What is the kindest thing a stranger has ever done for you?

[user83921]

What is the kindest thing a stranger has ever done for you?

Paid my bus fare on a Mexican bus
Signed me into Kew Gardens as her guest
Helped me when travelling alone and travel sick again on a bus
When our family arrived at extremely expensive event on the wrong night (tickets were for the night before) instead of turning us away they put us in a posh box

Offered to get me a cup of tea in Asda cafe. I had a crying baby and a crying 2 yr old and I was on the verge of crying myself. I could only say no as I could not do anything else without a public crying session. But that kind, kind woman just showed me a glint of light. It was just sympathy. No one got how hard it was at that time (for many reasons) but this woman saw it.

I had a seizure on the road on my way to work one morning and came through with 3 men looking after me. Once I came around instead of getting the bus to work one of them insisted on driving me into town. Such a lovely thing to do.

Not a total stranger but someone I had met only briefly and once on a course. No more than greetings sort of thing.
Fast forward a year or so and i had been diagnosed with a serious illness. Frightened, at a loss etc .
This woman arrived at our door one day with the scruffiest dog ever and simply said 'we wondered if you'd like to come for a short walk '.
Over the next few months they appeared a couple of times a week, would bundle me into a small Fiat car and we'd slowly walk in our local parks. Marvelling at nature and Scruff's endless delight in chasing squirrels. Sometimes we'd talk, often just walk in healing silence.
Then after one walk she simply said, 'you don't need us anymore' and didn't turn up again.
She was nothing short of an angel. I see her in town and we always have a brief chat. I have heard she has provided similar support for others.
A selfless stranger who became a friend.

Many years ago, man helped push my broken down car from the middle of the roundabout where the M5 joins the M50. It was so so dangerous and he barely let me thank him before driving off again. I’ve never forgotten his kindness.

Got a shovel and dug back wheels of my car out of snow.

Actually all seems to be snow related...another time a group of strangers pushed my car out of a verge where I’d skidded into because of a huge flurry of snow that came down so fast whilst trying to get home.

Rocked my screaming baby in there Oran so I could drink my hot coffee!
Baby had been up all night crying (reflux & teething) and I had walked to local cafe to try and get them to sleep in the Pram as soon as I sat day they work and started screaming and o could of cried but this lovely lady just stood by my table and rocked the oram back and forth whilst I drank my coffee....the smallest guesture but 8 years on I still remember the relief I felt that day!

Possibly when they saw me broken down i had just started driving and had somehow left a light on and it drained my battery despite being knackered from a long flight he got my car started again for me... And then got my car out of a really tight space for me.

On our morning walk, my puppy went off after a deer and ended up under the wheels of somebody's car, the driver took us to the vet, which was kind. I had to leave my puppy there overnight for observation.

I left the vet and attempted to walk home, (no card or cash on me) but my mind just went blank, so I went into a petrol station to ask for directions and the morning's events hit me like a ton of bricks and I just kind of stood there snivelling. A lovely woman in the queue just said, "come on love, I'll drop you off". I was so grateful to her.

Broken down in the wilds of Scotland at night in pouring ran. Every car stopped to offer help, someone got the local mechanic and he came but couldn’t sort the car out so he gave us a lift to local pub, where we got taxi back to hotel. If it hadn’t been for the kindness of complete strangers we would have been totally stranded.

Almost at end of a long, long journey and I was negotiating the underground with a grumpy baby, buggy and a large backpack. Beautifully dressed city gent helped me with the buggy down endless steps, on the tube, through the station, through Victoria and onto my last train. He also acquired a bun and a hot chocolate for me somehow. We were together about 45 mins. I assumed he was going my way, but he smiled, named a destination at the opposite end of London and left for his 90+ minute journey home.

This was years ago, so no contactless, and I was also young and not very good at forward planning!

Flew back into UK alone in the v small hours. All cash machines in airport not working and the Bureau de Change was shut.

Airport shuttle didn’t take card, but driver let me travel for free into the rail station at the nearest city.

Missed the last train to my home town by 15 minutes, the next train was in 4 hours. It was a Saturday night and the city sounded like it was at war, with loads of drinkers and clubbers . Asked the staff if they had a waiting room. No, but one of the cleaning staff unlocked a ticket checkers booth and then locked me in as they felt it wasn’t safe for me to wait on my own in the main foyer. Cleaner later came by, offering me one of his sandwiches, and then had a chat to the conductor on the train who made a point of not asking me for my ticket, meaning I travelled all the way back to my home town, safe and free.

As I say, a long time ago, but I always think of how kind everyone was.

Locked keys (and phone, and handbag) in car in a car park in Scotland. Locals were absolutely lovely - felt as though the whole village tried to help me get back in! Didn't work and in the end had to make a long phone call from a resident's house to my breakdown company to come and rescue me.

Also car related - random stranger stopping to change my wheel for me when I had a puncture. I knew how to do it myself (in theory) but was happy to let him take over!

Donate blood. Lots of kind strangers who donated blood saved my life.

