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.

Two people, one in a good situation, one in a bad situation.

Good one was the lovely lady who held my four month old baby while I folded the pram before we got on a flight and then made her husband carry it to the plane for me.

Bad one was the woman who caused my ski accident as a toddler. I wonder if she ever thinks of me and what happened. I was about a centimetre away from losing my eye, and after I was taken to hospital I guess she would never have known what the outcome was.

About 15yrs ago I was walking to work one morning going via the underpass, at a busy roundabout.
I noticed 2 young children (eldest about 5, younger one about 3 or 4 years old).

I couldn't see any parent/carer near, so watched them and realised they were alone in a busy city centre.

Persuaded them to join me at work and took to cafe in our building. They had plates of toast and sat drawing pictures with me whilst reception staff phoned the police.

Police came. The children were petrified and wouldn't talk to the police so I had to go with them. Police located the family home and we went round. Parents fast asleep, not noticed their children had been on an adventure. The poverty in their chaotic home almost broke me.

I had the pictures they drew on my wall at work. I once took a pile of clothing and toys that my own children no longer needed and left it on their doorstep.

When I left work I took the drawings with me - still got them. I think about these children often. I hope their lives are happy.

F

About age 25 walking quickly from Euston Station to get a train from St Pancras and I fell to my hands and knees - I'd had a job interview and was wearing heels which I wasn't used to - and a handsome French man held my hands and lifted me up and talked with me until I calmed down. If I hadn't been in such a fluster I'd have asked for his number! C'est la vie!

Many years ago I was travelling home to Finsbury Park from Angel Islington. A creepy guy came and stood almost on top of me on the platform ... Followed me into the tube carriage and did the same. I couldn't move away due to the number of people in the carriage.
Got to King's Cross and got off. So did he and he started following me. I realised that there were two lines to FB from KC and managed to lose the man by going towards the other line.. I kept looking over my shoulder going down the escalator and managed to lose my balance at the bottom and ended up in a heap. A lovely man picked me up and asked if I was okay.
I burst out crying and explained what had happened... He very kindly walked with me to the platform and stayed with me till the train came in... As the train pulled out he waved me.off.
Ive never forgotten his kindness or how scared I had felt beforehand!

I have two.
A young woman in the bus, I was 18, new dude t in a different city. And she was just so beautiful, I saw her for a few minutes and was just mesmerised, we had no interaction.

The other is more recent, I’m a community nurse and attended a visit for assessment for end of life drugs, unfortunately the patient passed away approximately 5 minutes after our arrival. After some time, we offered to perform last offices and wash and dress our patient, I asked his wife and daughter if they would like to assist, which they did. The look of pure love of his wife’s face as she washed him will always stay with me, every touch she made was pure kindness. It was an absolute privilege to be in such a sacred space.

I always think about a woman in the maternity ward when I was being triaged.

Room was packed. I was v heavily pg and overdue so in for a check. A lady who clearly didn't speak English came in, also v pg and very distressed.

I overheard staff asking where her partner was. She looked very vulnerable and scared.

As it was so busy, there was nowhere to sit. She looked very uncomfortable and suddenly vomited on the floor. There was lots of recoiling and looks of disgust but no one did anything. I got up, indicated she sit down and waddled to the station to tell staff. They were clearly busy so I got a load of loo roll and started cleaning it up myself (with some difficulty!!)

Eventually, her partner turned up & they were whisked away by staff.

I've no idea what happened; I hope she was ok. I still think about that lady from time to time

I got a phonecall in a shop to say someone very close to me passed away, I burst into tears instantly and fell to the floor in shock. Another customer scooped me up and sat holding me on a chair for what must have been 30 minutes. She listened to stories and comforted me. She then put me in a taxi home which she paid for and I never even got her name.

