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”.

I had gone up to central london to meet a friend the day of the London bombings - arriving at around 9am, so when news was starting to spread and everything was suddenly getting shut down and locked up.

I was young and really scared - didn't have any clue what to do or how to get home. Ended up following a crowd to Victoria station where people were huddling into groups according to where they needed to go. Heard a group of strangers call my destination and gratefully joined them, before we all waited for a cab together.

On the journey home, we all sat in shock and relayed what we knew about what had happened. When we got to our town, they wouldn't let me pay my share - I clearly looked like the broke student I was at the time!

It was comforting to have a little gang to look out for each other on such an awful day.

The kindness of strangers! I had a miscarriage at work, kept working and didn’t mention it as no-one knew I was pregnant (it was early days) we had so much on and it seemed too late to do anything and I thought if the pregnancy wasn’t viable then feeling sorry for myself wouldn’t make any difference anyway. It was a properly awful day. Finished work, absolutely drained and miserable, picked my toddler up from nursery, walked home and arrived at our flat to discover that I was locked out. Sat on the steps and wept, it was all too much. Then a lady from the flat upstairs that had never met before came out on her way to jump into a taxi. She asked if I was alright and when it was clear I wasn’t, let me and my DD into her flat to wait for my partner to come home (later on in the evening), even though she was heading off on holiday. She even made me a cup of tea, despite being late for her flight! What a wonderful woman, I will never forget her. (We went on to have a beautiful DD later that year so all ended well).

Oh yes I've just thought of another one.

Whilst travelling in South America I lost my bag.

I met people all the way along who helped...
File the police report (I don't speak Spanish)
Sort out my new passport/visa.
Sort currency/travellers cheques

Every time I needed help the right person would appear.

Magic

I walked out on my abusive ex at 30 weeks pregnant and had nowhere to go.. It was either sleep in my car or go to a hospital. I went to the hospital. It was a freezing cold day, I was wearing just a light linen shirt and leggings and flip flops. I hadn't eaten properly for weeks and was losing weight in pregnancy. When I walked into triage I sat down and just burst into uncontrollable tears, I put my head in my hands and sobbed.. A lady came from nowhere and just crouched down and rubbed my back and held me by the back of the neck and just let me sob. I never found out who she was but I will never ever forget that mom3m

Moment*

Working on a children's ward I was having a bit of a bad shift as the father of another child on the ward was being abusive as I had to tell them only one parent could stay .
I went into check Nextdoor on one of my other patients who was on his own a boy of no more than 14 . I walked in and said hey are you ok? He turned to me and said "are you ok?" . It's hard to describe but he said it in such a kind and genuine way that it bought a tear to my eye . He was vulnerable and unwell in hospital and he was asking me if I was alright as he must have heard what was going on.
Never forgotten that.

I had just been told over the 'phone that my sil had terminal cancer and was not expected to live another week.

I was panicked and dashing through my town crying. A man and his teen son just stopped me, he took me by the shoulders asked me what was wrong and told me to take slow, deep breaths and to find calm. Not to calm down. Find calm. It helped me so so much.

I pulled a woman who had fallen off of the street just as she was about to be hit by a bus.

She crossed in a really bad place. It’s a really busy and curved city centre street with one-way traffic across three lanes. Traffic coming around the bend can’t see beyond the curve, it’s very angled. She wasn’t at a crossing but legged it right at the bend thinking there was a break in the traffic. I was walking on the footpath and she was perpendicular to me, on my left. She slipped and fell with her legs out in front of her and, before she could try to get up, a bus came hurtling around the bend. I could see the driver’s panic and he started to break but was too close. Next thing I knew, I was on my arse on the footpath and she was on top of me, her back to my stomach IYSWIM. No idea how I did it but I grabbed her and pulled her back onto the path. The bus went over her shoe and handbag- think they came loose when I grabbed her.

Neither of us could speak after that and just kind of walked in opposite directions, we didn’t say a word to each other. Another pedestrian came over to her asking if she was alright and retrieved her shoe and bag- she said yes and started hailing a taxi.

Ironically, I had been walking home at the time but started shaking so badly, I ended up having to get a bus instead.

Wasn't right for a few days after that.

