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”.

What an absolutely lovely thread. I've shed a few tears.

Weird series of events
I set off to go food shopping, changed my mind and went into town to buy makeup
Bought the makeup, and changed my mind again and stopped off at a bookshop

As I walked in the bookshop a guy collapsed and stopped breathing in front of me. At the time I was working for the ambulance service. Did CPR until the rapid response arrived, carried on as they got equipment. He had a spontaneous return of pulse after a cardiac arrest and was taken to hospital. Heard he was later discharged

I've met a lot of interesting people on trains. One lady told me all about how she used to live on an ex-airfield at a place in Gloucestershire called Whitminster, and how much fun she and her husband had there when they were fairly newly married. She'd also been a florist, and told me that roses like their feet in water and their faces in the sun. She didn't even tell me her name, but she was such a vibrant person that I've never been able to forget her.

Another train person was a girl called Tabitha ('Tabby') - she was about ten years younger than I was (so about twelve at the time), and was travelling with her mum and her little sister, 'Fish' (because she looked like a little fish on the ultrasounds). We did origami and she told me little bits and pieces about herself in a really artless but still mature way - she struck me as the sort of kid who'd spent a lot of time around adults, and maybe preferred them. I hope Tabby and Fish are both well and happy, now!

Ten years ago I was sitting on my own with my DD toddler, a difficult time in my life and I was really trying not to show it. I was heavily pregnant and had taken my DD on a whim, to a little indoor fun day, lots of tables with various things going on. A lady came to sit with us. She said pretty quickly into the conversation that her DD had a medical condition, which my DD had (causes lots of worry) and she told me all this information that has been invaluable, which I have referred back to many times. She told me what I needed to hear at that moment, it was excellent advice and never to be scared to do things a little differently. If I ever lacked support, to set up my own support group and to not fear things. Nothing like that has ever happened since. When I worry, I recall her experiences she spoke of and her wise words.

Doing cpr on a woman at London Bridge station while her poor (?teen) daughter looked on. We brought her back.
I called the ambulance service but all they could say was that she may have been alive when they got to hospital.
I often think of her and her daughter and hope she lived.

Light hearted and happy - when I was a teenager my friend and I were getting high in the park and ended up with a group of boys we didn’t know. One of them took us back to his house where I spent the rest of the night smoking weed with his Mum and pouring over her recipe books 😂It was such a lovely night!

The kindness of strangers - I was knocked off my bike and someone picked me up, held me and called me an ambulance. He was so kind.

Also once when young and travelling round the States I got chatting to an older couple on a train to Chicago; we were due in late at night and they asked where I was staying. When they heard (cheap place in a not very salubrious neighbourhood) they said no way and instead drove me to a different, much nicer hotel, which they paid for.

@Spudlet

Haha 😂 I love that!!

Wonderful thread. In tears at the heartbreaking posts while also marvelling at how beautiful humans can be.

A man on a train sat opposite me when I went for an interview for a university place. He was a musician and had travelled the world. We had the most amazing conversation, he was so charismatic.
I often wonder who he was.

I had been out in my local city and missed the last bus home. I phoned my dad to ask if he could pick me up in a town three quarters of the way home, as I could catch a bus there. This was the one and only time I did that. (My dad could be quite scary! 😄)

As we were driving home, a woman in her nightgown ran out into the road, looking very distressed and flagging us down. We stopped, drove her to my friend’s house nearby and asked friend’s parents to phone the police, as the woman told us she was terrified of her DH.

I often wonder how things turned out for her.

Mine is very low key in comparison to most of these!

A couple of days before Christmas I was due to fly home from Paris where I was living at the time. It had been a tough few months and I'd been pushing through to get to Christmas and have a break.

The day before I was due to fly there was lots of snow and more forecast and the news that flights for later that day and the next day were already being cancelled.

I was horrified at the thought of being stuck in Paris for Christmas so went online and bought a new Easy Jet ticket for a flight leaving that day, hastily threw stuff in a suitcase and set off for the airport.

I arrived to the departure board showing 'cancelled' against most flights and a very tense scene with lots of stressed travelers and aggression and a noticeable police presence, but my flight had a gate so I made my way to it not really expecting to go anywhere.

There I met a young man and, separately, a mum who wanted to get back to her kids. These two were also traveling alone and we waited together and hoped. They were lovely people and we got along really well.

Our flight was one of only about four that took off that evening. It was very delayed and a tense wait. When the plane took off everyone cheered! It was a brilliant moment and I remember my travel companions so fondly and wonder what/how they're doing now.

The births of 2/3 of my children, my third child the midwife who appeared when it was going wrong was the one who delivered my first child. Everyone else who looked after me I've never seen again. The 3 most memorable moments of my life, just another day at work for these amazing people.

When I read your original post, I read it as the bus driver decided to take you home in his bus for £12!

Thanks @GrumpySausage I'm touched that you, as another total stranger, understands how I felt in that moment 🙂

I was in a large supermarket and the woman in front of me had a screaming toddler and her card didn’t work and she ‘abandoned her large trolley full of shopping’ but she had enough cash for the milk and bought a pint of milk with a £She carried the milk and the temper tantrum ongoing toddler outside. I paid for my meal deal or whatever and went out to the car. Walking past the parent and toddler spaces I saw her woman again - she had the child in the car but was sitting in the driver seat tears rolling down her face and I noticed milk all over the floor by her door- the child was screaming and she was just crying silently.

I stopped and put my hand flat on the window next to her and she wound down the window and I took her hand. Without saying anything she got out of the car and I hugged her. We said nothing for a few minutes while she sobbed.
she sobbed out that her recent ex husband had blocked her card etc and left her.

