Things that choke you up

[omgrightnow]

I choke up when I see an ambulance pass by and the traffic moves, letting it pass.

Something about humans recognising for a second that they have to stop and help for the greater good.

Watching people running marathons in memory of loved ones who have passed away.

A massive crowd singing along to every lyric of a song at a huge festival or concert. The most emotional one ever was when Lewis Capaldi was struggling on stage and the fans took over for him 😭

Has anyone ever been at the start line of an ultramarathon? watching my loved one disappear into the distance after crossing the start was incredibly emotional. I took a minibus round the base of mont blanc, meeting him at each checkpoint. Seeing him arrive before the deadline each time was beautiful. Watching him disappear again was emotional. Watching him cross the finish line? I balled my eyes out.

I work in social care and what gets me is people's photos of themselves in younger times. The 90 year old woman who can't get up on her own was once a vivacious twenty year old,a beautiful bride, maybe a tourist on a big adventure. a harassed mum of little kids, an older mum at a graduation, then a kids wedding, then a grandma. They had hopes, dreams, happiness, bad times, just the same as all of us, and there they've ended up stuck in a chair with hardly anyone to talk to, all too often. It gets me every time. And it scares the bejesus out of me.

The two minute silence on Remembrance Sunday. I think of those poor young men in WWI who had no choice but to go, and those mothers who never got their sons home.

Many years ago we lost our lovely little brother, he wasn't quite a teenager. I kept a pair of his woolly socks and every year I open the Xmas decs box and there they are, gets me everytime, I hang them as stockings on the mantle.

Respect and sincerity do it for me. Gentle acts that resonate with the beholder. The elderly gent who took his hat off when my Dad's funeral car passed by, people who queued up to say nice things or tell funny anecdotes about my late (ex) husband, teachers who've gone above and beyond to help my son who has ASD. These little islands of kindness, generosity and compassion in our boorish, selfish world. Well, they're what keeps me going really, but I cry buckets all the same.

I agree with airport arrivals 😭😭😭.
Carol concerts always get me too, especially if there are little shepherds with teatowels on their heads.

My grandchildren. From the second they were born it's as if they have arms that reach inside my chest and squeeze my heart until it feels as if it will burst.

My crap life

Such a lovely description.

The d day landings.

Kids singing.

Anything that involves lots of people doing the same thing, at the same time, together. So flash mobs, crowds singing etc. It's just so very human.

And it can be the daftest thing, like when I took my daughter to a concert, and saw a stadium full of fans doing the Gangnam Style dance together, whilst waiting for the act. I still tear up thinking about it 😂

Looking at the Google Photo memories that pop up on my phone and see pictures of my little family before my wife decided that she wanted to get together with her boss.

A crocodile of little children crossing the road with huge adult helpers there to protect them. Makes me blub every time.

Kids singing in assembly. Belting out “and the broad beans were sleeping in their blankety bed”!

The little boats of Dunkirk. Just thinking about them makes me want to blub.

Hearing the tune to the “day though gavest Lord is ended” or “abide with me” I can never sing those.

Stories about when very young children call emergency services when their parents need help...I'm in floods of tears. Also that RNLI programme

When someone stops to help someone else across the finish line of a race.

Ratfinkstinkypink- i am so sorry for you, such a heartbreaking post ,i hope life has become happier and easier for you over time 💐

Reading stories aloud (or silently) which I can hear my father's voice in my head reading aloud to me.

The story of Rev. Cecil Pugh who was posthumously awarded the George Cross. I heard about him when researching a relative who died on SS Anselm after the ship was sank by a German submarine.

There were men trapped in the hold of the ship. They couldn't get out and knew they would die there. Cecil asked to be lowered into the hold so that he may comfort them despite knowing that he too would surely die. As he knelt to pray with them the water was already at his shoulders. He is quoted as having said "Where my men are, I have to be" and "my love of God is greater than my fear of death" when being lowered down and when others tried to persuade him not to do so.

That someone could selflessly sacrifice their own life in order to bring comfort to those who were trapped moves me deeply.

I don't know if my relative was one of the men trapped in the hold but I like to think so, I like to think he had the comfort of such a man.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Pugh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Anselm_(1935)

I’m so sorry for your loss. 😰

That scene from Love Actually! 😭