I took DS into a shop on the way home from school once when he was about 5 and when I refused to buy him a toy instead of the sweet I offered he had a tantrum so I took him out of the shop and walked him home. The entire way he was shouting and hitting me, he'd never had a tantrum like this before and I was so embarrassed because of all the other parents on the school run seeing us but I kept ignoring him and carried on walking with him not reacting, I just heard a random voice shout out to me "You're doing an amazing job Mum!" and it made me feel so much better and like I could cope. I've never forgotten it and how much it meant to me in that moment even though it was such a small thing it was huge to me.

I've had lots of moments at work in the hospital with strangers.. but I have epilepsy & I remember having a scary partial seizure in
a shop & a strange man stayed with me & held my hands until I recovered, I couldn't see him properly, then he left. He was so nice.

I had received a call to say my dad was dying in hospital. This was several years ago in the days before google maps. I just couldn't find the hospital at all despite stopping and asking pedestrians. Probably because I was out of my mind with grief. I pulled up to a black cab at some lights and shouted to the driver 'do you know where x hospital is I just can't find it?!' I must have looked and sounded an absolute mess. He said Follow Me!! I did. At some point we arrived .. he put his arm out high and pointed to it.. slowed down a bit to make sure I'd spotted it.. and simply drove off. I've always thought of him as my guardian angel on that horrible day ❤️

A young PC who literally held my hand through the worst few hours of my life.

My Mum died unexpectedly. I just knew she had died but couldn't explain it. I called the police and asked for them to come with me to check. This PC met me at my Mum's house and didn't question what anyone else would deem irrational (Mum was 50, fit and healthy) as she just knew I knew.

She discreetly arranged for the battering ram team to come without making me wait or call around people. She was the one to come back out of the house to confirm I was right and unusually in these circumstances, she let me in the house to see my Mum (no suspicious circumstances).

She held my hand the full time. I'll never forget the tight squeeze she gave my hand as we entered the living room. Or the massive hug she gave me hours later after taking my statement.

I am sure she was drafted in from a different station so I will likely never see her again, I hope she knows what an amazing job she does and how she helped me that day.

I was in asda one day looking at the shoes. A woman next to me picked up a pair of shoes and asked me if I liked them.

I replied, do you like them?
She said well yes I do, but what about you?
I said well buy them then, do what YOU want to do. Me liking them or not is irrelevant and not as important as your opinion is in regards to your own shoes.

She looked at me and said…Yes, yes you’re right, I need to do what I want to do.
There was a pause….and then she went and bought the shoes.

Okay, writing that down is a little bit hilarious and certainly not on par with many of the replies here but it was a nice moment 😂 and I’ve never forgotten it. It was almost as if the conversation wasn’t really about the shoes.

Abseiling. Had done it loads before this time, was a real adrenaline junkie. Got half way down this time and froze. Sheer terror. Did all the things I’d been taught to do precious times but nothing worked, I just kept getting more and more panicky. I don’t know how long I was dangling there for before one of the instructors at the top abseiled down to me, calmed me down, talked me through the rest of the way down, checked I was okay and wandered off. I don’t even remember what he looked like, the panic was so overwhelming. But he was so, so understanding - like, profoundly understanding of my absolute terror. It was a feeling of safety that came over me, just from his words and tone.

Mine isn't as memorable as some of these, but it is something I won't forget.
I was about 16 and on a long train journey home from visiting relatives. The train was busy, standing room only. A man offered me his seat at a table after a few stops and I took it. The people at the table and the man and I were 5 unrelated strangers but we spent the rest of the train journey chatting, we played card games, we all had food which we shared around. I got to know them all over a period of about 2.5 hours and then never saw them again. It was quite a surreal experience and I don't see it ever happening again but I loved it!

The evening we spent with Orlando, the Italian AA man who dragged DM, DSis and I (and an ancient Pug 205) off the M11 one Christmas Eve shortly after DDad died. He towed us to Cambridge services, where we all are fried egg sandwhiches and watched Cliffhanger with the NZer running the food place that night.

Me and my now husband were students, he was visiting me snd we’d gone out but the last train hadn’t turned up. We got a small, local bus, winding around these rural roads. Finally got to the town centre and asked him to take us however far £12 would get us. I always remember him saying he’d been young once, he wanted us to get home so took us all the way!

