them profusely, and trying to offer them money, or the case of beer I had just bought! They refused everything.

If it hadn't been for them I would really have been in bother. Lovele, lovely, kind men. My dh was so impressed he wrote a letter about the whole incident to the Washington Post praising their generosity of spirit, which was published.

This is one thing I'll always remember.

My mum died when I was 4, my dad ran a pub and very often there would be a lock in. One night I remember sitting in the bar with very drunk people in my nightie, there was some kind of fracas, shouting and fighting and such.

Two young women took me upstairs and tucked me into bed, one of the women kept saying that they should go but the other one was worried about me and didn't want to leave.

That was 36 years ago and I'll never forget that act of kindness.

Back in 1972 I was just 18, hitching in France with a male friend and almost no money at all; we experienced several RDOK. One was a lift all the way from the Alsace region to Paris, from a young woman who, realising we had nowhere to sleep in the city, gave us floor space in her bedsit - and when we woke in the morning she had already gone to work!
Then just a few months ago, cold dark night, dp and I getting ready to change a wheel outside our house in insalubrious area of London, young man passing by on his way home takes pity on 2 middle-aged women, stops and does it for us v competently in about 10 minutes.
This thread is so lovely!

I like to give ROAK's to anyone (although I've not yet had the pleasure of receiving one, but I can say that I'm honestly not bothered, I much prefer the warm gooey feeling of giving! )
One of my favourites that I'll remember forever entered my head whilst walking home from my mum's house.
I had been living in a shared house for nearly a year when my great grand father died, he was cremated on St Patrick's day (I'll never forget that either as he was Irish, born and bred!) and my mum had kindly brought me back to her's for dinner but I had to get home to make sure I was ready for work the next day etc.
So, dropped by an off-liscence for some drinky-poos (I'm telling you I needed it!), walking through town with my bag of booze I saw a young homeless woman playing one of those irish pipe thingies (Piccolo? ), sat down with her, shared a bevvie, gave her my jacket and wandered off home. . . I did offer for her to come back and sleep in a warm room but she declined (I must've seemed like a complete nutter!).
I always smile when I think of her and it makes me feel so happy to know that she knows of the kindness of strangers.

I truly believe that it is possible for us all to live like this, giving and receiving, but our governments would not survive if we did!

My son broke his arm really badly in a playground jumping off a swing, but at the time i was also looking after my friend's two children (plus my daughter). A v kind elderly gentleman who was in the park with his grandson went to the phone box to call an ambulance, and because when it arrived all five of us had to get in and I had no way of telling their mother what had happened (children were too young to know their telephone number and I was too distraught to remember it off the top of my extremely muddled head) he was even more generous and went to my friend's house to let her know what had happened and what hospital we'd been taken to. I would give anything to know his name and thank him.

GentleOtter, that's really made me laugh! The image of loads of camoflaged bad boys melting out of the undergrowth and sorting you out - brilliant!

Slightly similar (but much less impressive): my best friend was cycling home a bit worse for wear, crashed her bike and did something to it that meant it wouldn't run properly. She also hurt her leg. So she was limping home at about 2am through New Cross, feeling very sorry for herself and pushing her knackered bike along, when this guy dressed in a huge white coat just appeared on the path before her - she must have looked a bit needy because he knelt down and had fixed her bike within minutes. Then he waved her on while she blustered out some thank-yous Bicycle Repair Man lives!

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Some of these stories make you feel SO warm inside...
My Robin Reliant broke down in the middle of nowhere in very heavy rain. I was prepared just to sit and have a minor panic when what seemed like hundreds of soldiers appeared out of nowhere - all with bushes on their heads and painted faces.
They were on an excercise but they produced a cup of tea, mended my car then waved and blew kisses as I drove away.

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I've just remembered one about my DH - He was then my boyfriend.

He was staying over at our house (on the sofa in the living room) and my Gran was also staying with us and was sleeping in the next room on the sofabed.

She got up during the night and called upstairs for my dad but she had such a soft voice, she didn't wake anyone upstairs. DH got up and went in to her. She needed help to go to the toilet and he helped her there and back. But she went into the living room and sat on his bed and carried on chatting away to my DH until morning.

She died a few weeks after that.

We all appreciated how kind he was to my Gran - he said he was too scared to go upstairs and wake my parents!

I take my DH for granted too often and I should remind myself of his RAOK from time to time.

I've got lots and lots but here are two:

Flew up to Benbecula last summer with BA (spit swear) who managed to lose my bag. Stupidly I'd packed all of my gear and ds's gear including his teddy (who he can't get to sleep without) in it (needless to say all dh's gear including fishing gear arrived no problem).

there is only one shop on south uist that sells clothes afaik and it wasn't fantastic, but i did manage to get some knickers for me and ds and socks but that was it, we had the clothes we stood in and nothing else.

I phoned benbecula airport on the hour for the next 3 days, could not get a number for lost luggage glasgow from anyone, given short shrift by BA customer services, apparently no one knew where my bag was, except that I knew fine well it was at glasgow and hadn't made the connection to Benbecula.

Posted a huge rant on MN. Next day midnightexpress went to the airport, found my bag and got it on the next flight (I'm in tears remembering this). She said something like 'oh, i've got not much on this morning and don't live far from the airport'. But she went massively out of her way for me and I'll never forget it, Thank you so much you lovely lovely woman!

Second one, was interrailling aged 17 with then boyfriend. We missed a connection and realised we had 15 hours to wait in Milan (i think it was), were short of money, hadn't budgeted for the hotel there. The people we were on the train with said get off with us in Bologna and spend the time with us instead of walking the streets of Milan. They took us to their mum's apartment, an amazing one in the centre of Bologna with frescoes on the wall, fed us an amazing lunch. put us in a huge double bedroom with a beautiful white crisp sheeted bed in it (best bed we'd seen for about 3 weeks). we slept for hours and then they took us to an incredible restaurant for some of the best food we'd ever had or that i've had since. Then they drove us to the train station and saw us onto our connecting train. Can't remember their names but they were lovely people.

That's it, Marina's son and the allergy table have finally got me in tears. A huge thank you for all people out there who make the life of our little ones easier.