What's the kindest thing you've ever experienced?

[flopsytheflatcat]

an act of kindness to you or one you've witnessed or heard about?

My dad died last year after a very traumatic time and not long afterwards, I scuffed a car in a supermarket car park, while reversing, my mind was elsewhere
Sobbing and with shaky hands, I left an apologetic note on the windscreen, together with my landline number and left with a feeling of dread

I arrived home later that day to the kindest message on my answerphone, to say that it didn’t matter, the scuff would polish out, not to worry. The man’s voice was so soothing, I can still recall it now. The man had no idea what I was going through, but it was as if he’d sensed something

@Herja that has really touched me. What a wonderful person.

So much kindness in the world.

I’ll never forget the lovely lady who found my wallet at a service station a few years ago. I’d just arrived at Pepps Pig World (!) and realised wallet was lost. Panicked, I cancelled my cards and assumed my £60 in cash was gone. This kind lady tracked me down to Bath and contacted me and arranged to get my walked back to me. When I asked for her address ( to send a present) she refused and said she just wanted the help. She was truly amazing!

When I was sectioned I had no idea about what was going on. My friend travelled by train to me and bought pads, hair bands, basic clothes etc which I was left without for several days. Can't every repay her 💕

My heart is warmed by these posts and I am especially touched that so many feature Nurses. I am a (mature!) nursing student and if I can touch peoples lives like this I will be truly blessed... I will carry these stories with me when I work alongside people... 💕

Mine is small in comparison but will never forget how kind my ex boyfriend's friends were to me when he dumped me. We were all living & working in Australia and my own friends had already gone home so I was on my own when he dumped me. I booked a flight home and they insisted on treating me to dinner & drinks on my last night in Oz and made sure I was ok. Tiny in comparison to some stories here but it meant so much at the time

I was divorced with a 10 year old when my Mum died just before Christmas.
My Dad gave me some money for Christmas and my DS made me a card at school. But it was only DS and I on Christmas morning and I had nothing to open.

A few weeks later youngest DSIL asked what I had got for Christmas. She was dismayed i had only got money from my Dad and nothing else. (We only bought fir the children in the family. None of us were well off then. My Mum had always got me something small to open.)

The following Christmas DSIL turned up with DS present and a box for me. She had collected small things over the year. Just things like a nail file. A packet of scrunchies ( this was the eighties) a small bar of chocolate. There was 52 things in that box. I will never forget what she did for me that Christmas

When my teenage DD was being investigated for bone cancer my wonderful boss wrote to me to say that she hadn't phoned in case I wasn't ready to talk, but to take as much time off as I needed and not think about work at all. Thankfully the growth was benign but I will always remember her kindness.

onlyoneoftheregimentinstep I have walked in your shoes (thankfully DD's wasn't cancer either), and I was lucky to have a wonderful and understanding boss.

I had one just today, might not seem like much but it was so kind and helpful. My youngest DS (4)was off school today with a high temp. I had to pop to aldi and whilst in there he vomited, I had no option but to catch it in my hands (as you do!) two wonderful ladies immediately stepped into help, one grabbed wipes etc and the other got some water and when she returned with it told me she'd paid for it so I needn't worry. This might seem small but they were both so kind.... I think it's good for our hearts to be reminded every now and then that most people in the world are good..

My daughter was diagnosed with cancer at 7 months. A friend turned up with a box filled with everything from coffee to tins 2 days later. 14 years later I will never forget what she did

A nurse who looked after my sister (who later passed away) bumped into me 3 years later and gave me a big hug, asked how I was and then asked after my sisters partner and son by their first names. I found it so heart warming that after all the years that had passed and all the patients he must see, he remembered my family. I burst out crying when he said it.

My adult niece spent her Christmas eve last year running around our town trying to buy me a second hand car as mine had broke the day before and nowhere was opened to fix it. I was stuck in work the whole day and she knew I really needed one for the Christmas plans I had with in-laws relying on being picked up by me etc.

This is so trivial in comparison to others, but...

I had a flat tyre. I didn’t realise until I arrived at a shop after the school run. My husband wouldn’t come to me as he was ‘ill’ (a cold). I text my friend, told her it was flat as a pancake. She asked why my husband wasn’t coming so I told her. She stopped texting me. About 15mins later, her husband arrived, in his car and attempted to change my flat for his spare. He didn’t have the right tool to get the bolts off so went to his house to find something. That didn’t fit either, so he went to the mechanic round the corner and borrowed their tool. It worked and he put his spare on for me. He doesn’t realise till this day what he did and all that effort meant to me, especially as he was due to leave for work a mear 20mins after he’d finished so was pushing it. I could have hugged him but I’d have probably burst in to tears in his arms!!

I love this thread so much. They’re always my favourite on Mumsnet.

One I remember was when I was having a physical argument with a really horrible ex in a supermarket car park late at night ... a ‘hooded youth’ on a bike on his own, only around 14 or 15 came over to us and asked me if I was ok. The man I was with was a big, strong man and this young thing wouldn’t have stood a chance but he still wanted to make sure I was ok.

I often want to offer a kindness to a stranger but am worried about how it would be received.

I was on my 3rd miscarriages within a year and there where parts of the baby holding the neck of my womb open and l was bleeding heavily, l was in a&e resuss for about 5 hours each hour yet another doctor would try and remove what the “blockage” after the 4th attempt the head nurse in charge said no it’s not fair to try again, we are waiting for surgery, she could see how distressed l was, l loved her for this. Even kinder was the nurse who had had to stay with me to make sure l stayed awake when we had some conversation she told me her second and last attempt of ivf had failed and she had just found out the day before l squeezed her hand a little tighter. Her courage and kindness to me that day was amazing and l will never forget it.

