Kind, generous acts. Have you done/made one?

[cjt110]

I was wondering about what acts, gestures or otherwise have people done, at little or no cost/benefit to themselves to make others smile or feel happy. This came off the back of a thread where a complete stranger complimented someone on a dress they were trying on in a shop.

I know I often comment to colleagues if they are wearing something nice - a nice top or otherwise.

I've given someone my trolley token at the supermarket - they needed one and had no change.

I donate blood.

And having gestures done to/for me?

Someone paid for my shopping when I had forgotten my card and my toddler son was hysterical that we were leaving "our" stuff behind. At the weekend, I had gotten DS into a trolley at the supermarket then realised I'd left my bag in the car. The layout of the carpark would have made taking him in the trolley back to the car would have been a pain in the arse. I was trying to lift him out of the seat of the trolley and a lady offered to help. I said "Actually, I need to nip to the car for my bag (you could see it from where we were) would I be able to grab it and you watch him?" She very kindly did. Made it far easier for me.

So... over to you... What have you had done to you, or have you done to others?

we were just getting in our car in a car park, and i noticed an older lady pulling in with a very flat tyre.

i asked if she'd like me to change it for her while she was shopping, and she got a bit tearful!

tried to give me some money when i'd finished and she came out, but i just asked her to pay it forward.

15 minutes of my time is nothing compared to the hassle she'd have had to go through (was late on a saturday, so no garages open til the monday). and i'd like to think someone would help my mum or MIL out in a similar situation.

Lovely thread op

Oh aye pay it forward just reminded me, many years ago I was on the bones of my arse and a close friend gave me £100.

I’ve tried many times over the years to return it, but she says no. Last time she said no, pay it forward. So I gave the £100 to my best friend who was panicking about money and told her to keep it and do what I’d done, pay it forward when the day came that she could.

@SoddingUnicorns - your final line of your last thread, even though I know not of the meaning, has made me well up.

@cjt110 Norma was our Marie Curie nurse. She was absolutely wonderful, we were all in a terrible state and just very quietly and calmly she held all of us together.

It can’t be an easy job, absorbing all that worry, fear and pain, but she did it, and she just changed how we approached what was coming, how we coped with what came, and how Mum spent her last days. There aren’t words for how much that means.

I've heard nothing but good words about MC Nurses.

They are incredible, truly life changing. We weren’t coping at all until she arrived, especially me and my dad, and she just helped. I don’t know how, I didn’t realise it until hours later, but she just calmed us all and brought a sense of peace to the whole house.

And she nipped to the shop to get me cigs (I know, I should stop) because I’d run out of the house without my bag or even my shoes when I got the call! I had only jeans and a top on, so couldn’t get anywhere.

I had an early evening outpatient appointment at the hospital. It was winter and foggy and the clinic was running very late. I got talking to an elderly woman who mentioned that she was worried that she would have difficulty getting a cab home due to the fog (buses stop very early round here). So I waited for her after her appointment (we were the last two people seen) and gave her a lift home.

Only a little thing but it made her life easier. I try to be nice to people when I can but should do this sort of thing more often.

This threads making me cry with all the acts of kindness 😭

I want to share with you guys a story from about 7-8 years ago that stayed with me ever since. It's something that someone else has done for me

I was in my first year of uni in Scotland, moving from campus to a rented flat. We didn't have many suitcases so we had to pack most of the stuff in boxes. It was pouring outside (damn Scotland), we were in the middle of the campus with wet boxes. We barely found a taxi and when the taxi came he wouldn't take us with the boxes and just turned around and left.

There were 3 couples who had a van, saw us, offered to take us, helped us load and unload the van, and when I asked how much we owed them one of the guys said "not everything in this life is about money"

Jeez, still bring tears to my eyes.

Another one I've remembered for us... In hindsight, we were a bit bonkers but....

My SIL lives in Turkey. Proper Turkey - not a tourist area. The locals make visitors their family and friends and share. One day, DH and I had walked approx 30 mins uphill and through a forest area to a beautiful beach, stayed a while and were walking back. Bare in mind this was August and the temperature was around 40 degrees.

The road we were walking down is windy, one side was inland, the other had an armco(?) barrier then a pretty much sheer drop into the sea. We could hear cars approaching so would move over as much as we could and they would pass. We did this several times. Then we heard another car approaching - heard beeping. Then more beeping. Then getting closer.... Thinking they were beeping to make us move over we thought "Well we can't move over any more or we'll be in the bloody sea!" The car, a silver renault clio with dance music blaring out pulled up and the male driver asked in broken English where were we headed. We said where and he said "OK, get in!" And we did. Once seated the driver carried on and we looked at once another with a "What the fuck have we just done" kind of look. Once we got into the village the man dropped us off, refused to take any money and went on his way. I later found out it's a normal thing round there to offer lifts to people. Saved us from a lengthy, tiring hot walk home.

Oh that reminds me of another one - this time towards me. When we were about 18 I went with some friends to see the new year in in Trafalgar Square and were going to stay at my friend's sister's flat near Charing Cross Hospital. We knew Charing Cross was next to Trafalgar Square so thought the hospital was nearby. It wasn't! We ended up walking miles and, this being pre-sat nav days, asked people we passed if we were going the right way. One guy we asked gave us some money (can't remember how much now but enough to get a cab) and wished us happy new year. He even apologised for not being able to give us a lift but he only had a two seater sports car!

