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?

Mine is Lydia, a specialist midwife who looked after me overnight in August 2019. I was heavily pregnant and extremely unwell with pancreatitis and sepsis, so I was in the HDU part of the maternity unit. The hospital staff were generally excellent but I needed a lot of quite technically complex care that took priority over ordinary comfort, and I was on a horrible bed that wasn't long enough and gave me back pain.

Lydia was just amazing. I met her about five days into my illness when I was at my most unwell. I was in terrible pain, exhausted but totally wired, running a horrible temperature and spending the night in there on my own because DH needed to be at home with then-5yo DS. She was so kind and capable and in an absolutely calm and gentle way, gave me a bed bath, got me into clean sheets, rejigged the bed settings to make it more comfortable, put me into a clean gown and brushed my hair and my teeth for me (I couldn't even manage that). Those very basic things were so comforting. She told me that though she was a midwife, she felt she could do her best work looking after expectant mothers and she made such an enormous difference to me.

Lydia, if you worked at West Mids in 2019 and recognise me, I will always remember your kindness. The baby I was expecting is now my 4 year old daughter, strong, healthy and hilarious. I wish you could meet her. I've often wished that I'd named her after you.

In the days before we had mobile phones: -

May 1997, on a visit to Manchester with my now DH, we'd just came out of the wee inn accommodation where we were staying. We walked across a bridge and I noticed an older man, something didn't feel right. After a few steps, I turned and looked back, he was climbing over the parapet. I ran back and grabbed him to stop him jumping. DH came to help. Then a lovely young black man came and helped too. DH ran back to the hotel to phone the emergency services, took a great deal of time, the locals in the bar seemed to be amused by the whole affair, apparently it was a well known spot for jumpers. I stayed holding on to Billy for 20 minutes until the police and ambulance arrived. I talked and talked, I'm so NOT a talker but I talked to Billy that night. Billy's face haunted me for years. It was a long time ago and, given his age, Billy would almost certainly be dead now anyway but I've always wondered if he got the help he needed. I think about the sweet young man who helped me and hope that he is happy and successful in his life now. I've never spoken to anyone about this in real life. Later that night, we were in the city centre and heard what seemed to be very loud explosions. DH and I were absolutely horrified and afraid that it might be a bombing. Tried to make our way back to the hotel without drawing attention to our Irish accents. Turns out it was fireworks which we couldn't see, at that point we'd never seen fireworks, they are illegal in Ireland except on special licence. These days you can buy them on the black market but back then you'd never see them. Apparently Prince Charles was in town that night too.

And, Shane. Well, I don't know his real name but he's Shane in my head and he'd be about 25 now and I hope he has an okay life, I hope he survived, I hope he is still adventurous. He was a small toddler in a babygro and no shoes clutching a raggedy rag who emerged from a rough wooded path from a housing estate high above the main road, which was tree-lined but had no houses close by. He began to cross the road, the car coming against us stopped, it was an older couple. DH stopped too. You couldn't make this up. The woman in the passenger seat got out, picked him up from the front of their car and put him on the footpath, got back in the car and her husband drove off. Shaney-boy stepped off the footpath and started crossing the road again. I got out of the car, picked him up and brought him over to the pavement at our side. We waited. We were at a bus stop and were hoping that a bus would come along so that the driver could radio for assistance. Or, hoping that a parent might come tearing down the pathway looking for him. I was talking to him but he was not able to talk back. He was quite happy to hold my hand and look at me. We didn't want to put him in our car in case someone might see from a distance and think we were abducting him. We didn't want to head up the rough pathway, the estate there was pretty rough. A taxi came along, DH flagged it down as he thought he could call in the incident. Turns out he was dropping a woman to the housing estate. She said she recognised the boy and would drop him home. I hope she did. We went on our way (to collect my wedding dress). Now that I've had children myself I often wonder about the sheer callousness of the couple in the other car, they were old enough to be grandparents or great-grandparents to Shane, certainly old enough to know better. I can't imagine my own parents doing something like that. And, what of Shane's parents, did they even get a fright that day or did their neighbour return him before they even notices he'd gone on an adventure?

This thread is very moving. All human life is here 💖💔

I had just started a job managing a hotel abroad, and a young couple from Nova Scotia came to stay. The season hadn't properly started so I had time to sit and chat with them. They were kind and thoughtful people, and obviously in love with eachother, in a way that was touching to witness. Towards the end of their stay the woman divulged that she had recently suffered a miscarriage and began to cry. Her husband silently comforted her. I have never forgotten their pain and sorrow and really hope they were later blessed with the children they wanted so much.

