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!

About 8 years ago I was really ill with hyperemesis and needed to go back into hospital. My then H had to stay home with DC1, and both my Mum and best friend said they couldn't come with me (friend had plans, Mum said she couldn't leave her birds for that long. Yes, really).
I felt so ill and posted on a hyperemesis support group to say how shitty I felt that I was going in alone, again, with nobody to advocate for me, again.
A lovely lady was on the group because her daughter was a hyperemesis sufferer, and when she realised we lived in the same city, she offered to not only drive me into hospital, but stayed with me the whole time I was in (14 hours) and was the best advocate I'd ever had.

My Mum was furious that another woman had "done her job" 🙃

Our boiler packed in one winter when DS was very small. Our plumber/gas engineer spent ages trying to fix it, concluded that it was an electrical fault, and rang his electrician friend to come and have a look. He was here for hours, until late on a Friday evening, but again, couldn't get it going - he refused to charge me for his time because he hadn't fixed it. The weather turned bitterly cold that weekend and we had no heating. At about midday on the Saturday, there was a knock at the door. The electrician was standing there with a plug-in radiator - 'My wife's been on at me to get rid of this for ages. Just pass it on to someone else who needs it when you've finished with it.' I don't think I've ever been so grateful to anyone in my life.

On mumsnet, firstly, in 2019 when my dh had a major psychotic breakdown, totally out of the blue. I had no one in real life to talk to but I spent every night for a whole week talking to people on here, late into the night and was given valuable information on what might happen next, what drugs he might be given, where to get help and information from. It really became my lifeline. Then, in 2021 I had to go into hospital for tests. From being someone who always took other people to hospital appointments, I suddenly found myself completely alone when in dire need of company. In the days leading up to the tests, I'd found support and encouragement from members of the mumsnet community. However, what I never imagined was that on the day itself, whilst I was sat in the hospital car park waiting to go in, I was absolutely inundated with messages of good luck and support from many mumsnet members. I'll never forget their kindness and it gave me the courage I needed to get in there and get the tests over with.

I went to a theme park with my two dc, aged around 7 and 10. It was pouring with rain. A couple of young men on a stag do gave us their umbrella so that we could stay in the queue and kids go on the roller coaster. The young men got drenched by the torrential rain instead of my kids. Very kind.

The one that sticks out for me was after a car crash where the person who hit me raced off a random car of very young adults pulled over to see if I was OK. The girls comforted me and the boys took over the call to tell emergency services where I was as I was in so much shock I wasn't making any sense and didn't know how to explain where I was. It was around 2am and it was on a dual carriageway. If they hadn't stopped to help me I don't know how I would have told emergency services where I was

When I was a kid,I lived with my darling grandad (my narc mother didn't want me around and I was only bred to look after him/her in her old age)
My lovely grandad died of dementia and the manager of the care home he'd lived in for the last 18 months of his life just happened to be my friends mum
As my mother was centre stage at the funeral,I was at the back in floods of tears,totally ignored and forgotten,id been his carer since i was very young,shed done nothing-just the odd phone call over the years-this was my mother's stage and I wasn't to star on it
Friends mum gave me space but held me up at the same time and took the time to make sure I was ok

My friend nina-i met her at a single parent group I went to
I could tell her anything,she got how evil my mother is and guided me through life with my mother in it-she showed me how to be a good mum
It was a sad day when we lost nina to bloody cancer-she was the best

My dp-everthing he does is with me in his actions
He's shown me what a good man is

My story’s from Japan too. Long and tbh boring but the gist is that a young couple stopped at a railway station where we were stranded after all the bullet trains were cancelled because of a typhoon, offered to help, drove us what they insisted was 'a short distance' but was actually about 25 minutes to a completely different town and another station, came into the information office and interpreted with the desk-clerks, then put us on the right train back to where we were going.

So kind of them, and they were lovely. Had the chance to offer return hospitality a couple of years later as we kept in touch and they visited my home-town.

I’ve never had anyone be kind to me. And anytime I’ve tried to help a stranger they’ve looked at me like I have two heads.

Donated blood. I needed 18 pints of it to stay alive.

I haven't been able to donate in a long time due to cancer and my DH & DC are trying to replenish those 18 donations on my behalf but if you can donate, please do.

My first day of work when I was 17. I was starting a...whatever it was called back then when you got a shit wage but on the job training and nvqs. The bus didn't turn up and I had no alternative way of getting there. Two people at the bus stop offered for me to share a taxi with them, then refused to let me pay my share once we arrived.

Many years ago, when I was about 13, I had a weekend job in a newsagents. The owner insisted on keeping the door wide open, even in the winter 😒, with no heaters. I remember it was a freezing cold day in December, and a lady came in and when she handed me the money for her purchases, she commented on how cold my hands were. An hour later she returned with some fingerless gloves and a big chunky cardigan. I actually shed a tear at her kindness x

2 occasions both when I was in high school, one I had an asthma attack and my shit school sent me home, mid way home I collapsed against a wall and thank god a lady that lived opposite spotted me and was a nurse. She immediately rang both an ambulance and my mum never forgotten it.

The second being when I rode my bike home a car got too close to me and knocked me with their wing mirror, I fell and cracked my head open on the wall behind. The car drove off and a couple stopped from the next car behind . The man ran to get ny mum and the lady stayed while I drifted in and out of consciousness, as my mum didn’t drive they drove us to hospital and stayed while I got treatment then drove us home.

