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

My mother was not very happy at all with the University I wanted to attend (It was the best one in the area but she had some stupid ideas about American universities). It took me ages to convince her to allow me to try for it.

The university had an introductory program for students who were not profficient in English and need it to improve it a bit before going into the average courses. Problem was that I asked for the info in English and that ruled me out of the program and an academic aptitude exam and landed me on the TOEFL list when I could barely order fries in Mc Donalds. I thought I had ruined the chance until I saw a guy carrying some documents that had the University logo, we started talking about it and I mentioned about the problem I was in. HE was great, he lend me the books to study for the test, studied with me, took me to the test and waited for me to finish to return me home. I never came accross him again in all the time in Uni, but I will be forever grateful for that, without his help my life would have been completely different.

Anyways, I passed the test, and the first thing my mother told me when she learnt I had been accepted was that I was not going to get any help from her and that I should prepare my self to do the "work" as she was not going to provide even the means for transport, which was a bad thing because that would mean a 2.5 hours commute each way, which included walking in bad areas and 3 or 4 buses each way. So, after a couple of weeks with me happily going through that (I was determined to attend that university), I met with some friends and a guy who was around told me he had seen me walking on his way to University, asked where I lived and took me to Uni for 6 months despite the fact I was living way out of his way. He said that in his first year he was also faced with the same and that so many people had supported him that once he got a car started to pay the favour forwards. Needless to say that when I finally got a car, it was like a bus!

I'm also indebted to a Swedish woman married to a Belgian man, who decided to spend 6 hours while we were stranded in a Italian airport, talking to me about the problems faced in multicultural marriages. I had just started dating DexH, and where not clear at all of what it was to come. The things she said to me about what was fair and what was not, have stayed with me ever since. She was a very positive influence in my married life despite me not seeing her again after she boarded her flight.

My handbag was robbed in Charles de Gaul last year. I missed my flight and as there were no further flights to Dublin that night, I was panicking to say the least. A complete stranger, a security guard gave me money for a B&B and the cost of the taxi fare back to the airport. He and his wife would have put me up in their home but had relatives visiting and had no room.

The security guy told me that prior to getting married, himself and his wife found themselves in a similar situation in Australia and no one came to their aid.

On return to Dublin, I was all set to post back the money lent to me but then realised I'd lost the piece of papaer with his address. I was devastated because I thought he might think I was just some opportunist chancer.

Last week clearing through a load of papers etc I came across his address. I can't wait to post the money across and will be forever grateful for his act of kindness.

Back in 1999 I volunteered with a homeless charity in London, giving out bottles of water and sandwiches and medicine etc, well one day I was trying to help up a homeless man as he was quite clearly very ill and needed to go to hospital, now being 5ft4 and at the time weighing less than 7stone I clearly struggled to get him up (he was a big guy, well over 6ft) now about a dozen buisness in suits walked past pretending they hadn't seen us when a chavvy, tracksuited teenage boy swaggered over, I was thinking, oh no I can't cope if he is any trouble, when he said, looks like you need a hand there mate, he then proceeeded to help the bloke up, called us an ambulance on his mobile (I'm ashamed to say I was told by the charity not to take money or phones with me as they'd be nicked and I followed their advice) and bought 3 cups of tea for us all while we waited for the ambulance!

I was just so ashamed by how I had been stereotyping without even realising it

Or because you're so mean and menacing that no-one is nice to you?

LOl
i juist want to be all mean and menacing
i am goign to THINK hard

ooh - is it because you're forgetful or no-one's ever been kind to you? (I can't believe the latter would be true)

I was in Tenerife in a nature park with dh and dd (12 months) when one of the "tame" limas we were supposed to feed suddenly attacked me and left deep stratches in my calf. There was alot of blood and panic as the other tourists tried to get out of the fenced area as quickly as they could. Dh was trying to hold me up and carry dd at the same time as I couldn't walk. Two men carried me up a slope to an ambulance and drove dh to the hospital. One of the men's wives translated for me and made sure we knew where the local pharmacy was for AB's. They spent about 3 hours with us even though they had their own children to think about. I am immensely grateful to them and wrote to thank them when I got back to England.

NO

Not a random act from a stranger really, but rather consistent kind acts from someone who barely knew me......

When I was in college we spent a year abroad in Austria. The local coordinator's job was to help me find accommodation and that's all. But she did much much more, inviting me and my friends over for dinner at least once a month. 4 of us arrived with a cheapo bottle of wine between us, and proceeded to devour a fabulous meal and as much booze as the house could hold. Then we'd mutter a feeble 'thank you' and leave, not to bother contacting her for the whole month, until the next invite came. I always think I must have seemed so ungrateful, greedy, never giving back in return. I admire her so much I hope to give that sustained kindness back to someone else.