Dh and I were newly married hoping to get pregnant had been nearly a year and I was starting to worry. We were sitting on some steps and a little blond boy prob about 2 ran up behind us and hugged us both one arm round was h of us. His mum was apologetic- I got pregnant that month felt like a sign somehow!

Oh and the couple on their honeymoon who stopped and waited with my granny when her car broke down. Bless them

20 odd years ago a relative spent some time on a closed psych unit and the family took turns visiting. On one of my days I arrived as a woman was being bundled in, a very distressing scene at the main door. Through the door was a lift up to the main reception, and a youngish boy, maybe ten was standing there visibly shaking. He looked at me and said he just needed to get back up to see his mum. I was shaken up as well and held my hand out. We held hands for what felt like ages til the lift arrived, then all the way into the ward where he just said thanks and pegged off to see his mum. Such a sweet kid, I often wonder if his mum made a good recovery. I cried my eyes out that night.

When I was a teenager I was on a train to London to stay with my BF of the time. I was reading a book and minding my own business when the woman sat opposite me (I was on one of the tables) asked if I had a spare book she could borrow for the journey.

I actually had several spare books but I didn't know her, thought she looked a bit dishevelled and she smelled of alcohol so I lied and said no .

She kept trying to talk to me and because I felt a bit guilty about lying and judging her I talked back.

After a long conversation she ended up telling me that her baby had died that morning of cot death and she was going to London to get a coach to Blackpool where she wanted to kill herself . She even showed me that she had a pocket full of pills.

This was when we were near victoria train station and in an absolute panic I offered to walk with her to the coach station while I texted my bf to call an ambulance to meet us at the coach station.

I tried to keep her talking and at the station long enough for the ambulance to turn up which they eventually did and they took her away

I was only 15 or 16 at the time and never found out what happened to her or if what she said was all true but I really hope she got some help. I don't even remember her name but it still makes me so sad to think of her.

My bottom lip has been quivering more with every post but this is the one that made me burst into tears!

What a beautiful thing to do for him

I've shared this story before but here it is again. Around 20 years ago now it was a few days before Christmas and dark out. There was a knock at my back door (it was a town centre terrace with access via an alleyway at the back). I was in my little office upstairs and looked out the window to see a man there. He asked if I knew where the old lady two doors down was. He'd come to bring her some shopping as she was housebound and got no reply. The neighbour between me and her was away so he'd come to the next house which was me. But he said not to worry, he'd come back in the morning. Then he disappeared back into the alley. I was worried though and went to check on the lady myself. Her keys were in the inside of both the front and back doors so I knew she was not out. I called the police for a welfare check and they broke in and found her close to death after a fall. She was in hospital for a while but eventually come home and lived for another few years. The man in the yard never came back and on talking to the lady's nephew (who came up when he found out what had happened and called by to ask me about it) and the lady herself neither of them could think who the man might have been. The lady said when it happened she couldn't get up and got very cold after lying there for hours. She said she experienced the tunnel of light often associated with near death experiences but her late husband and some other people told her it wasn't time and to go back. Then she was "back" and heard breaking glass as the police broke in, which scared her. The experience was extremely profound for me and I will always wonder who or indeed what the visitor in the yard was.

In the Henry Ford museum in Detroit one of the star exhibits is the bus on which Rosa Parks made her gesture of civil rights defiance by refusing to sit in the ‘colored’ seats. The day I visited was quiet, and I was sitting alone on the bus when an elderly African American lady got on, sat down & started to weep. I gave her a tissue, and that started me off, too. I briefly held the lady’s hand & got off the bus.

A long time ago on an overnight coach journey from Paris to London, I was sat next to a guy who had spent some time in Manchester and we shared some really personal information which seemed totally natural, never saw him again.

Back in the 90s, I used to commute through Oxford Road railway station in Manchester and one of the ways out of it was down a long set of tiled steps leading down to a pub beside the main road. On numerous occasions the same old woman would be hanging about these steps. She was mentally 'scattered' but always dolled up in bright lipstick and nail varnish and a fur coat and she always wanted to talk to people about her 'baby' and every time she would ask me with tears in her eyes if I would look after her baby girl for her. I used to agree that I would and she'd go on her way, mollified. She has a real sense of trauma about her, poor old soul. She'll be long gone now but I've often wondered about her life.