Op, what a lovely, uplifting thread 💖

How did you get your passport back?

A couple -

Once in Japan I was walking along and the heavens opened. A Japanese gentleman insisted I took his umbrella.

Returning from the Canary Islands with dd age 3 and dd age 8months. Our prepackaged bottles of formula had, unbeknownst to us, gone off, leaving us with nothing to feed our now very hungry baby. Flight was 11pm and literally everything in the airport was shut. I was in tears from tiredness and now worry that my baby would be hungry. Our head of cabin crew said he couldn't bear the little sticks of milk they had on planes so he always bought a pint of whole milk from M&S for the crew to enjoy a decent cuppa in their breaks, and that I didn't need to cry because my baby could have it. Obviously she was a bit young officially for cows milk but it was better than her starving!! I was so grateful i wrote to the airline to make sure they were recognised.

After Ex and I split, I was left pretty much alone to raise DD. Ex did see her once a week but that was absolutely it (things have changed now DD is older and easier but heyho)
DD is and has always been a talker and started extremely early in life. It's often relentless at times and as she didn't sleep through the night until after 5, I was fucking exhausted.
We were on the train home to my parents house about two hours away when she was around 4. It was endless questions and I spy. I could barely keep my eyes open but if my concentration slipped, DD would be quick off the mark to tell me I needed to play properly.
A lovely woman came over and told me I was doing a brilliant job.
It was such a simple thing but I'd had two years of constantly feeling like I was sinking and failing, it was the nicest thing she could have done. I started blubbing straight away
Years later, never forgot it.

My daughter dropped her passport on the train from the airport into Munich. We got to the hotel and realised she didn’t have it. Cue panic, only to see a young couple r come up to us-they had noticed when we got off and followed us off before their stop to hand it back!

November 2000, aged 24, in hospital with a kidney infection & unknowingly pregnant, I was taken to another hospital for tests. There was a mix up with the transport & I was left sitting exhausted, in pain & totally overwhelmed & just howling my heart out. A receptionist, an older, motherly, woman came out and sat with me and just chatted and hugged me till I calmed down. I've never forgotten it.

Mine is very kind, but a bit naughty. I wrote a post on LinkedIn about wanting to do a particular training course, and having had three meetings, being told I was chosen and then being told the price, which I was asking from day one to find out I couldn't afford it. One lady sent me a private message with her login details for the course, she had finished it and was happy to let me use hers. I completed the course, I can't get the qualification certificate obviously as she has it in her name. But I could screen shot all the modules to show I have done it, and demonstrate it in my everyday life. I just say studied to xxx level rather than qualified in.

A man paid my bus fare one morning when I was taking the DC to school and had forgotten my card.
I once stood with a woman at an unsheltered bus stop on front of my house as it was heavily raining and she didn’t have an umbrella, so I let her shelter under mine with me until her bus arrived.

The most consequential thing a stranger or a number of strangers ever did for me was give blood.
Unlnown to me I had a pregnancy complication where my blood wouldn’t clot and I had a lot of large volume transfusions over a few days.

I second the giving blood…

My partner gave birth via instruments delivery two weeks ago.

Despite being a petite lady, she lost close to 2.5 litres of blood on the operating table, as I watched on holding our newborn child.

My daughter is today able to sleep in the arms of her mother, in large part due to the kindness of a stranger who gave blood in return for a sticker, a biscuit and a cup of tea.

December before last - I tripped over, hurt my hands and face, and broke my glasses. It later turned out that I'd broken my nose. A totally lovely lady with two small children saw me fall and came over to help - it was in the evening, cold, and there weren't many people around. She insisted rightly that I should go to A&E, helped me to phone relative living nearby, and helped me across the road to where relative lived and waited till she answered and took over. I've always wondered if she was on MN, given the small children - lovely lady from New Malden, if you are, I'm still really grateful for your kindness.

Also on the same occasion, another stranger saw what had happened, went into a local shop and bought a box of tissues and some water to help as my nose was bleeding everywhere.

It was an unpleasant experience made so much better by the kindness of strangers.

FTM, first time out with my baby. Got the car seat out and put it on the buggy to go shopping. Came back later and COULD NOT WORK OUT HOW TO GET THE BLOODY THING BACK IN THE CAR. Omg. I was stressing, baby picked up on it and started yelling, milk started leaking. Then this couple walking by asked if I was okay and I just sobbed everywhere. She gave me a hug whilst he got the car seat in and collapsed the buggy and got that in too. Remember her saying 'you poor thing you're all in the tizzy! It'll get easier I promise'

Never even got their name. But was so so grateful.

FTM, first time out with my baby. Got the car seat out and put it on the buggy to go shopping. Came back later and COULD NOT WORK OUT HOW TO GET THE BLOODY THING BACK IN THE CAR. Omg. I was stressing, baby picked up on it and started yelling, milk started leaking. Then this couple walking by asked if I was okay and I just sobbed everywhere. She gave me a hug whilst he got the car seat in and collapsed the buggy and got that in too. Remember her saying 'you poor thing you're all in the tizzy! It'll get easier I promise'

Never even got their name. But was so so grateful.