I was trying to park my car in a car park and ended up too close to a concrete pillar. I still hadn't parked properly and I knew that I would damage my car if I moved it any further. I just just sat there in tears not knowing what to do.

A man knocked on the window and told me he could move it. He said it would end up scratched but it had to be moved and he could limit the damage.

What a nice man.

I read this thread last night with a lump in my throat - how lovely people can be

The kindness I met with from hospital staff during my brother's illness was always so welcome; I can't fault the many different nurses, doctors, cleaners, porters, techies and other staff who made sure he was treated like a person, not a case, while he was sick. I know he met many more than I did and had a few less happy times, but overall I was really stunned at how people who spend their lives dealing with complex and fraught situations could still find the time to care about patients and their families in such an individual way.

In particular, two things stand out: the first was when Si was first admitted to hospital, when a series of traumatic events culminating in emergency spinal decompression resulted in him being diagnosed with a rare, horrible and difficult to treat cancer. He ended up spending a month in a specialist hospital, having three operations and being told progressively worse news about his disease and prognosis. Obviously this was a massive shock to all of us - he was only in his early thirties and the cancer was a complete bolt from the blue.

Simon's surgical consultant was brilliant but very busy and hardly ever available, physically or emotionally, which is fair enough. But the SpR, Dr Way, despite being attached to this very busy team, always went out of his way to make time for Si, to keep him abreast of all the test results, developments, procedures etc. He always had time to explain things, to sit and have a chat, and I got the sense that he genuinely liked Si (which wasn't hard). When it became clear that the cancer had already spread to Si's lungs, meaning he was Stage 3 at diagnosis and realistically faced a very slim chance of survival even past five years, Dr Way made time to come down and tell him himself, as soon as he knew, and to be there for all of Si's questions and fears. He always had the time. That was so important to all of us, in such a scary situation. And he never made Simon feel like just a fascinating medical case - he was just a person.

The other thing that stands out is less happy, but one of those tiny insignificant moments that actually means so much. My brother died last year after a period of sharp decline, and we all spent his last week camped out around his bed basically waiting for it to happen. He slipped away one morning; my DP went out to tell a member of staff as the rest of us stood sobbing and shocked. A young Australian nurse came in, spoke to us a little bit, and went over to him, and as she checked him over I heard her say "Poor love". It was so clearly a spontaneous expression, not staged for us grieving relatives to hear, but just because she was moved by the sight of him lying in his bed, so reduced and degraded by disease. For some reason it meant a lot to me and still does...that she marked his passing with compassion.

this is going back to when i was at secondary school i was walking home in the rain after some bullys stole my bus fair it was about a mile and a half home , it was chucking it down and i was cold wet and tired a woman was walking towards me and asked if i wanted a day rider ( a bus ticket for £2.50 where you can use it all day on any bus) she must have read my mind she truly was an angel!

I was on my way to a friend's house and driving along the Fosse Way when my wheel fell off (and bounced over a nearby fence, I hasten to add!), so I was stranded in the middle of no-where on my own. I called the RAC who said they'd be an hour, but actually they took over 3 hours (by which point it was very dark, cold and wet!). I was quite close to a little cottage and a guy came out after about an hour with a cup of coffee, said he'd passed me on his way back from work. We stood and had a chat and he said to come up to his cottage if I needed to get warm. I thought that was a really nice gesture, I didn't know him from adam.

What a lovely thread this is.

About 20 years ago I was dragging a heavy bag of belongings along a street in Liverpool with tears streaming down my face (I'd just discovered that my much loved boyfriend had been shagging around). A guy stopped me and insisted on carrying the bag to my street. On the way he put up with my "All men are bastards" rant and just nodded sagely. What a sweetie.

Patsy

Don't know whether this qualifies as staying in my mind forever as this only happened about a month ago, but....

1. the Frenchman who risked his life sidestepping down a cliff-face to rescue DH's ski that had fallen off his boot from the chairlift. 2)the other Frenchman who hoisted DD (a hulking great 9 year old) on to his shoulder after he discovered her sobbing at the edge of the piste refusing to ski another inch further, and schussed down to the easy bit with her squealing in glee all the way. (DH and I were on the scene, promise, but with insufficient skills/muscles to do what he did, plus we'd lost patience with her by this time).