I moved to a new town 100 miles away where I knew no one, and was travelling on a local train in my new area. I got chatting to a lovely older lady and when she disembarked she pushed a small piece of paper into my hand with her phone number on it, and said feel free to ring me any time. I lost the paper though and still regret my carelessness, as I think she was lonely and would have welcomed the company as much as me.

I also remember the teenagers who thought my 8 year old son was on his own in a busy London rail station. I was only a few feet away but they hadn't realised. Everyone else was madly dashing past, oblivious, but they stopped in concern and questioned each other about what to do with ds. I called out "Oh it's OK he's mine", and they looked so relieved. I really appreciated them and think they must be grown into wonderfully caring young men now.

Working in a nursery i cared for so many children
Some would be 25 now
I wonder about them often

Years ago, with a friend, on the last leg of a journey home from an overseas conference, we were on a little local train and struggling with our enormous suitcases. A very courteous German tourist travelling with his wife and young kids stepped off the train to help us with the suitcases when we got off the train. The doors closed leaving him on the platform and his family on the train, which pulled away. They all looked horrified! Luckily my husband was there to meet us in the car, and we managed to race the train to the next station and reunite the man with his family. Never did get his name, but was so glad we were able to put the situation right.

Yep my thoughts as well as such a nice tale. Hardly slanderous. Clearly a very discreet poster. Doesn't even mention destination.

20 odd years ago I helped at a drama course audition. I did a silent scene with a young man who was applying for the course. It was electric. I have never felt a connection like that with any other person I have acted with. Even the course director talked to me about it afterwards. I have never seen him again. I often wonder what would have happened if he had taken up the place. I would have been a year ahead and we would have worked together again.

On the contrary. Perhaps a person has had so much heartbreak in life they don’t have any tears left to shed.

About 14 years ago I was a student travelling to college in London. When the train doors opened a little girl, about 4 yo, fell out. She'd been leaning against the doors and just fell from the train as soon as the doors opened. I was stood in the right place and caught her as she fell but I was on my knees clinging onto her dangling in my arms between the train and the platform. I think her mum must have frozen in panic. Unbelievably people got off the train and just stepped off the train and walked past us at the same set of doors. I had a heavy bag full of books on my back and I was in such an awkward position trying to stand up whilst still holding onto her. I could just feel her clinging onto me and it was terrifying. I have no idea why no one helped pull us up. Finally from somewhere I found the strength to stand up, pulling her up with me and we both got onto the train. Her mother didn't speak English but whispered some kind of thank you. She understandably looked panic striken and in shock. The poor girl was just sobbing and crying and staring at me as if she was terrified of me. I can't forget the fear on her face. I think about her a lot and how frightening it must have been for her. I hope so much she was not affected by it too much and forgot about it soon after or that as she has grown older she hopefully realises that I was not a monster and just did what needed to be done to stop her falling onto the track, which may have included some very tight squeezing as I struggled to hold onto her. I hope she is doing amazingly well wherever she is.
I can't get over how other people just stepped around us though and did nothing to help. I didn't think I was going to be able to stand up holding onto her, I was also in shock so didn't have the mind to shout out, I was just focusing on holding onto her hoping someone would see we needed help and step in. No one did anything though. People really do suck sometimes.

This is not my story, but one that brought me to tears.

After the HIllsborough independent panel published their report, it was put on line along with copies of every document they had. I didn't want to read the accounts of the victims who survived but I did look at other documents.

There were interviews with people who lived near the ground and on that day had opened their doors to let people use their phones, or to hand out cups of tea.

The following day many of those Liverpool fans returned to thank people. Many of them also brought groceries.

How anyone who witnessed, let alone survived that disaster could think about anyone else, and to make a two hour journey to the place those events happened I do not know.

@Dalriadanland John Rhys- Davies is the actor then. That wasn't difficult to identify.

So weird, my husband and I love Marsa Alam, he’s very unwell now and would love us to back there this year but I’m afraid to. We were there last March. There is something magical about it.

Many years ago when my son was in playgroup, a dear little boy called John used to attend with his auntie. He was about 3, smaller than the other children, and would come to all the mums for a cuddle. He told me that his own mum didn't love him. I said I'm sure she does but he said no, auntie told me she doesn't. He was so desperate for love and used to say "will you be my mummy"? I still think of him and hope he has found love in his life.

Years ago I went on a retreat in the middle of nowhere with about 15 strangers all staying together in a huge country house for a week. So remote there were no phones, internet, tv and the radio didn’t work. We’d make and eat meals together, drink and chat away in the evenings and our days were filled with yoga and meditation classes and quiet walks around the estate gardens. On the last day our coaches arrived to take us all back to various train and bus stations and as I was about to board mine a woman pulled me aside and said ‘you will never know how much you’ve helped me this week. I will be forever grateful and will never forget it.’ To this day I have absolutely no idea what it was I said or did that helped her but I often think about her and hope everything worked out well for her.