I worked in a prison and have been shown great kindness by the prisoners. I was diagnosed with cancer and a group of Muslim prisoners came to say they had put my name down for Friday prayers and when my husband died some foreign prisoners made me the most beautiful rose origami structure in a paper heart. Kindness has many forms.

I've been with DH 8 and a half years, we went through hell in the first few years. The Home Office accused us wrongly of marriage fraud and tried to deport him which took, actually, years to resolve. I was mentally very frail in this time because he was my only support and family before we had children (and my family did not want me to marry him, his family in his home country unable to help). I was constantly paralysed with fear and used to cling to him at night and rationalise that at least we had survived one more day where they had not knocked the door down to take him away. A friend of his family put us on to an incredible immigration lawyer and we made ourselves utterly poor struggling to pay even her basic fees. It ended up going all the way to the high court and the appeal fees for the hours she worked for us would have been thousands. But she only ever charged us for her original fee, and in the two years it took for the Home Office to drop their unfounded case against us, we had to pay court costs etc to the courts but didn't pay any other money to her. It was still extortionately expensive to recover from but without her doing so much for us pro-bono (and she really knew what she was talking about), we would never have won. I figured out about a year into the fight that we must have owed her thousands of pounds and she said she wouldn't hear of it, that God touched her heart for us and she wanted to right an injustice. She had seen couples divorce over less and had never seen two people so desperate just to be left alone to exist with each other. She's an incredible woman. DH had to renew his residence permit when our DD was a few months old which was much more straightforward thankfully after winning the original court case, and we didn't really need a lawyer for it at all. But we paid her to do it for us anyway just so we could go and sit with her in her office while she filled out the paperwork. I took our then five month old DD with us to meet her and wept as I told her she wouldn't exist without the help she had given us. She said she felt like a grandmother again and it was oddly moving. I'm 36 weeks pregnant with our first DS. I can't wait until my DH has to renew his visa again next year so she will find out. She's one of these people who just lives to help others. And there aren't many humans like that, or lawyers like that.

About twenty years ago we had a struggling garage business and were desperate at Christmas. My dh had done a huge repair including parts on a vehicle which cost over 300 pounds on the 23rd December. All fine and then they drove to the end of the road and car breaks down. We had no Christmas food etc they didn't know this but this young couple insisted my dh kept the money and he fixed the car on the 27th. Makes me cry now but if I ever have money they will be first in line.

I read a book about the Lockerbie disaster a few years ago.

Apparently all the clothes of the people who were on the flight were washed, dried and ironed before they were returned to the victim's families.

Such a simple thing.

Such a lovely thread. What a positive way to start a weekend. I've been reading overnight whilst feeding my daughter.

Mine is very small compared to these but I recently left emotionally abusive dh and moved into first house on my own. I had never done it before and have been overwhelmed by the kindness surrounding me - tradesmen doing more than they should, just to help out: friends interrupting their own weekends to help me get DS' mattress upstairs (couldn't do it on my own); people in shops being kind and supportive when I can't stop crying.

It's a whole different world from all the cold sullenness and anger I knew before. I think there is lots of kindness out there in fact.

My therapist, who taught me how to be an adult. The love and care I got from her was so far from what I was used to.

The man who gave me money to get a taxi home in the middle of the night when my bag was stolen and I was bawling my eyes out. Neighbours had a key.

The man, who bought my friend and I food when our train to the ferry to get back to England was delayed by 6 hours and we’d run out of francs - a long time ago.

The mid 60’s couple, who treated me so kindly when I lived abroad in my early 20’s.

The man, who gave me a lift home when I got lost and missed the last train.

The people, who looked after me when I’ve collapsed - several times - due to chronic illness.

The couple, who looked after me at the service station when I fell asleep on the motorway and crashed into the central reservation (ill, young and very, very lucky). I stopped at the service station and fell to pieces. They gave me a drink and followed me to the next exit, where I was getting off.

This is a lovely thread. Just what I needed. I have people being shitty to me because I am disabled but don’t look it, bump into me because I can’t do things like turn my body when in a confined space so we can both pass, treat me so disrespectfully when I ask them to be careful of me when on (short) dog walks when they pass or keep their dog under control. I had a passive aggressive woman with her dog on the lead let her dog go one side of me and she walked the other side a couple of weeks ago. My falling over could be devastating. Obviously I don’t ask this of everyone but of people with boisterous dogs and / or stretchy leads near me.

My parents live in a remote village but I was in the capital city. My dad has to have a serious operation and was sent to a hospital where I lived and my mum stayed with me for some weeks while he was there. However, we also had to go back to the village for a few days to check on my grandmother who had mild dementia. My city friends made a visitor rota so that my dad had something to look forward to every day, even though some had never met him before. They are lovely friends. 💕

A tiny gesture this, but it warmed my heart to see it. DD(8) started playing for a girls football team this season. She’s the only newbie this term. In her second or third week, they were waiting for their opposition to turn up one Sunday morning, and it was raining quite hard. All the girls were huddled under a gazebo, except DD who was a bit shy of joining the group. The “queen bee” of the team called to DD to come and join them, and welcomed her into their little giggly huddle.

DH was made redundant several years ago, when DD was 4 weeks old and DS was 3. It was about a month before Christmas. We’d already bought DS’s Christmas present, but decided we wouldn’t buy any others. My siblings agreed to this. I felt a but sad that DS would only have 1 present to open.

A lady I had barely known from a toddler group, and had moved abroad sent a parcel of toys from Amazon for DS and DD. Nothing expensive, but all perfect for their recipients. A kind gesture from anyone, but I barely knew this lady, I didn’t even know age knew my address.