Strangers you meet for a minute but often think about

[AbbyGal]

Gatwick Airport morning of 9/1/01, we were flying to Greece on holiday and were next to a Gate for a New York flight. Young woman, in tears, travelling alone with a baby and a grizzly toddler who was playing up. I played peekaboo with him for a while until our flight was called.
The atrocity happened while we were in the air and i assume she ended up being grounded somewhere with her children.

I flew to relatives abroad a lot when mine were little and often think of her.

On a trip, looking across the room locking eyes for mere seconds,

If only I had walked over and said hi want to have a coffee etc.

Although I had an update, they married and had a child.

I love this thread…

My adult daughter has severe learning difficulties plus disabilities. We have met so many kind, wonderful people (and a handful of others). We have spoken to so many random strangers who have shared their time, help and smiles with us. And so many lovely dogs ❤️

This is what I thought too 😆🤦‍♀️

When I was on holiday in Egypt as a young teenager, I had briefly got separated and lost from the rest of the group when visiting a local souk. This kind ladies from a stall took me to one side, calmed me and led me back to the group. I often think of the sense of relief and the kindness they showed me.

On the northern line in rush hour - horrid, hot and packed, I was standing, pregnant but at that stage where people are unsure whether you are. Room starts spinning, I'm going to faint - but someone from further down spots this, stands up, squeezes through the crammed in commenters and ushers me to her seat. She just knew - I still feel grateful xx

When I was working in a bar, I wasn't feeling well one shift and fainted. It was about 1am and heaving and a customer helped me over to a table, got me some water and told me boss that I'd be going home. He then called me a taxi and waited with me until it picked me up.
I'd never met him before and to this day wish that I'd asked his name or at least thanked him properly.

The young lad, maybe 19 or 20 who retrieved my father with alzheimer's from a cupboard in a toilet and brought him out to us waiting for him outside. He treated my father with such care and most importantly dignity, not making him feel stupid bit just gently guiding him.

Actually, today. I have conjuction currently and was referred to an out of hours GP for an emergency doctors appointment.. I had to take DD4 with me as I'm a single parent. She is not the easiest to deal with at the moment and is constantly demanding of my attention. When I got to the appointment, the doctor was an absolutely lovely African woman dressed in native African clothing. She looked amazing and was so warm and friendly. She tried to examine me but DD4 started crying and screaming.. the doctor could see I was struggling to calm her down so she sat down told DD to come over and pulled her up on her lap and told her she needed to check mummy's eyes to make sure mummy was OK and that she had to be a good girl for mummy.. she gave my daughter a cuddle and popped her on her chair and gave her a stethoscope to play with.
The doctor was able to check me over.
After, she gave DD a sticker and DD cuddled her again. It was so lovely of her. I thanked her and got a bit emotional and she said "don't worry about it honey I have 4 kids"
Been thinking about her most of the day and how kind she was.

Conjunctivitis*

@Magnoliainbloom I've ordered the book too. Thanks for the recommendation.

I once had a job interview in Italy, I assumed I would be able to get the train from the airport and then a taxi to the hotel. I didn't anticipate it being a very small town and arriving early evening to find not a single taxi waiting. This being before mobile data and roaming, I started to walk into the town getting increasingly panicked and upset.

I considered going to the police station for help but for some reason wondered into a petrol station, started trying to explain to the man who spoke absolutely no English and had a total breakdown in fits of tears.
He called to another bloke and they somehow explained that they can give me a lift (I only had the name of the hotel), they had to lock up the petrol station to do so and I took what might have been the stupidest decision of my life to go with them.

They dropped me straight at the hotel, explained to reception why I was so upset and wouldn't accept the euros I tried to give them.

I think about them often and remain so grateful that they were decent men that just wanted to help a young woman.

I did get the job but I didn't take it, for unrelated reasons.

Was in an early pregnancy until in bits as I had my 2nd miscarriage. An old lady in the waiting room spoke to me and the words area blur but she was so comforting. I often wish I could say thank you.

Oh goodness, yes. I met the most divine man in the universe very briefly while living in St Petersburg. He was French and didn't speak Russian so we drowned in one another's eyes while I spoke very bad French to him. He bought me a coffee and asked me to spend the rest of the day with him, but I couldn't as I was already meeting friends (long before the days of mobile phones and being able to change plans easily). I never saw him again, obviously.

I guess this is a very outing story. My dad died and I lived overseas. I flew back to UK and then needed to catch the train to my home town.

I ran and caught the train and the guard let me buy a ticket on the train. There were no seats. I’d been travelling for over 40 hours at this point and a lady said “you can have this reserved seat- it was for my husband but he isn’t travelling”

she was kind and compassionate for that journey and I remembered her so clearly- her name and her workplace.