Don't know whether this qualifies as staying in my mind forever as this only happened about a month ago, but....

1. the Frenchman who risked his life sidestepping down a cliff-face to rescue DH's ski that had fallen off his boot from the chairlift. 2)the other Frenchman who hoisted DD (a hulking great 9 year old) on to his shoulder after he discovered her sobbing at the edge of the piste refusing to ski another inch further, and schussed down to the easy bit with her squealing in glee all the way. (DH and I were on the scene, promise, but with insufficient skills/muscles to do what he did, plus we'd lost patience with her by this time).

What a lovely thread!

Mine was when dd was 1 day old. It was night 2 in hospital and dd just wouldn't stop crying. I fed her and fed her and as soon as I put her down to sleep she'd cry. I was exhauted and this lovely girl came and sat with me at about 2am (she wasn't a midwife) - she helped me latch dd on, she cuddled dd and winded her. She offered to take her awy so that I could get some sleep but I just couldn't let dd go - so she sat by my bedside while I splept with dd on my chest and watched to make sure she didn't roll off. It was only an hour's sleep but I was so grateful. I never saw her again so I was never able to thank her in person.

I'm so grateful to all the people who looked after me when I was pregnant and travelling by Northern line every day. I was a complete mess for the first 3 (and last 3!) months and kept on fainting all over the place. I;m particularly grateful to the guy who helped me at Camden Town when the tube I was on decided to go down the wrong branch of the Northern Line. He got me onto the new train shouted down the carriage to get people to move up and ran a competition to see who would give me their seat first. Lovely man.

I slipped over on an icy pavement when I was 6 months pg. A lady and her mum came over to me and got help to lift me (how embarrassing!) What I remember most was how kind, caring and reassuring the mum was to dd who was 3 at the time. Bless her, she was terrified seeing her mum lying prone on the floor. They took us to the nearest cafe and bought us tea and biscuits. I still can't get over just how kind they were to us. I still keep in touch with them.

My exhaust dropped partially off one wet evening with 2 small DCs in the car.I got out to see what the noise was and a man came out of his house, got a mat to get down on the road (he was wearing a suit)and look underneath. He managed to pull off the bit that was hanging down and put it in the boot for me to get the short distance home. All in the pouring rain.I was most grateful as I wouldn't have had the strength to pull it off myself.

I was heavily pregnant with DS and had DD (20 months) in the car asleep . I had gone to the tip to drop off some junk and then was taking the car to the garage to get my exhaust fixed as it was a bit loose. While I was there though I noticed that my "loose" exhaust was actually hanging off! I was getting all flustered and stressed out and two lovely men (who were also dropping off stuff at the tip) came to my rescue. They went to find someone at the tip to get tools and were soon on the floor under my car trying to temporarily fix the exhaust. When they found they couldn't, the bloke at the tip who had come over brought out some string and they managed to string the exhaust up so it wasn't dragging on the road while I drove to the garage. They were so lovely and helpful - it was great. I was almost in tears, I was so relieved.

Ths thread has really got me thinking: it is a bit like that film "Pay it forward" and reminds me that I should really be doing more to pass on my own bit of karma. It is usually constrained to offering people small amounts of change when they are struggling to find the money at a checkout.

I have remembered another (embarassing) incident about a RAOK . Dh (dp at the time) and I were staying at a resort just north of Mombasa. We deciced to be brave and go for a meal in the evening in Mombasa. We had had our meal and were trying to catch a matatu (minibus) back to the resort in the dark. This guy kept on bugging us as we waited and we kept on shooing him away, saying we weren't interested. At the same time we were despairing of catching the matatu, as they all appeared tob e full. Eventually he got us to answer the question about where we were going, at which point he was able to tell us "Well, you don't wait here, you need to wait down there"

I was travelling back from visitng my pen firend in the SOuth of Farnce aged 17. Carrying my heavy bag across Paris between Gard du Nord and Gard de Lyon, I tripped and fell dwon some stairs in the metro, sparining my ankle. I had a whole day in Paris, and after putting my bags in left luggage, then tried to hobble about and visit the Louvre. I was in so much pain that I didn't get much further than the the arches of the Louvre - I hadn't realsied it was so large. I birst into tears and a nice gendarme took pity on me. He sat me dwon, called the Police Secours and then came with me to the loca hospital, where they x-rayed my foot. I wandered out of the hpsital and discovered I was in the square beside Notre Dame.

I remember that every time I vist Paris - as we always go to a wee a wee cafe just beside Notre Dame and I think how most people wouldn't even know there was a hosptial there.