Strangers who's lives have touched yours, do you wonder where they are now?

[BloodyAdultDC]

I witnessed a proposal late on Valentine's Day a few years back, in Paternoster Square near St Paul's - hardly anyone around, I often think of them and how their lives have panned out. I was a mumsnet wedding witness a few years back, never heard from the bride or groom since, wonder how telling their family went. Also the midwife who supported me overnight when I finally sussed bf, I wonder if she really knew what an impact she had on us both. Many many others too.

Does anyone ever think about those kinds sliding door moments, and wonder how they're doing now?

A stranger saved me from choking on a boiled sweet when I was a small child, they picked me up and held me upside-down by my ankles, and hit me on the back.

I hope they've had a good life.

A chap I met on a train who had just put his mother who had dementia into care and was shell shocked by the whole experience.

Ill never forget the way he looked, totally shattered.

I think about an elderly couple I helped whose wife had had a stroke on their Egyptian holiday and they had stayed in their room all week in Egypt in fear. I helped them get on the plane and liaised with the air stewards and switched seats. I didn't ever find out what happened when they got back to the uk. They had no holiday insurance and we were in a very remote destination- Mars Alam

I think a lot about the midwife who came to me.when I had an unplanned home birth, she was so calm and had no idea how calm she kept me at the time. I ended up with ptsd but she was amazing (I was 21, first baby, 10lber)

nearly 30 years ago in late December I was on a flight to Hong Kong for work. It was my first time travelling business class. There was a young woman sitting next to me who was also travelling for work for the first time. We had a lovely chat. And I can still remember the two of us gasping as we flew into Hong Kong (the old airport you literally flew past people's apartments) She was from Scotland - the highlands I think and because of the snow she and her family had no electricity over christmas. I hope she had a nice life.

Bit random but when I was about 17, a fully grown man started having a go at me at a bus stop.

I don't know where I found the courage because I was actually quite a timid child, but I gave him both barrels of how ridiculous, immature and inappropriate it was for a grown man to pick a fight with a female child. He looked sheepish and went away muttering about me. I often wonder if I ignited a feminist awakening in him (i.e. the realisation that women/girls are human too) or provided a catalyst for him intensifying the violence against women that I suspect he was probably already perpetrating 😳

On my gap year in Kenya, a few of the people in my group decided to swim out to a platform a short way into the sea. In hindsight they were mainly Australians who had grown up on the coast.

I naively followed them but about halfway began to struggle with the tide (as I had only ever swum properly in a pool). One of the girls neatly dived off the platform and swam me back to shore. I bought her a drink afterwards but it definitely didn't feel like enough of a thank you. Nobody else noticed me struggling and i would've 100% drowned if someone hadnt helped me. I hope she's having a good life

I think of the Irish lady at a service station somewhere in the Midlands. I had been dumped in Cornwall and was driving the length of England, sobbing. She got in my car and gave me the mother of all pep talks. I hope she is happy.

Also the guy my own age on the same journey who drew up alongside me at the traffic lights on a roundabout. He wound down his window and got the jist of the story. The lights turned green and he yelled "Don't upset yourself like this, he's not worth it!' We pulled up side by side at the next lights, which were red. He knew he had seconds to get his point across and my goodness he used them well. I drove away with the firm impression that my ex was a twat and would live to rue the day he'd dumped me (he did, actually).

The very nice man who carried my toddler and new born baby paraphernalia on a plane and kept daughter entertained throughout the journey. I hadn't slept for three nights straight and was barely aware of all that he did, other than that everything kept falling on the floor and he kept picking it all up. I know exactly who he is though because he turned out to be a famous film star (who incidentally thought he was flying somewhere else - someone else must have booked his ticket for him. I had to break it him that our destination was three hours north of where he thought it was and technically in a different country).

The mumsnetter who sent me a replacement toy when my little one's precious sleep companion got lost.

Two women, Rosemary and Lesley, on holiday in Lido di Jesolo decades ago when I was only around seven years old. My grandparents had befriended them, and they'd accompany us on some trips, and it's a small thing but I remember I'd had a fear of water and one of them let me sit on her back as she swam out to a buoy. I was able to join swimming lessons again on my return home.

They were such nice women, but my grandparents lost touch after a few years. They would be late 50s, early 60s now.

Yes, often.

Especially when I cross paths with someone who I instantly connect with and know I could be lifelong friends with but it’s just a moment and then it’s gone.

Met a German woman in Norway once, we were both travelling alone and spent the day together. Both running from things we didn’t care to discuss. I often wonder what happened to her and if she found the strong loving Norweigian man she hoped to meet.

I met a lady in the Wild Cafe cafe in Bath. She was fascinating, and had worked in schools, and done other jobs all over Europe. She was retired, and came and joined our family one busy lunchtime. I really liked her. I wish I had asked if she wanted to meet up for a coffee.

Oh come on, you can’t not say who the famous film star is !

The young man in the black leather jacket. A complete stranger, but he saw I was frightened and stopped something bad from happening.
The only words he said to me were "Are you OK?"
I often wonder what kind of man he grew into. What kind of life he had. He'd be in his 60s now. I would thank him if I could.

