What is the most memorable moment you shared with a stranger who you never saw again?

[kgfreo]

In my line of work I came across a lot of people during the worst times of their lives but this happened when I was off duty.

I was driving to my parents house when I saw an older lady laying on the footpath with blood pouring down her face. There was a huge cut on her forehead and her brow ridge was swelling up. I pulled my car across the road and asked her if I could help her or if I could call anyone for her. She refused to let me bring her to a doctor and couldn’t remember any phone numbers so I brought her to a nearby chemist and the shop assistants started to clean her up and got her tea. I felt like a spare part and left quietly.

A few months later I had to go back to the same chemist and when I approached the counter, the assistant said “It’s you!! You’re the girl who helped a woman who had fallen on the road! We’ve been looking and talking about you for months”.
She went on to explain that the lady had been searching for me for months and was referring to me as an Angel that came out of nowhere and disappeared as quick as I had appeared. I asked the shop assistant not to mention that she’d met me. I’m not that significant of a person and I think it’s a nicer thought for that lady to hold on to instead of meeting me.

There are plenty more stories but that means more as I was not in a uniform just “doing my job”.

18 years ago my then boyfriend's three year old son was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour. I sobbed in the back of a taxi the whole way to Great Ormond Street Hospital. When we arrived the cabbie refused to let me pay him. All these years on I still remember that act of kindness.

Into Classics for me too please

I was walking alone and took the short route over a cliff to get back to my hostel. It was late in the afternoon and not many people about. A man walking in the opposite direction with his dog passed me and mentioned there were a bunch of bullocks a bit frisky up ahead. After we passed I stopped and walked back his way, he must have seen my apprehension. waited for me and when I said I couldn’t face the bullocks and would go back and take the long route via the under cliff, he insisted on accompanying me back through the cow field safely.

I felt a complete wooss but was so grateful and felt like giving him a hug to thank him!

I fell on the platform at an airport train station once, a few years ago. Twisted my ankle and tore my dress right down the side seam (I was on my way to a meeting for work). Couldn't get up and genuinely didn't know what to do. A gentleman literally picked me up off the floor - it was the pilot from my flight. He introduced himself and told me was was a doctor before he was a pilot, he checked my ankle and didnt think it was broken. Two of the stewardesses were with him and they discreetly got my jacket out of my bag to hide the big rip in my dress.
The pilot helped me on to the train and insisted on seeing me to my stop, by which time the pain had eased and I was able to hobble to the office.

An absolute gentleman. Ever since I have listened to see if its him on my flights, but no luck yet.

A doctor, pilot and a gentlemen. <swoon>

He was extremely handsome ♥️

Placemarking

The Italians are coming off quite well on this thread!

The nurse who was massaging my belly trying to get my uterus to start contracting after a massive bleed, i was crying and begging her to stop, i had been in labour beforehand for many many hours, i was in so much pain, i kept saying i just wanted to go to sleep, she kept saying she was sorry, pulled my baby in the cot over so i could see them, then took a look under the blanket and saw i was covered in blood again and i was rushed to surgery. I probably haven't explained it very well but she was being so kind i never saw her again, but she was very comforting during a really horrific time.

A young Italian couple put Dh and his bike in their van when he was shivering and stuck as his bike broken halfway up a mountain. Actually there is a theme here with Dh / bike / kind strangers!

When he broke down in rural Ireland the priest opened the church for him to sit in and the local men gathered to admire his flipping bike!

I’m a midwife and I suppose my most memorable moments are being present in the moment of the height of someone’s grief. I’ll never forget the families I’ve cared for where there’s been a poor outcome and often think about couples even 15 plus years on for some of them.

I had taken by 1 year old to the GP with breathing problems , and the GP said he was going to ring the hospital to arrange an urgent admission into hospital.
I went into the GP waiting room crying my eyes out. A lady from a few rows behind came to sit next to me and offered me tissues . She just sat there and held me hand , such a calming influence.

Two stories, slightly different!

i had a very bad miscarriage and lost a lot of blood. I was lying in the hospital bed on the ward afterwards, in the early hours just crying with sadness when the consultant came to chat, amongst other things reassuring me I hadn’t had any permanent damage.

just over a year later she delivered my rainbow baby - again a bit of an emergency including a PPH - she didn’t recognise me (why should she, she must see thousands of people!) but on both times she came in the middle of the night and was this calming, reassuring presence in the middle of a storm.

the other time I was on a canal boat holiday, moored up for the night - I stepped to the front of the boat to get something and saw a man smoking on the back deck of the boat parked in front of us. We exchanged brief ‘evening’ type comments then I went to bed. I was woken early in the morning by the police, the man had gone missing in the night - his body was found a few hours later in the lock behind us, turns out after his cigarette he’d gone for a walk and somehow ended up in the lock and drowning. I was the last person on Earth to see or interact with him. I saw his wife and kids at the inquest and I felt so sorry for them, I often think about them - and my brief interaction with him.

In 2020 mum was taken to hospital and died 2 days later. Because it was right at the start of lockdown 1 none of us were able to be with her. When I collected her stuff the next day it was bought to the main entrance by a HCA. She told me how sorry she was that all she could do was hold mum's hand as she died. The HCA went on to say how "privileged" she felt to have been there with mum at the end and what a lovely woman she was. I am ashamed to say that I never asked the HCA for her name but I will never forget her or the compassion and kindness she gave to mum in her final hours. For that I am truly grateful.