A few years ago, my family and I were out for a meal after ice-skating as an Xmas treat. A boy/ young man - tall, skinny, didn't look older than 18, came up to me looking desperate and said he was so hungry, could I get him something to eat? He was clearly a drug user and had not washed in a long time. I asked him what he wanted and he was too out of it to even know so I took him to a place which sold pizza slices and other bits and bobs. He asked for a flap jack and then turned to me and asked if he could have a brownie as well. He was such a little boy in that moment - felt like my young boy asking me if he could have another sweet. I bought him the flap jack and brownie and a can of coke but have worried forever after about him and also felt bad for not suggesting to him that he get something a little more substantial and not just sugar. I often wonder whether his life has got any better and felt sad about whatever happened in his life to make him a homeless drug user at such a very young age. Not sure why he chose me to ask - perhaps it was because I was a mum? He seems to just need a mum's care in that moment.

About 15 years ago in my local McDonald’s there was a very elderly couple having a late dinner with their middle aged son who had Down’s syndrome. It was a Sunday in winter and really quiet in there.
The mother looked over at me & my DD5 with the saddest smile.
She wouldn’t have known my DD has profound learning disabilities and a life limiting condition. It was just a smile from one mother to another.
I’ve never forgotten her.

When I was living abroad age 20 and I wanted to buy a second hand fridge. Goodness knows what I was thinking as I ended up going to another town to look at one and missing the last train back. How I would have carted it back is beyond me. Anyway, on walking aimlessly in the direction of the train station, as if by magic a man asked me if I needed assistance and offered to drive me back to the town where I was living. It was at least half an hour away and he dropped me at my door. He was angling to come in (it was obvious he was attracted to me) and when I didn’t offer, he disappeared into the night. I used to think about his kindness but also about my stupidity as it could have been so terribly different had he been a less scrupulous man.

Another when my bag was stolen and a man gave me the taxi fare home. I was crying my eyes out and I insisted on his writing his number on my hand in eyeliner. Except I couldn’t read it so never returned the money. I felt terribly guilty for such a long time.

The teacher, who hugged me when I was distraught after my dad died. I didn’t know her at all, it was a big school. She took me in her office and allowed me to sit my exam there. She was the only person to comfort me after my dad’s death. No one thought of me and my needs. It still brings tears to my eyes. I don’t think she had a clue what a difference she made to my life and how often I thought of the care I got from her, which helped me get through the day.

Two for me...

When DS was 4 he fell and cut his head open badly in the park. We had walked and I had nothing with me apart from my phone. A couple gave me their own baby's muslin to compress the wound and then drove me to the hospital. They wouldn't give me their number so I could contact them later to pay the petrol and thank them properly. Very grateful to them and have never seen them again even though it is a small village park.

The other is a woman who got on a very busy train after a series of cancellations. I said I would put DS on my knee so she could sit down. She burst into tears, her mother had died that morning and she was travelling from London to her home town. I tried to say the right things and I think of her still even though this was 6 years ago now.

An unknown man who sat with me and held my hand while I gripped it from fear when I had a partial seizure in the local Tesco.

Also the last time I was unconscious from a seizure I got a head injury in the street in a strange town... strangers apparently called an ambulance which I woke up in, must have used my scarf to try to stop the bleeding & gave all my possessions including my expensive phone which I'd been holding to the paramedics.,

I was out with my 4yr old DS and 8 week old DD. DD had an almighty screaming episode and wouldn't latch on, DS was playing up. I was leaking and squirting milk everywhere. This angel of a lady came up to me with her similar ages DS and entertained my DS whilst I latched my DD on and sobbed. She told me what a great job I was doing and gave me a tissue. She sat with me for a good 20 mins and the two boys played really nicely.

When I was about 17 I had a part time job that was a 50 minute bus journey from home. I didn't know that when the it got to a certain interchange the bus driver had a 15 minute break. When he realised I was still on the bus (the only person) he hesitated before letting me stay on instead of getting out and waiting in the cold, dark bus station that wasn't in a great area (although I admit it was a little creepy as he had to turn off the engine and lights). I know he should have made me get off and could have gotten into trouble but I was very grateful.