This! It’s in no way a bad thing obvs. We need to know.

My son had to have an operation on his leg when he was 2 at our nearest children's hospital. While he was in surgery, I went to get a coffee and a magazine to kill some time.

On my way back to his ward, I was walking down a long corridor, and walking the opposite way were 3 adults and 2 children. They were all sobbing, and one of the women had to be held up because she could hardly walk. I felt like I was intruding on such a vulnerable time in their lives and it gave me chills. I've never witnessed such devastation before or since.

This was 14 years ago and I still think about them. I hope they found some peace.

Over 30 years ago in London, a bride wearing a short white shift style dress, long evening gloves and a white top hat with a veil…she looked fabulous! I’d love to know how their life panned out and if they made it and are still together!

What a lovely thread OP!

Holiday in Corfu with my (still) best friend, early 90s. Had the absolute time of our lives. We hung out with a mixed group of boys/girls all late teens / early 20s. When two of the lads (who were in the next hotel room to us) pulled, we would hear their beds going and would start playing Marvin Gaye songs for them on our ghetto blaster (yes I'm that old).

They left a day before we did and we let them use our room to store luggage / have a shower. They left us a note saying what a great time they had, how funny we were and that they would always think of us when they heard 'Sexual Healing'

No mobile phone / social media and never swapped details but I hope they've had great lives. I've travelled the world since but it's still one of my favourite holidays.

I once went on a solo holiday to Majorca not long after I'd split up with ExH. It was a small resort I'd been to before and liked it, but the week I was there it was full to the brim with German holidaymakers, so I literally had nobody to talk to.

One afternoon I was sitting in a cafe drinking tea and eating cake, and a woman from the same hotel (and also holidaying alone) came in and sat at the table facing me. She said something to me in German, I said I was English, we smiled and nodded and that was that.

She then reached into her shopping bag, took a lovely new handbag, and started taking things out of her old bag and slowly putting them in neatly, and I watched her over the rim of my cup. She took quite some time doing it, and the last thing was her purse. She took it out of her old bag, went to put it in the new one, and it wouldn't fit - it was just too big to go in. She looked up at me, I looked at her, and the pair of us got a fit of the giggles.

For the whole of the rest of the holiday, whenever we saw each other, one of us would hold up a bag and it would set us off again. We couldn't talk to each other, but my goodness we laughed that holiday. I often wonder how her life turned out, and if she was taking time out after a break-up as well.

In London once I saw a cyclist brake too hard to avoid a pedestrian who crossed in front of him. He went over the handlebars and hit his head forehead first on the tarmac. It was awful. I saw him on the ground sort of writhing around, almost like a seizure. There were crowds of people there so I didn't stick around and I've always wondered since if he survived or how he is doing.

2011 when the London riots spread to Manchester. I was walking back to my flat after a day shopping with my mum. I'd seen increasing numbers of police and sketchy people gathering and as I walked through St Ann's Sq I saw some Chabad Jews who had a stall looking around puzzled as all the Jewellers closed and put their shutters up and McDonald's shut too. I explained to them what had happened and advised them to pack and go.
I then cut my way up the side streets to get home and saw a woman with a buggy with a toddler and a girl of about 6 on Whitworth Street. The woman was crying and the kids were too l. At this point you could start to hear windows being smashed and the police helicopters. She'd just got off a train from Liverpool and been told to leave Picadilly station which was also shutting down and had no idea what to do. She'd rung her boyfriend who had verbally abused her and refused to meet her. I invited her and the kids into my flat to wait until she could get picked up by her friend. She was drunk and telling me all about her boyfriend who sounded awful and abusive but she insisted he was nicer than her ex. Her friend rang about an hour later and came and collected her and the kids.

I think quite often about her. I hope she got rid of the horrible boyfriend and she qnd her kids have a happy life.

This has me crying with laughter, really!! What a lovely story. I wonder if she'd bought the bag as a fuck you to her ex.

Yes, I do.

There are a few people I have met through work that I think about fairly regularly actually, wondering how their lives panned out. There stories touched me and will remain with me forever.

The nurse in A&E who took me up in the lift when I thought I was having a late miscarriage. He was so kind and I will never, ever forget how he treated me.

I chatted with a woman once in Matalan, we both had new babies. She told me that her baby was actually her second born, and her first son had unexpectedly died when she was pregnant and he was, I think, 2 years old. She was finding it really hard to grieve and also be happy about her second son being born.

I wish I'd taken her for a coffee, and she regularly comes to my mind.

Last week I took a week off work to have my sons dog-we met in the middle as he lives up north and me in the midlands

I'd travelled back to our halfway point and was enjoying some precious minutes with ds when he needed the loo

I said I'd stand outside with the dog while he went in

A random old lady came across and asked if she could fuss him (no issues from the dog-hes a tart) and we got chatting

Shed lost her husband and dog (same breed and colour) a few years ago in the same month,turned out ds's dog has the male version of her female dogs name and she was telling me how much she misses having 'a wet nose,4 legs and fur in her life' (She misses her husband too!)

We bonded in those few minutes over the dog and people we loved and have lost

I bloody hope she's doing ok-she was an amazing lady