Ten years later she was the lady in charge of making a massive decision in my work life as an external inspector.

I gave her a massive hug and then had to explain who I was. 😂😂

I remember when I was about 8 or 9 a lovely lady came to one of my parents parties and talked to me for about an hour about all my favourite books and gave me recommendations. I was a bit lonely as a child and my parents were never interested in “arty farty” stuff but she was so genuinely interested in me and talked to me like a grown up, it meant so much.

18 years ago I was in Cairo with my now DH, crawling through an endless traffic jam in the back of a hotel car. In the next lane was one of the el microbasat communal minibus taxis and the most adorable baby was sat on his mother’s lap, crammed against the window. The baby was smiling and laughing at me through the glass and I played peek a boo with him until our car pulled away. His mother and I caught each other’s gaze, she looked so shy and then her face lit up with a beautiful smile.

I often wonder what life has been like for that baby and what sort of man he has become.

A biochemist I met on a train while going into university for an exam. I was really nervous and so sure I'd fail. Was trying to study on the train.

I let out a big sigh and he asked me what was wrong. Ended up telling him all about it. Just as the train journey ended he said, "don't worry, you'll be fine! And that's speaking as a biochemist!".

He calmed me down. I passed the biochemistry exam.

Student midwife when I was having my DS 17 years ago. I was only 20 and had a horrendous 48 hour labour ending in my son being resuscitated. She was only with me for a few hours but she was amazing and I've always thought about her.

These were when I was a teenager living in New York.

One, I had a presentation coming up for school and had crippling social anxiety. I went to a tiny local pharmacy to ask for an OTC anxiety aid. There was quite a stern looking Indian man behind the counter and he said. 'You don't need medication. Think about Obama, he makes so many speeches and sometimes the world loves him and sometimes they hate him. You try, you fail, you try again.' He gave me a fatherly pep talk for about 15 minutes, and the presentation ended up going really well.

The second time, I was alone and about 6 weeks pregnant with my first child. I was standing an older Chinese lady told me to sit down. She said I looked tired, asked if she could give me a massage to make me feel better, and took my hand and pressed the acupressure points for tiredness and nausea. Her grown up daughter was with her and kind of laughed and rolled her eyes and told me not to worry, she wanted to look after everyone. I got up and the lady told me good luck.

Oh, that reminds me. When I was buying the pregnancy test I was extremely nervous and embarrassed. Behind the counter was a young black guy, maybe early 20s. As I was taking my bag to leave he said, 'Have a nice day, and if it is so, may I be the first to say congratulations.'

I love reading this thread what a great idea, some lovely stories.

I was at college studying to be a nursery nurse. Our class had a trip to the special care baby unit at the maternity and children’s hospital. We were taken to visit an incubator with a baby born very prematurely and told about her, she was called Alice, I often wonder about her and if she survived. She’d be 32 years old now.

A tiny, stunning Parisian girl with a blonde bob, aged 16. I met here when I was 25 in an Irish pub in Sofia, Bulgaria in the middle of Winter. She just emanated radiance and naivety. I was drawn to her in fascination. We talked and chatted and laughed for an hour or so.

However, the thing the makes me think about her to this day, roughly 15 years later, is regret. She was with two men who didn't talk to me. One huge brawny man, and one sly looking, both at least forty years old. They had a motor bike and she was out on the town with them. I asked her in wonder how she was travelling Europe at her young age on her own (because I would have been incapable at that age, not to mention unable to afford it). She told me in a true Parisian accent that she was 'travelling with her father' (who was back at then hotel). I didn't believe her father would let a 16 year old daughter go out into Sofia with two strange men.

I was concerned about her being with those two men, they were giving off predatory vibes, I think one was on some kind of drugs. I just got this awful feeling that she was in danger. I asked her to stay with me, join me going out etc, we exchange numbers, but I never contacted her (this is before mobile phones were cheap to use internationally). At the time, I thought she was making poor choices, thinking she could stay in control of the situation, not knowing it was probably going to turn bad.

It wasn't til I was much older that I realised she was probably being trafficked. That face, those blue eyes. There was no father back at the hotel. I have trawled through missing children images on the Internet to see if I would recognise her. I think about her often.

I was working the cloakroom at a London hotel until the early hours of the morning... there were these two women who just didn't leave. Finally... when they tottered out one gave me a massive tip. Her companion was all 'it's their job, you don't have to do that' and she just said 'it shows appreciation, we've been here ages!'

Another the examiner who cleaned vomit off my shoes in my final year exams at uni. She had such kind eyes. I'll never forget her.