Some wonderful stories here.

For my little girl, we were having an after school treat of sweeties and a magazine. I'd vaguely noticed the guy also in the shop pick up some kind of puzzle book and went to pay at the counter. As he'd paid and packing his bits up he turned to us and gave my lo the puzzle book (kids edition) and said have a lovely afternoon. And off he went!
I've no idea why he did it. But it really made me and my lo smile. Truly was a random act of kindness.

A lady fainted on the bus a few weeks ago and I waited for the ambulance with her. I fainted at a bus stop when I was pregnant and so many people stopped to help me.

My son was desperate for a teddy of our local football team’s mascot but the shop had sold out. I asked about with the intention of buying one second hand and someone we’d never met sent him one for free in the post with a really lovely note attached. My son used some of his pocket money to buy a homeless man a hot chocolate.

It can be a very cruel world sometimes but there are some genuinely lovely people in it. I try to set a good example for my son so that he’ll always be one of them

Today I left my car at the car wash whilst I went to do my shopping. The car wash employees are all Polish, all hardworking. When I returned, I paid the bill and added a packet of biscuits with it. The look on their faces were priceless, all over a packet of biscuits! They shook my hand to thank me. I also fill shoeboxes at Christmas for children who are less fortunate, this gives me immense pleasure. Hopefully not boasting, but I wouldn't normally bring this up in conversation.

*A couple of years ago we had a really tough Christmas financially due to DHs work vehicle requiring some very costly repairs at the worst possible time. We couldn't put it off as DH is self-employed and needed it back on the road asap to continue working.

DS desperately wanted a Christmas wreath for our front door, like all our neighbours. But we couldn't afford one, so I picked up some cheapo bits and bobs from Poundland and we made our own together. DS was so thrilled with it and was in his element hanging it on the door.

But it had been up all of 2 days when some arsehole ripped it off our door, pulled it apart and destroyed it, then they kindly left all the debris strewn across our street for us to see. I had to clean it all up before DS saw and then told him that Santa's elves loved it so much they took it back to Lapland. He was still upset though and it broke my heart.

I was furious and vented my anger on a local Facebook group thanking the coward who destroyed my sons handmade wreath for destroying his creation when we couldn't afford a 'proper' one.

A lovely lady who makes wreaths and sells them for charity saw my post and pm'd me asking if she could donate one of her wreaths to my son. She kept up with my story about how the elves had taken his wreath to Lapland, so they'd asked her to make him another to replace it. She said to him "yours was so special It needs to be with Santa in Lapland"

It was a stunning wreath and DS was over the moon. It made his little day. She refused to take any money for it and simply wished us a happy Christmas and left.*

This made me cry. How wonderful.

As with the OP I am a blood donor.

Christmas time a couple of years ago, some lady had filled up her car and had left her purse at work, which had shut for the night. I paid it for her.

I buy food for homeless people and treats for their dogs if I’m getting something (always ask what they want) and I do give them money (I know, people say you shouldn’t) and stop for a chat.

I’ve registered as an organ donor, and (god forbid) if anything ever happened to one of my babies, they’d be organ donors too.

I’ve had people stop and help me with my broken down cars, give me petrol when I’ve broken down (didn’t know the fuel gauge was broken) and a lovely lady offered to hold one of my grizzly babies so I could eat my food whilst it was still actually hot.

I try to help people out as and when I can, because none of us make it out of here alive, and lots of people have been lovely to me, so I like to try to be nice too.

I was with a domestic abuse charity I'm now with a different one moving areas. They gave me bags full of toiletries, sprays, boxes of wipes and tons of nappies. My child was abducted the first time they gave me stuff and then when I got her back I went in to thank them before I drove back (I was living on a friends sofa inbetween this period of her abduction). They loaded my car full of baby things. I'm still overwhelmed by it. Getting support off another place now but they were really there for me when I was down and out.
When I can i'l do some fundraising for the places that helped / are helping me.

I once anonymously donated my savings (only about £200- I was a single mum) to a lady at church whose husband, a heroin addict who had been clean for over 10 years, then had started using again. I knew she didn’t have the money to pay her mortgage, as she’d not only lost his wage, but he’d stolen from her too.

A few months later, after a long talk by a group of people from Sierra Leone at church, she overheard me saying my bum was numb. She tore a strip off me for being selfish. It really hurt, but obviously I didn’t say anything.

She hadn’t heard the part where I’d said how moved I was by the group’s resilience and compassion .

I’d give it again though.

Gave away my front row ticket to Gary Barlow's concert tonight.

My good deed backfired yesterday. I approached a homeless man who was sitting on the pavement, dressed in rags, a sorry sight. I bought him a sandwich and hot drink, handed it to him, his response was F* off! Oh well some you win some you lose.

We had a youngish girl who I have befriended at my church she has two children she is very young 18
And she has recently got given a flat

So I had a whip round all themuns and raised £200 brought her loads of house stuff slow cooker ect and left it of her door step

With a note saying god loves you so do we

My ds is 10. He told me that he was worried that the behaviour in his class was so bad that it would stress his pregnant teachers baby. He said she had had a dreadful week and been shouting a lot and could we do something nice so that it would make her feel better and the baby wouldn't be so stressed. I told him not to ever change and we bought the baby a lovely wool blanket and he took it into school it a gift bag. She told me later that it had changed her week.