When I was about 17 my friend and I got on the wrong train. The ticket inspector on the train informed us that we were headed to London not Birmingham. Being so young we had no clue what to do and had a bit of a teenage girl style panic. A Dutch guy on the train took us in hand, found us a guard at Euston and persuaded him to give us free tickets back to Birmingham.

To the lovely man in a petrol station in Co Wexford in 2006, who I pulled in for petrol and asked directions as I was well and truly lost for the first time in my life,

I had been at an event in the afternoon in Maynooth Co Kildare and was travelling up North (to Co Down Northern Ireland), however due to 5 different diversions I got totally lost and ended up going down the country instead of up and was roughly 80 miles from Maynooth in the wrong direction.

I also didn't like motorways as wasnt a confident driver on them and prefered going thru smaller towns as nicer for travelling generally but not on this occasion.

No satnav, Friday evening traffic, didn't know the area at all and it was also December.

He made me a cup of tea as I cried when I realised I was so lost, while I drank the tea and bought something to eat, he was on the phone to local Gardai to ask re diversions and what was the best way to advise me back. He sent me to get something to eat in a local cafe while he waited on phone calls back.

When I was done eating, he came into the cafe and gave me a list of directions of which towns to go for that wouldn't take me into diversions for miles out of the route, as far as possible pending accidents which couldn't be planned around.

He was very kind and insisted on checking tire pressures, oil, water etc and that I had snacks and drinks etc for the long journey ahead.

I set off, thanking him profusely and over 200+ miles and many hours later I arrived home.

He helped me with directions, made sure I had a good rest before restarting journey, that I had food inside me, that I had snacks and drinks with me for the journey if needed, that my car was ok re basics, he insisted on paying for everything but let me buy the sandwich to go with the tea, he told me someone had helped him out when he was lost once and so he was paying it forward.

I often think of him, I never knew his name (he wouldn't tell me) but am grateful to him. So I took his lead and I have paid it forward in many different ways since.

I try not to judge by appearances, this was a 6ft built like a tank, long-haired, heavily tattooed, pierced man who for all purposes looked like a hells angel but was a real angel to me who wanted no thanks for any of this except Pay for Forward if I could.

Many years ago, a lovely woman and her friend found me trying to sleep in a ladies' loo in Bournemouth. She took me to her house, fed and put me up for the night.

A man changed my wheel for me, in the snow, after a puncture.

A lorry driver sat with me on the verge, holding my hand until the ambulance came.

There are many more examples I could give... the kindness of strangers is a constant theme in my life. Thank you, all of you. 😀

When my exhaust half fell off my car on a country road a man on a motorbike stopped and helped me. It took forever to get the exhaust off the car and into the boot so I could drive home. He was fab. (This was roughly 8 years ago somewhere between Hayward's Heath and Tunbridge Wells if anyone knows him!)

When my baby son was very ill in hospital for 6 months we received so many acts of wonderful kindness from friends and strangers. Home cooked meals delivered to our house, parcels to hospital to cheer us up, toys and books for my son and older dd.

EastMidsGPs your story has made my eyes leak! Wonderful kindness!

Almost forgot this one.
Last summer was a really bad time for us. DM with dementia came to live with us and the DH developed sepsis, had life changing surgery and nearly died.

A knock on the door. A girl of about 10 holding these and her mother. Mother says something along the lines of, my daughter saw you in the garden and thought you looked so sad she asked, repeatedly, if we could buy you some flowers. These are for you.

The girl is a friend of the children 2 doors down. We didn't know her or her mother. She was right I was so sad. But boy did her kindness gladden my heart.

@AprilSpring

Yes. In hindsight i reckon without her I'd have just given up. Her actions have made me a better person.

My baby cried most of the time! When I went to my local bank one of the women employees used to take him for me and walk up and down the bank so I could make my transactions.
She said she she knew how I felt because he son used to cry constantly as well. She was so kind and understanding and really helped me. I have never forgotten her. (He is 20 now).

Not used to driving in European cities, i had been hopelessly driving round Vienna in the Friday rush hour. Eventually found my hotel, abandoned the car outside, too stressed to risk driving further on to find the carpark (daren't risk getting lost again). Tottered into reception, where the very nice man there, offered to park my car for me. It was not a service they provide, but he could clearly see i was willing to have the thing towed away, rather than drive it any more that night. Some people are lovely. I am always on the lookout to pay it forward, and hope maybe i have done so someone out there.

I've been the receipiant of so many acts of kindness but this one sticks with me.

I was a single mum with my 8 week old baby. She'd been screaming for hours and hours. I was in tears and couldn't calm her. I was living in flats which I'd only moved into a few weeks before her birth and hadn't met the neighbours except in passing on the stairs.

At 3am their was a knock on the door and when I opened it the man who lived above me was standing there with 2 cups of tea and a plate full of cake and he said "since we're both awake I thought I'd pop down with a cuppa, let me pop this down and you sit down a moment while I take the baby"

She fell asleep on his shoulder within about a minute or so. He tucked her up in the Moses basket spent 20 minutes chatting to me while we had tea and cake and telling me not to worry and nobody minded and she was just a baby then told me to go and get some sleep while I could and went - and then me and dd slept for 5 whole hours - in the morning I actually wondered if I'd dream it except he'd left the tray behind