Moments with Strangers: Ever Wonder What Happened to Them?

[TheRealGossipGirl]

I had an interesting conversation with a friend today, and it got me thinking about those random encounters with strangers - when you see someone and can’t help but wonder about their story: how they ended up in that moment, what they were going through, or where they are now. I thought it might be an interesting topic to start, so I’ll go first.

It’s not something I think about all the time, but now and again, especially when I’m in the same area, I find myself remembering something from when I was about 11 or 12. I was on a bus with my older sister, heading to another town to do some shopping and it was a 40-50 minute journey. One trip stands out, a woman got on with a massive suitcase and a weekender bag. The suitcase was so large that someone actually had to get off the bus and help her get it on.

At first, she seemed quite cheerful, texting on her phone and after a few minutes, she started calling someone but it was obvious there was no answer. She called again and again but you could tell that whoever she was calling was not picking up. Gradually, her mood changed and the smile disappeared, and she looked upset. She was trying to keep it together, but you could see her wiping away tears. After a while, she just stared out of the window, looking lost and a little scared.

I don't remember if she got off the bus before us, but I’ve always wondered what happened to her. I mentioned it to my sister once, and we both thought that maybe she was leaving a partner/her family for someone else, who decided at the last minute not go through with it.

Has anyone else ever had one of those moments where you see a stranger and wonder how their story turned out?

This might be quite different to what you're asking. But, for a good few years, I worked in a very rural location.
Every morning at the same time and the same place, I passed an older man out walking his dog.
I came to expect to see him and his dog on the same part of the country road.
Over time, we would exchange a wave as I drove past, and he held his dog to heel.
After about 4 years of this daily routine, I never saw him again. It just stopped.

I don't know what happened. Maybe he died? Or moved away? Or maybe his little dog died, and he has no reason to be walking along that road at 08.10 any more.

I'll never know.

I don't know if this is similar but for the last year I've worked as a trainer all over the uk . I teach 1 week courses. I always wonder.how everyone gets on. Some connect on LinkedIn but most don't.

What kind of courses? Sounds interesting!

When I was a young adult I was walking towards a train station when another young woman going the opposite way caught my eye. I'd never seen her before but we both had a massive 'recognition' moment.

I was having an utterly crap day and it was so unexpected that I just walked past but on another day, I would have stopped and said hello. I think it would have been an interesting connection whatever it was.

There was no doubting we both shared that moment, I saw it in her face.

I often think of that, the most fleeting moment and absolutely nothing came of it whatsoever, I caught my train and never saw her again, but it was like we were old souls who knew each other. So weird and I'm not normally at all woo.

I wonder about the lady who worked in the lottery booth at the grocery store I used to shop at. This was years ago now. She was well into her 70's, maybe 80's, and had been in the air force. Obviously no longer alive, but I still remember her.

One evening, before Covid, I drove to a local, small, hospital to drop off a bunch of old magazines into the waiting rooms. I drove to the main entrance and found it closed as it was after hours. I was about to drive away when I saw an older man get out of a taxi at the door. I put my window down to tell him the door was locked and he's have to go to the emergency entrance. He was distraught and didn't know how to get to that part of the hospital. I knew it well so offered to take him. He had a small suitcase and told me he had come straight from the airport, flown in from Netherlands, I think, to visit his brother who was in hospice care. I took him into the hospital and up to the hospice floor. I made sure he found his family then we hugged and I gave him my sympathies.

I used to teach skiing to 3-6 year olds. I have a pic of me with some of the kids. I wonder where they are now.

I still think about people that I might have met on a holiday 20yrs ago. Generally though, that was more than a just a chat on a bench, but might have been people DH and I skiied with, did an activity with, stayed at the same hotel etc and got on with.

I do often think about an older woman who I'd see walk past my old flat. Even in summer, she'd have a heavy, long coat and large hat on and would often stop to sit at a bus stop to catch her breath. I'd often say 'good morning' if I saw her. 1 time, she was carrying bags and almost tripped. I asked if she would like a hand- but she said 'absolutely not!'. I'd love to know her story and is she still alive?

@Mumtobabyhavoc Edited, as I read your accounts, which reminded me of others.
I was driving along a road near a hospital, and saw a man run in front of my car, across the road with a limp child in his arms. I always wondered if the child was ok.

As a child, I was in a ski lesson and they said we would be in a photo for the front page of a magazine. As a 'fee' we were allowed to go to a shop in the ski resort called 'Bits and Pizzas' for a free mini pizza. I've never seen the photo, but would love to.

I once helped a guy in my student job and I had what can only be described as a thunderbolt. Total and immediate whoah moment. Wouldn’t even have called it lust, it felt more like I already knew him and he was incredibly familiar and important to me. Like seeing him resurrected a memory of great and abiding love - but with a total stranger. You’re the only one for me, sort of thing.

I think he may have felt some sort of something too, either that or I was so crimson and gormless he felt sorry for me. He thanked me and said goodbye, then he went away and I never saw him again. So obviously he didn’t feel compelled to ask for the digits😂

I do sometimes think of him and wonder who he was and what that was about. Only ever had it that one time.

I once helped a neighbour I barely knew escape an abusive relationship. I drove her from Surrey to Yorkshire. All her stuff and her two young children in the car. They were going to stay with her great uncle, who was a lovely man and invited me in for a cuppa before I set off again. I often wonder what happened to her and the children. I hope they had a fresh start and are happy.

@JC03745 that would've left me unsettled and I'd wonder about the child, too.

