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?

Many years ago my ex-h threw a hissy fit and left me to sort out a really complicated, time critical, IKEA purchase with a newborn , 18m, 4yr and 6yr old.

Going down the trolly escalator thing the barriers to the car park were damaged and the trolley got totally stuck and i just stood there frozen.

Out of nowhere ,it seemed , an army of people rushed to help and lifted all my many large items,plus trolley , bodily over the barriers.

I'm tearing up just thinking about it.

Thank you lovley IKEA people !

20+ years ago. I’d just had the worst holiday as a teenager. My parents were very close to divorcing and the holiday had been just nonstop tension and stress. I hadn’t smiled all holiday and just wanted to get home.

In the airport on the way home there was a family ahead of us in the queue. The daughter was around my age and hugging a cardboard box tightly to her arguing with her mother. From what I could gather, the girl was so worried that the object would break so she wanted to carry it but the mother wanted her to put it away in a bag. The girl was adamant that her friend needed this present and she couldn’t risk it.

As we moved forward in the queue the girl tripped up and dropped the box. There was a loud smash and bits of pot shot across the floor. Looking down, I saw that the smashed object was an ornament.

A pot gorilla, and the two bits of porcelain that had shot across the floor were an 8 inch banana cover…and the rather large porcelain penis it had been covering.

After a few seconds of silence the girl and her mother looked at each other and burst out into uncontrollable laughter while the dad did his best to hide his face.

I still remember it and chuckle. That girl must be in her thirties now like me. It was the first time all holiday that I smiled.

A woman kindly offered me a seat on a train as I travelled home when my dad died. I must have looked a state and she was calm and chatty.

eight years later she was sat in front of me in my workplace in a different city entirely.

Mine is also a Lido de Jesolo story from decades ago. My then boyfriend and I were staying at a tiny hotel and made friends with an older couple. Halfway through the holiday they found out their son had been badly injured in a car accident and had to go home. My boyfriend and I broke up soon afterwards but 5 years ago we got back together after a 35 year gap and we often wonder what happened to our holiday friends and their son

I am so glad you were helped too.

A shop owner took us in when I realised there were no police near, and kept the shutters down and gave us drinks.

So many great people out there

When dd1 was newborn and I was a very young first time mammy. She was up in special care and I was upset being on the ward without my baby. At about 11pm a nun came in and sat with me and I was telling her the craic. Even though it was really late she told me to go up and see my dd and stop at the little chapel on my way. I did and when I got to the unit my dd was awake and I got to give her a feed. I was so happy! I’ll never forget the lovely nun and her kindness to me that night. She was old and that was 23 years ago so I doubt she’s still with us.

I will always remember the female pilot who flew the plane that brought me home for my beloved gran’s funeral this May.
It was a very late flight departing Barcelona at 22:30. I had been working at a conference and had had to put on a brave face all week. I hadn’t wanted to go. My mum and I had nursed gran in her final days, organised her funeral, but mum told me to go, that everything was now in place and gran would not want my business to suffer.
I was pretty sure it would have been delayed but we boarded bang on time.
She came out the cockpit as we were boarding and I remember seeing her. Small, blond, mid 50s, black glasses. She had such an important role that night for me. She got me home to gran. The funeral was 3 days later and I said a prayer in thanks in the church.

Blimey. I haven’t read the whole thread yet but wanted to comment on this one. It really got to me. Thank you for being his friend, and for sharing him with us.

These are wonderful stories, I'm in tears.

I still often think about a homeless man who got up and asked me what was the matter, offered to buy me a coffee, and then hugged me and walked me to my friend who was meeting me at a station. I had had a truly awful couple of days, someone had tried to kill my relative. I'd kept my acct together the whole time until I got on the train home, then I cried for 4 hours. His kindness meant such a lot to me.

The other way round, I remember a car in front of us disappearing off the road. It was down an embankment and it just vanished. I insisted something has happened and made the driver stop our car. We found the car and driver at the bottom, the driver asphyxiating on their own seatbelt. We moved them and got them breathing. But they didn't regain consciousness at all while we were there and I often wonder what happened to them. They were an off duty ambulance worker and it was a dual carriageway in case they're somehow a mumsnetter!

I was in Glasgow scattering my dads ashes in the river Clyde near ibrox football stadium in a quiet spot early morning and a cyclist rode past and stopped and she says ' oh my love to you ' and I said thank you whilst crying and we both just stood looking at each other with tears for a moment and she rode off. She'll never appreciate how much that meant to me in that moment

@Kool4kats how absolutely awful... RIP George how lovely you still think of him and I'm sure he would have lovely things to say about you.
I hope those teens if they knew would feel very shameful of their actions.

This has got me thinking!
I was in a busy town centre and had bought far too much for a bus ride home and as I was struggling with my overfilled bags waiting I suffered a huge nosebleed ( I was 17) and I dropped my bags in a panic... there was 20-30 people around me who all ignored me and looked the other way.
A young homeless lad came over and gave my tissues whilst going into wilkos asking for a stinger bag he helped me pick up strewn things up and calmed me down just by helping me laugh.
My bus came and I didn't know what to do so I gave him £10.
I hope he used ok and knows how much I appreciated his help

The lovely off duty policeman who noticed my brother had a fit while we were out and about. He pulled up in his car and gave mum and brother a lift home while I pedelled the bike back. Sefton park 1992ish. It meant the world to mum and me, thank you.