Years ago I went to the final of the first ever Celebrity Big Brother, with my best friend at the time who is disabled and in a wheelchair. There's a lot of waiting around at those things, and the weather was shocking, it just chucked it down with rain all day.

At some point, Davina McCall came to chat to people in the crowd, spotted my friend, and came to stand with us for absolutely ages, holding her umbrella over my friend and getting drenched with rain in the process. After about half an hour, she went off and arranged for us to go and sit in the hut with Security so we could keep warm and dry.

She was a teeny tiny beautiful woman, inside and out, so Davina, if you're reading this, I have never forgotten your kindness and compassion that day, 25 years ago!

I just wanted to say thank you for this wonderful thread. I've been struggling and feeling a bit low recently - this has given me hope for the future and just warmed my heart. So, thank you for all the stories of humanity and hope and kindness. 💐

@JustLikeJasper it wasn’t, it was in London.

When she was in her early teens my daughter was really really difficult. She was permanently excluded from schools, violent, mixing with a very bad crowd etc. We saw doctors, CAMHS, social workers, teachers, and so many police officers. I felt judged by everyone (apart from
the police - they were always kind). We have other children, didn’t treat her differently, and she didn’t have problems in her life. It just seemed to happen.

One day she was brought home by police as she often was and I was talking to the police officers. I knew one well but had never met the other. He said ‘Some kids are just wankers. Most of them grow out of it. She will, she’s got a good family who love her. She’ll be fine.’ He went on to tell me he had four grown up kids and one of them had been a complete wanker but he’d turned into a lovely adult.

He really made me laugh and gave me hope in a time when I didn’t have any.

Amazingly, he was right. She turned a complete corner (it took a while) and has become an amazing woman. I’ll never completely relax, but she’s so happy and sorted and doing really well for herself.

I never saw that police officer again, and don’t remember his name but I think of him and his words often.

I have a couple.
My son 1 week after passing his driving test was going to some Scout training that was a 2 hour drive away. It was a completely unfamiliar area, at night, and it was raining hard.
He had driven to the area fine, but just couldn't find the road to the training place. He had a paper map with him, but was still struggling. No mobile signal, so couldn't phone for help, or get google maps to work.
So he knocked on the door of a cottage, apologised for bothering them, and asked if they knew where training place was located. It probably helps that my son was dressed in Scout uniform.
Guy who answered the door was great, and said yes that road is awful to find, especially in the dark. He started to give directions, and then said, actually let me jump in the car and you follow me - it'll be easier. He then drove approximately 1 mile and showed my son where the road was.
The guy didn't have to get in his car and physically show my son, especially as it was raining hard, dark etc, he could have just given verbal directions - but I am very grateful he went the extra.

About 18 years ago - I was travelling with my son (who was about 6 or 7 years old) to London via Megabus. This journey was overnight and approx 12 hours. My son hadn't slept (but was very well-behaved and quiet, he was reading and watching the world go by), so neither had I.
We arrived in London at about 6am and then had to get to the outskirts to where we were staying (via tubes, train and finally bus!). We had rucksacks each and a large heavy suitcase (which contained our camping gear). After having to drag that suitcase up and down many flights of stairs, I was faced with our last flight of stairs and I was just so damn tired that I looked at the stairs and burst into tears. We were now in the middle of commuter time and many people going up and down the stairs. I was just getting myself together (was honestly something like 30 secs/1 minute) when a guy in a suit who had just come down the stairs, took one look at me, never said a word and carried my suitcase to the top, and then went down the stairs again and on his way.
Honestly I could have kissed him - was just such a little thing, but meant the world to me.

And lastly
July 2021 my Dad contracted Covid and ended up in Covid ICU and then died. Every doctor and nurse who looked after him were amazing. There was no visiting - which was very hard. We had a daily phone call from a doctor every single day, who gave an update. They did everything they could to save him.

When it came to our end of life visit, my Mum, myself and my brother were there. The doctor and nurse who we met were so respectful. They appeared to have all the time in the world for us, and made sure we fully understood what had been done and the situation we were now facing.
When it came time to turn off his life support, the nurse stayed with us, and she said my Dad was a lovely man, and had enjoyed her brief conversations with him. She also cried, quietly, when he died.
We had to wash our hands and get out of the ppe we were in after and she stayed with me, for I don't know how long, as I just stood washing my hands and sobbing.
The people who looked after my Dad did an amazing job, and supported our family very well through it all.

Travelling home on a very delayed coach from London, I saw a young man arguing with the conductor about getting home once we'd arrived in our Northern town. We were going to arrive after 2am and he lived a long way out of the town centre. No buses, no money for a taxi, no-one he could call at that time to pick him up. He mentioned the name of the village and it was half a mile from my house. I offered him a lift home and he couldn't have been more grateful. Our paths crossed a few months later when he recognised me in a local garden centre and exuberantly exclaimed in italian and kissed me on both cheeks in front of my then-boyfriend. Happy memory!