Two important ones come to mind.

The first was an old man on a tube train when I was 18 - I think he was a rabbi or religious philosopher. He told me some very kind things that made me believe in myself and told me how loved I was after I offered to walk with him to his destination that he was asking directions for. I felt like I'd met a Godly man.

The other was the day my mother died. I was at a conference and got a call that my mother had died suddenly out of the blue. After receiving this bolt out of the blue I was on the tube on my way to my parent's house and the tears were flowing silently down my face. I looked through my bag but had no tissues. A young girl in her 20s across the aisle leant over and offered me tissues. No explanation either way - but super kind. Thank you wherever you are.

The thread is so great!

I'm loving reading all these stories!

❤️

I used to work for Women's Aid, I very, very often think of the women I met through outreach or who came to the refuge and were then persuaded to go home overnight by their partners and we never heard from them again.
one family in particular, she gave birth with us and her baby needed to spend time in hospital, I visited him everyday and she ended up losing custody of him and his siblings. I think of that now 18 year
old and wonder how he is all the time

Years ago I was travelling with my boyfriend at the time and we ended up completely lost at a busy bus station in Malaysia. We’d mistakenly got off at the wrong stop.
We were panicking as we needed to change money (it was the days of travellers cheques).

A guy local guy came over to us and asked if we were ok. We explained where we needed to go and that we needed to change our money.

He asked if we were hungry and insisted on buying us food. He then insisted on buying us our ongoing bus tickets.
As there were a few hours before our next bus, he invited us to his home - and I have to say, alarm bells were ringing - were we going to have drugs planted on us/be attacked…

He lived in a rather run down block of flats, but the door was opened by his lovely wife, and they had two small boys, the youngest with Downs Syndrome, who he told us was very special.
They were all very special - they provided yet more food, a room for us to have a nap, and he walked us back to the bus station.

I’ve never forgotten him, his family and their kindness, and often think of them.

Nothing terribly interesting. At the pharmacy, I dropped some coins and this guy helped me collect them, and then he went here you go.

No idea why, but the tone if his voice, gentle random moment and knowing that I will probably never meet him again, it was so strange.

I felt as if something tremendously nice was happening to me, and I couldn't capture ir extend that moment.

In my late teens and went day drinking in London with my friends, something I had never done before and by about 8pm I was so drunk I stupidly decided to leave all of my friends without telling them and go home.

Got on the tube, sat down and was just suddenly sick everywhere. I was absolutely mortified and pretty scared too. Of course everyone decided to move away from me and I could here comments like 'that's absolutely disgusting'. I just sat there covered in sick and not knowing what to do. A woman probably late twenties/early thirties came over with tissues and cleaned me up as best as she could. Gave me her bottle of water and said 'don't worry darling, we've all been there' and sat with me until my stop.

Travelling 3 hours to see my friend - my mum was two weeks diagnosed with dementia; my dad had moved back to 2000 miles abroad three weeks ago and my gran had died very suddenly 36 hours prior. Wonderful friend had said if I could make it to hers she’d look after me for the day (she did).

Sitting on the train I remember the woman opposite me had been semi listening to my conversations, at the time still massively in shock abut my gran and a lot of very tearful phone calls about funerals and care homes and stuff. I ended up explaining to her what had happened.

Remember as I got up to change trains she got up with me, gave me a massive hug and said; ‘just you keep breathing, the only thing you can do just now - the rest will somehow follow.’

Cant remember her name just that her daughter had a good job that she was very proud of, she’d just been to a conference her daughter was speaking at, and they lived by the sea. She was a wonderful woman, can still picture her face a year on.

It’s also my experience. There are so many lovely people in the world. ❤️

Sorry. And dogs. ❤️

This thread is a good reminder to be less absorbed in my phone and headphones and to be more aware of people around me who might need a bit of kindness. And I should always carry tissues just in case. Thank you PPs, for sharing your stories ❤️