I said it’s my time to help and got her and the child in the cafe and we had lunch. She talked and I listened. Then I said right we are going shopping so we went back in Tesco and we stocked up on food and she was saying her card didn’t work etc because he had reported it stolen - I said look this is a gift but if and when you are able if you want to - you can pay it forward. I took her hand and said - you were me two years ago and my ex did similar and I came home one day to huge bags of food for my kids when I had none - with a message from the friends that want to help - if you want to pay it forward when you are back on your feet or else you can just know you are loved. I still don’t know who left me those bags.

the look and hug we shared on the way back to our cars I will never forget. I said to her - you deserve better, you will have better, you are strong and you will be ok. One day at a time.

she laughed and said ‘I thought you shouldn’t cry over split milk but I did ‘

I often think of the neighbours / friends that helped me and wonder if they realised how low and suicidal I was and that they boosted me when I was so low and that they didn’t help just me, but me and my kids and then onwards to this woman and her child …. So an act of kindness effected at least 5 people and possibly more. I wonder if they will ever know what it feels like to come home to food and feel loved and how that really helped me during my trauma.

One time I ended up stranded in the US with my two young kids because my eldest DS who is autistic was unable to board a flight home due to anxiety.

We ended up having to come home a convoluted route and had to take an internal flight prior to boarding a transatlantic flight. I took a lot of effort to get him to board the initial flight. He was clearly highly anxious and was kicking out a bit at me because of this. The ground staff were very stern with me about whether he should be allowed to board, which was understandable, but I said if we could all keep calm around him and if I could get him to actually take his seat he would be fine. He was fine and we made it to the internal destination. Whist he is physically able in normal circumstances he was unable to walk due to his mental state and I had him to wheel in a wheelchair and a younger child. I'll never forget the kind woman at the baggage carousel at JFK who told me that I was an amazing mom and that she'd watched me deal with the ground staff pre-boarding and was amazed that I'd managed to get them to agree to us boarding and that I knew my son so well and handled him so well. I felt the absolute opposite of that at the time. She saved me in so many ways she will never ever know.

Mine is quite sad. A workman came to my house and he was really nice and worked out the problem we were having and said he’d try to fit us in really soon.

Then he got into his car and drove away and immediately died at the wheel. I still feel guilty that he spent his last moments with me, a stranger, rather than his nearest and dearest.

When I was 21 I got mugged on my way home from a party with a friend of mine in Italy. First experience abroad, everything valuable stolen, got kicked in the face by those two scumbags.
While waiting for the police a young guy about our age saw us crying and gave us both a hug and said it will be okay. We were scared, lonely kids in that dark street that night and that hug was just what we both needed. Felt very genuinely caring.

My mom passed when I was 10 and a few years after she passed i went to visit her grave on Mother's day. I was so upset and crying to myself (i went alone). It started to rain as i was stood there crying but there was no shelter. An older man looked over saw me crying and came and gave me his umbrella. It just really stuck with me.

many years ago when I was a young broke single mum I got back from the shops with my baby in the buggy and my shopping only to realise that my purse was gone, lost or stolen who knows but gone and with it all my money. I sat on the steps of my flat and wept, I was tired and broke and my husband had left me for another woman and life was just grim. The students who lived next door saw me, took me into their house and made me a cup of tea which really helped. I went home feeling much better. Then they called round with an envelope of cash for me and my baby, I have never ever forgotten their kindness

@Lifeomars that’s killed me. Bless them. x

@365names what a beautiful tale of love ❤️

Mine is hugely outing but incredible. Aged 18 I went to Nepal with 2 friends. After a few weeks unbeknownst to us I started getting my first manic episode (of a lifetime of bipolar). We had briefly befriended a nice hippy woman travelling with her baby in a cafe. My friends and I fell out (because I was getting manic I know now!). Lady and I headed off to Pokora. On the bus I went completely mental and got arrested about half way in the mountains. This incredible woman, who's name I cannot remember but I think was Annie, stayed with me for 2 whole days and nights in random trucks and prison cells (at one point I was put in stocks, I kid you not). I was manhandled a lot andd covered in bruises so it must have been frightening for her especially with a baby. She stayed with me or outside my cell doors all that time and got me eventually to the British consulate. I was eventually sectioned and after a few weeks shipped off back to the UK with my amazing family.
I saw her once again after I had been released from another psychiatric unit and not really with it and a festival and managed to give her a hug but never properly said thank you to the woman that more than likely saved me from all sorts of terrors. A complete angel and hero.

Aww, this thread is something

Oh God @Starof1972 that sounds super creepy.

@bloodywhitecat I'm so sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing your story. People who work in palliative care can be amazing

@MaMisled that's so beautiful 💚

I believe we're all just seeking connections in life & that's what it's all about-the moments.

Not the same but I met someone lovely during lockdown at a park about 5 miles away. We had a lovely talk & similar sense of humour, very easy flow of chat. If I wouldn't have felt about 5, I might've asked her to be my friend. Anyway, I joined a bookclub a few months ago & there she is. I didn't actually recognise her until she said about our encounter at the next
Meeting.

Not sure where it's from but I've said it to my children before & I think it's a really comforting thought-'you still haven't met all of the people in this life who are going to love you'

When I was 20 I crashed my car. I wasn’t badly hurt but very shocked. A woman came out of the house I crashed outside of. She took me to her house, made me tea and gave me her phone to call my parents. She then let me sit in her house until my dad arrived. Never forgotten that over 30 years later.