The homeless lady that held my hand and sat with me waiting for an ambulance when I started bleeding during contractions with DD.

Id come outside due to ex being his usual abusive self and she was the sweetest most calming woman I have ever met.

I hope her life is better now
Thank you Renee x

Around 12 years ago (when I was 16) my boyfriend at the time had gone to a caravan holiday with his boy mates, he was due back this day & I was getting ready excited to see him. As I was about to leave, he text me saying he'd met someone else there & he was leaving me. I tried ringing but he wouldn't answer - so I ran out my house in tears and flagged the first bus that came past, I jumped on the bus and I couldn't see through my tears (and in a rush id forgot to put on my glasses and I'm still blind without them) I'd forgot my money, I cried more and the bus driver let me get on and said to try and calm down, I went to get off at my stop & I told him I promise I'll pay you tomorrow (he was a regular driver for our route) and he just said don't worry about it love, everything will be okay. Bless him, 16 year old heartbroken me really appreciated his kindness

@Kool4kats this is so sad, thank you for being his friend and telling his story. Makes my blood boil to think of those heartless kids

This made me cry ..

I was a holiday rep and met lots of people and families that made an impact on me.

I worked in the Algarve where a man had sadly died one of our excursions. My manager asked me to meet his wife when she arrived back at the hotel, so she wasn't alone.

We ended up going to the hospital to go and see him, but nobody from my team/the hotel would come, so it was me and this lady. I didn't speak any Portuguese and went around the whole hospital having to explain to each department why we were there and who we were looking for. The lady was sobbing, and getting more and more upset as we walked around. I was 20 and hadn't ever dealt with anything like this before and was just doing my best as we got sent from place to place. In the end we found he had been taken to the morgue. I stayed outside but heard her crying when she saw him. I haven't seen a body before, but it seemed like he was just pulled from the fridge, I don't think it was a private room, it felt different to how we do things in the UK.

We went back another day after her son flew over. When she left, she left me a tip at reception and whilst I was really grateful, I felt terrible to accept it as I hadn't expected this at all. I often wonder about her and how she is now. It was a life lesson for me that day.

I've told this story in RL so it would be outing. He's been in Indiana Jones and Lord of the Rings.

Whenever I fly I think of a lovely boy I met when flying solo to the US at 18. I can’t remember his name, or how we started chatting in departures, but he told me any time he took a flight he would touch the outside of the plane before boarding, for luck. It just stuck with me and I’ve done it ever since.

In December 1994 my two best friends were killed in a motorbike accident abroad and I immediately jumped on a plane to what had also been my home town. I remember, 19 years old sitting at Gatwick just sobbing quietly on a chair on my own. I couldn’t stop. There was a small film crew filming something nearby and one of the men, possibly the director, eventually came over and very kindly asked me if I was okay and needed any help. I told him what had happened and he was ever so kind but of course there was nothing he could say or do. I often remember him for some reason.

A happier one. I was in Thailand in at Christmas 2002 and met the most handsome man on a boat from krabi to Kho Phi Phi. I was with work colleague who was a bit grumpy at the time and we didn’t really go together well, if that makes sense. He and I ended up chatting and then having a swim together once we arrived. He told me he was a doctor with medicins sans frontieres but I have no idea if it was true! I could tell he was flirting with me and I was really shy given that I was feeling terrible about myself due to having put on weight due to an illness. I also had a boyfriend so didn’t reciprocate. He was absolutely gorgeous though! If anyone knows Matthew (I think his name was) please tell him I am now single and much more confident even though I am pushing 50 and would love to meet up!

I had a traumatic childhood and recently got my social services files to read through for closure. A lot of adults and professionals in social care really let me down during my childhood, but one specialist doctor fought so hard for me. He put a report in several times and constantly told them that I was terrified at his appointments and severely underweight.
This fell on deaf ears, but if I could see him now I'd want him to know that I got out of there the moment I turned 16, and I'm so happy with where I am in life now. I'm so grateful to him just for trying.

When my boyfriend and I were teens and we were just hanging around having a laugh etc, as teens do. An older lady (probably 60's) came up to us and said "when I was young, girls had to act all prim and proper. Make the most of being young while you can!"

I've often thought about her words and didn't think about it at the time but we were outside the hospital, I've since thought maybe she'd come from the hospital having received bad news and wondered if that prompted her to approach me to say that.

If this thread doesn't make you weep then you must have a heart of stone. So many nice people out there

The paramedic who told me "I'm sorry, we tried but.." the morning my father died very suddenly. I don't think I took in the rest of his sentence. I've always felt a little bit guilty, I put my head in my hands and started crying and I worried after if the paramedic thought I was rude for just not listening anymore. I hope he and the rest of that team are doing well. They tried very, very hard.

Years later I was working in the City of London and was walking to Pret for lunch from my office when I saw paramedics working on a man, not too dissimilar a build to my dad, who had collapsed in the street. I don't believe they were able to resuscitate him successfully. I didn't watch as I didn't want to rubber neck but I did stand a few moments...because I thought if he was my family member I'd hate to think he died on the street with no one around him who cared. I wonder about his family sometimes. I hope they're doing ok.