@Cailin66 can you still fly there? They stopped the flight from Manchester which was a shame.

Over 30 years ago when my then-BF (now DH) and I were inter-railing, we got on our first Italian train.

When the ticket inspector came to our carriage, it turned out that our inter-rail tickets weren't enough and we needed to pay a 'supplemento'.

This was before the Euro and we only had changed a few Lira, so we didn't have enough money and didn't speak the language, so didn't really know what would happen to us.

All the other passengers in our carriage clubbed together and paid for our tickets!

It was so kind of them - I've no idea how much in £ they all paid for us, but I think it was quite a lot.

It was one of the first journeys of our travels, and we were much more careful after that about having enough currency and checking if our tickets were valid!

Wow what an interesting job, have you ever thought of starting a AMA thread on here ?

On my 10th birthday my "uncle" (friend of the family who you call uncle), took me, my brother and sister and his two daughters for a walk on a local beach. We hadn't lived in the area long. As we were walking we heard a siren, but didn't know what it was so just kept going.

There was a stretch of land that sort of stuck out onto the beach, and a man was on top of it with his dog. He started shouting at us to get off the beach, then turned and looked behind him, and then turned back to us screaming "get off the beach NOW!".

The tide started coming in very, very quickly, and I still remember clear as day seeing the water rush around the piece of land, straight towards us.

The siren had obviously been to warn people that the tide was about to come in.

The man jumped in and grabbed my brother and I and started pulling us towards the bit of land. The water was so strong, and got deep so quickly. My legs went out from under me, and the man had hold of my coat at the neck, so he was dragging me backwards. The poppers on my coat started coming undone and I remember screaming and trying to hold the two sides of my coat closed.

I could see my uncle trying to get my sister and his two daughters to the bit of land, but his youngest either let go or he couldn't hold her, and I will never forget the look on her face as she was swept away.

I think that man saved my life, and my brother's. I'm pretty sure he got a medal for bravery. I often think about him, and how he didn't hesitate before helping.

This was at grange over sands in Cumbria if anyone knows him. I am so grateful. To this day I cannot bear the feel of water pulling at me and I'm terrified of the sea.

My uncle's daughter was rescued by the coast guard.

I had just typed out a detailed reply but it disappeared! So I will shorten it now. Yes I think a lot about people from my past both good and bad experiences. I probably think too much. I still give thanks to those people who helped me in various ways.

It was over 30 years ago and even now, every time I'm out shopping and thinking about buying a new handbag, I always check to see if my purse will fit!!

The social work student who took my sister and I to her flat 30 years ago when my mum was taken to hospital. I can still picture her flat, remember sitting on her knee and drawing with her highlighters. The store she picked us up from is now shutting down which has reminded me of that day. I can’t really picture her or remember her name but I remember sitting on her knee.

Also the woman who held my hand on a train journey two years ago when I was trying to process the news that my mum was terminal, and my granny had just died (exactly two weeks apart), will never forget her telling me ‘you just keep breathing in and out, the easiest thing to do, the rest will come back to you.’

Just remembered another. At secondary school I had barely any friends. I was painfully shy to the point of eating lunch in the toilets shy. It was a horrible time and I was bullied. I had really long blonde hair down to my bum. I was very lonely.

At the end of the last year of school every one signed each others shirts to wish them goodluck. One person wrote on mine saying “never change your hair, it’s beautiful. Goodluck! From Emma”

I still remember that, thank you Emma.

I will never forget the two paramedics who came when my mother had a heart attack. I am one of five children and was the last one to visit in the two weeks after she had been in hospital and I think she was waiting for me to visit (I lived 150 miles away). Before I left to come home I went to do shopping but when I got back from the shops shetold me she thought she was having a heart attack. The ambulance was there within 10 minutes ( those were the days) and were so kind as she had a DNR so they made her comfortable and stayed with her until she died with me holding her hand.

The paramedics stayed at the house for about three hours after she died with the senior paramedic filling in paperwork and the junior paramedic greeting family at the door and making tea and coffee for everyone and supporting all of us in our grief. It was a very sad time for all of us but they made things so much easier with their care.

The random man on the other side of the street 20 years ago who defended me when my then boyfriend was harassing me and pushing me around. I was in tears and trying to get away when a strangers voice suddenly boomed, 'Leave her alone or I'll come over there and break both your bastard legs!'

After he'd got rid of the dickhead he walked me back to my uni halls and gave me a good talking to about never putting up with that sort of crap from a man again.
Legend.