What are the kindest things that strangers have done for you?ve done for you

[TheKindestOfStrangers]

Just recently, we were on holiday in Europe and we went to a very well known "posh" cafe for coffee and cake as a special treat.

While we were there, we got talking to a very lovely couple from a central Asian country on the table just next to us. We chatted for maybe 10-15 minutes, and then they were ready to get their bill and go. Much to my surprise, they then insisted on paying for our bill too. I was bowled over by their kindness and amused by the slightly confused look on the waiter's face.

It got me thinking about other random acts of kindness that I have experienced from strangers. One that sticks in my mind is an American guy that I met at King's Cross tube station around 12 years ago. I was travelling to Heathrow airport to catch a long haul flight with my young daughter. We had left home with loads of time to spare, but there was a major problem with the tubes that day and there were no trains. Initially, I was unpeturbed as I had built in a significant buffer, but it gradually became apparent that the tubes just weren't going to be up and running any time soon, and I was starting to panic about whether we were going to get there. The American guy (who I had been chatting to on the platform while waiting) suddenly said that he would call us a taxi to Heathrow and he insisted on paying for it. So incredibly kind!

Please tell me your stories about the kind things that complete strangers have done for you! I am inspired to spread the kindness to others!

A few years ago my dog collapsed at the side of the road. I was sitting with him on the grass in the pouring rain, waiting for my husband. A lovely lady stopped her car and sat with me in the rain till he arrived. I have never forgotten her kindness. My dog was fine, we never found out what caused him to collapse as he had completely recovered by the time we got him to the vet. At the time I thought he was dying, and was so grateful for her support.

Was in the doctors with ds who was around 2 at the time.walking out with him in his pushchair and one of the wheels came off.An elderly man said I can fix it for you if you can get it to "x street" He lived on the same street as me! and fixed it while ds played in his garden while I waited.I was so grateful

Mine is a small one but it’s stuck with me for 24yrs! I was young ftm in hospital after a traumatic birth, my now (long ago) exH didn’t really visit me and the hospital policy was mothers had to simultaneously not carry their babies only push them in the cots and not leave them but you had to go and queue for your dinner in the hall.
I resigned myself to not eating as I had no one to look after my baby and I was young and too scared to ask the MWs. The partner of the woman in the next bed saw I hadn’t eaten and offered to go and get me some food. As I say, a very small one but I’ve never forgotten it.

Being in west Africa on my own years ago, at the Togo/Ghana border, a guard took my passport and I and the rest of the truck were made to wait. Bear in mind, this was just a small road with a few food shacks on.
Suddenly the guard came out of his office, striding down the road shouting 'Ou est la blanche?' at the top of his voice. The women gathered me up and hid me with them at the back of a little shack.

Me and my mum had taken DCat to the vets. She was 19, had kidney failure and the vet had just suggested the kindest thing to do would be to put her to sleep.

We took DCat outside to the car to give her some cuddles when a lady walked past the car.
We had the door open and were both crying, she reached into the car, asked my cats name, placed her hand on Dcats head and said, very softly, 'may peace be with you DCat'.
It was so kind and gentle, I will never forget her kindness that night.

Once when I was in my early 20's Id' forgotten to take a jacket into work, and walking in it started pouring with rain- a man came over with his umbrella and walked with me to my office- it was just so kind and thoughtful of him.

Another time a horrible woman made me cry when my children were being a bit tricky in a shop and I was going through a hard time and someone calmed me down- I always wished I could thank him.

Oh dear got something in my eye…

It's interesting how many of these are not grand gestures, just small acts of kindness that have stuck with people for years. It's quite heartening to think that we can potentially have such a significant impact on other people from doing quite simple things.

Years ago my dodgy car decided to overheat and make bizarre noises. I was somewhere I didn't know the locality, country area. I know nothing about cars and I was panicking. (Collecting children from school/my work etc).

I pulled over , let the car cool and when I drove off slowly, miraculously a little old fashioned auto repair place appeared.

I pulled in. About 8 mechanics came over. The issue looked to be hugely expensive and they didnt have the parts in. But one of them had a brain wave and tried something out, took my car for a test run. Did some amendments, tested, amended, tested.

I was sat in the office having a cuppa,chatting to the owner sorting out child collection from school etc..

Over 2 hrs later car was back in working order.

They wouldn't take any money at all.

A few months later I was back over that area. I took them a cake I made. I was welcomed like a long lost relative. I sat, had another cuppa and chat with them. They put oil in my car, topped up the windscreen wash (I didn't ask them!) and restored my faith in humans.

Another Japan one, when we were kids my dad was there on business and us kids and our mum were essentially dumped in some house in the middle of nowhere in the countryside while he went off and did whatever it was he was doing. We, being children, were absolutely bored out of our minds (no telly, no video games, no smartphones, nothing!!). Somehow our mum found out there was an amusement park some distance away. We ended up walking there what seemed like an eternity, and when we finally arrived, she had no money on her to pay the admissions 😩 The staff were so kind and said we could just go in for free.

I need to hear the rest of this story! Did you get your passport back and why were you being singled out?

For those who know Dublin, I jumped off the 40ft on Xmas Day and the tide was quite high and so the sea was deep - I must have looked like I was drowning as I came up as some lovely kind man pulled me up and got me sorted so I could swim back into shore!