I was hugging a friend goodbye once outside a tube station. We were old lovers with a 20 year old friendship.
a woman got on the tube next to me and said she had seen me hug my companion good bye and asked me if I was alright . I was taken aback at her insight. I told her it was complicated . She was a wise old bird and it was like she instantly knew what I was trying to say . She sat with me all the way to my stop talking about complicated relationships and how they teach us things about ourselves.
I often wonder about her - she was beautiful and smart and I wondered what her story was and how she became so smart and insightful and wise. Wish I could have talked to her more

I wonder about the poor lady across the ward from my mums bed. She was there through the whole drama of mum's last couple days and her passing. We did talk to her a bit but obviously wasn't really focused on her situation with our own grief. She never had any visitors while we were there. She did shed a tear too when mum died and seemed lovely.

I've been the stranger, uncontrollably sobbing all the home way from a destination abroad on my own via coach, plane and train. Everyone must have seen but only one person acknowledged me; the chap selling train tickets at Manchester Airport came and sat on the floor beside me and asked if I was ok, and could he do anything.

@CheeseWisely this happened to me when I was about 15. I was sat on a train crying uncontrollably as I'd had a massive violent fight with my mum (her being violent not me) and a woman came over and gave me a tissue and said "everything is going to be ok".

It was so appreciated but it was something that impacted my relationship with my mum and still does ☹️

Years ago I was getting on the tube at Heathrow after an overnight flight from NY. A young boy, maybe 9 or 10, asked me how to get to a particular bit of London. He’d just arrived unaccompanied from somewhere in Africa and was going to stay with family.

So I took him to buy a ticket, got him a copy of the tube map and highlighted where he needed to change and which lines to take. I can’t actually recall if I decided to accompany him until the train station where he would get picked up at the other end, but anyway, we definitely sat together on the tube and chatted for a while. I gave him my mobile number to let me know that he’d got to his destination safely, which he duly did.

For quite a few years afterwards he would ring once a year and let me know how he was doing. One year he rang to say he’d got married and had a baby on the way. I’ve not heard from him again but I often think of him and hope he and his family are OK.

In 2012 I was on my way home in the early hours after being at work, and went into a garage for cigarettes on the City Road, I think, in London.

A young student was crying and nobody was helping her, she was lost, and her friends had abandoned her and they had her phone and purse, so I took her back to her halls (which were only round the corner but she was drunk and upset and hadn't been in London for long, and had panicked) and watched her till she got in.

I sometimes wonder how she did at uni and what she's doing now.

I once worked with a lady whose husband was horrible. She's phoned in one day saying she was sorry to land folks in it, but she was leaving and was going off sick for the duration of her notice period. She didn't come back for any of her personal belongings (and as a teacher for many years she had lots of her own items in her classroom). Her husband sat outside the school on multiple occasions over the next few months obviously trying to find her. On one occasion he came in and caused trouble trying to get to her old classroom and the police were involved. They later confirmed to the HT that she was safe and well. None of us ever heard from her again and I've often wondered how she got on. I hope she had an amazing new life.

I was the kid people wondered about once. I was basically taken by my grandparents (with the help of my teacher) when I was 7 after all attempts to get help with my abusive parents failed. I actually got in touch when I saw a post about my lovely teacher retiring and she was very emotional and said she'd often wondered what had happened after we left.

I pulled a man off a bridge so he couldn’t jump off. He was drunk so I sat with him while the police arrived. When the police came they confirmed he had left a note for his family. I think about him when I pass that spot. I hope he found something to live for.

Occasionally I think back, and wonder what became of the two young men that stopped at the home my mum was renting for us when I was 14.
Our landlords lived on site and rented tourist rooms in the summer months, and the lads were after a room for the night.

These young men, dressed in burnished black leather jackets and jeans, looked exotic to a young girl who lived a very quiet life with mum.

To add to the excitement, the rider spoke passable English, his cousin passenger, only French.
My normally cautious mum, who could speak French, was delighted to talk with them, and that must have been why she uncharacteristically let me ride off with them for a brief time on the nearby roads.
It was thrilling, doing something so exciting.

I remember hoping my neighbour friend would catch sight of me, arms wrapped tightly around the rider's waist, hair flying behind my exhilarated face.

A photo of the lads was taken before they left.
It was enlarged, and for a while I would look at it, and hope they would come back some day.
I can see it in my mind's eye, as I can't recall when the photo physically disappeared.
I've wondered about them a few times over the years and hoped they had a good life.

Once many years ago I was on the train with Wilf.. We were upgraded to first class. A very handsome smartly dressed man sat behind us. Wilf was being a little noisy so a couple of times the man put his fingers to his lips in a shhh way... A bit further on the journey the man got up, came and sat in the seat next to us and said "Well young man if you aren't going to be quiet you can teach me some sign language!" Wilf had a high old time with him and the man helped us get our luggage off the train! Hope he is still being kind.. ♥️ ♥️ ♥️

This is very similar to something I've experienced. Every day on my way to work I would pass a man walking his St Bernard. No matter what the weather was like he was always there. But now I've not seen him for about 6 months and I often wonder why

@Lanawashington I know someone with a St. Bernard that was always walked in the same place, same time of day. He passed away in September (the dog, not the owner)

I was on the tube last December and for some reason I struck up a conversation with a lady. She was on her way to meet her step-daughter who she'd been estranged from for 25 years. I do hope she had the reunion she was hoping to have.

I was in ICU a few years ago and many of the families would end up talking in the relatives room. There was one woman whose DH had had a stem cell transplant and so naturally he was in complete isolation. But he’d developed an infection and so wasn’t expected to survive.

She and my mum talked a lot in the relatives room.

By the time I was moved to a different ward it was ten days later and he was still there against all the odds.

I often wonder if he pulled through.

Ahh that's sad. Any chance this is in Somerset?

@Lanawashington Not Somerset!