When my ASD son was little he was obsessed with Toy Story and in particular Woody, at a local store they had woody and buzz visiting so I took him to have a picture took with woody. As you can imagine it was busy and he struggled but stayed in the line however when it got to his turn he couldn't cope and got really upset so I said it's OK and picked him up to take him out. One of the assistants asked if we were OK and I explained he was ASD and he was very overwhelmed by the noise etc, she took us to a little room I think they had breaks there and got him a cold flannel to help calm him, after he was calmed and we went to leave she had arranged for woody and buzz to be outside the room in a quiet area so my son could have his picture, he spent time talking to woody and they gave him a little toy and a frame for his picture, he still has the picture to this day. I couldn't thank them enough and this memory still makes me tear up 20 + years later

Once I'd flown into Liverpool Airport. I was alone with two toddlers and had to make my way back to Leeds with toddlers, pushchair, luggage. It wasn't a straightforward journey - I think a bus and three trains.
I was hugely stressed! And things kept going wrong. I left my iPad on the plane, one of the trains was cancelled. I can't remember what else happened but basically it was one disaster after another!
I was visibly very flustered and complete strangers kept coming to help me. First, one man spoke to the airline and managed to get my iPad returned. Another man helped me plan my route home, given the train cancellation. Someone else helped me get all my luggage on the train.
Interestingly, all the people who helped me were men. I'm just mentioning this as men get a bad rap on here. I'm not gorgeous either so they didn't have ulterior motives! They were just kind people.
It was my first time in Liverpool and I've never forgotten how many complete strangers took time out of their days to help me.

Years ago when renting videos was a thing my eldest daughter used to rent the same film over and over every Friday and return it Sunday. On about the 8th rental of it the video shop owner told her she could keep it, it made her year and all these years later she still has the video in her memory box.

Over 20 years ago I was driving on the M11 with toddler dd, I needed to stop for fuel, filled up and then realised I couldn’t find my card, I still remember my panic rising as I frantically searched my car. I had to fill out lots of forms with dd sitting on my hip, this was taking a long time and soon there was a massive queue behind me. This man suddenly can up to the counter, I honestly thought he was going to give me a bollocking for holding everyone up. He paid for my fuel, and wouldn’t give me his address to pay him back. He said that he hoped that if it happened to his wife and daughter he hoped some one would do the same for them. This was bittersweet for me as dd’s bio dad had left me when I was five months pregnant, never to be seen again. I’ve never forgotten his kindness though.

The pharmacist who insisted on driving me home after I fainted in there following a blood test

The lady who saw me breastfeeding in a cafe with no drink (my sister was in the v long queue) and gave me a bottle of water with a wink and the words "thirsty work that!"

The girls at work who all left their desks and took me straight out for lunch and a drink after a shock redundancy

A friend who drove round after I had been assaulted, lifted a sobbing me out of the shower and just held me

Some lovely stories here
Most of humanity is bloody lovely - they deserve so much more press than the selfish, nasty ones

My DD is basically immobile and she was really suffering from the heat - her heart couldn’t cope. We hired an aircon unit and the guy absolutely wouldn’t take any money from us. He did the same this year. I cried in front of him at the kindness of it.

Stepping onto a packed tube and one of my ballet pump-style shoes fell off and down onto the tracks. I was bewildered and the doors shut before I could decide what to do. A very kind lady on the tube had just bought some brand new shoes from Primark and insisted I take them! I was late for work and so grateful, even if they were 2 sizes too small.

My daughter fell in a city centre playground in Mallorca, cutting her knee, I was sitting in a fairly fancy and busy cafe at the time, the waitress came instantly with cloths and bandages.
The vomit that suddenly came next was a
sueprise, and I was totally covered in my kids puke.
without any grumbling, just concern, the waitress found me a spare uniform, the people at the table immediately beside us might have been appalled but they didn’t show that, they instead comforted my daughter whilst I was getting changed out of the vomit covered dress, and hailed a cab for us, and payed the bill. (I discovered when I returned the next day to pay for our coffees)

Spain loves kids.

Mid tantrum in a supermarket a lady came up to me, whilst I was on the verge of tears, and just said to me "you've got this, it'll pass". I literally cried and could've hugged her.

Onboard a plane, long haul, a complete stranger came up to me and offered to hold DD while she was screaming (and had been for a couple of hours) and was utterly inconsolable. She'd vomited all over me and it gave me ten minutes to get changed and get myself together.

Incident at work meant I needed a tetanus jab as a call to GP practice confirmed my previous one was too long ago. Lovely practice nurses stayed an hour past her finish time to administer it for me (I was an hour away) to save me from going to the walk in centre. So kind at the end of her busy working day.

Just a tiny one.
My car had been scratched by a smaller ones wing mirror getting too close on a roundabout, about two years ago. The scratch was quite long and I didn’t have the money to get it sorted.

A while back, I was having a number plate made up and asked if the guys knew of a scratch repair place that wouldn’t rip me off. One of the guys got some scratch repair stuff off the shelf, went out to the car, dealt with it and it was gone! No charge. Very grateful me.

Mine was only 2 weeks ago. Lost my bank card after shopping, received a text on my phone to state that a new card was on the way. (I hadn't even realized that I had lost it!) Called the bank thinking it was a scam and found out that somebody had found my card and took the time to call up the bank to report my card as missing.
Such a small act, but it was incredibly kind, that they took the time to actually, cancel it for me.

Many years ago, I met up with a friend in London. We were both students, so didn’t have much money to spend.

Whilst stood chatting at our meeting point. a lady stepped out of an expensive car told us that she had two tickets to a show but couldn’t now go. Said that she didn’t want to waste the tickets, has seen us and thought we looked like we deserved a treat. Refused to take any money, smiled and waved as she drove off.

Never found out who she was, but the memories she gave my friend and I through her generosity will stay with me for life.