To ask, on World Kindness Day, what the kindest thing someone's ever done for you is?

[octoberfarm]

Just spotted that today was World Kindness Day and thought amidst all the dreary news (and November weather), it might be nice to have a thread about kindness.

I'll start: the first time I travelled anywhere as an adult, I went to Canada. I'd been traveling for nearly 22 hours (was a tad over-optimistic about the manageability of multiple layovers in a bid to bring flight costs down) when I got on a bus to get from the airport to downtown Vancouver. I'd only bought local currency in the form of notes, rather than coins, and the rather hassled bus driver took off whilst I was trying to pay. When he realized I didn't have any coins, he told me he'd be dropping me off in the industrial area we were passing through and I'd have to find another way to get where I was going. I was disorientated and jet-lagged, and starting to get a bit panicky, when a kind stranger stood up and asked how much I needed. She pulled a few quarters from her pocket and as I looked around, I saw that a heap of the other passengers were taking out change from their pockets too. They all contributed enough to cover my ticket, and as she left the bus, the original lady said "Welcome to Canada" with a giant smile. It's always stuck with me.

Also: the time a stranger walked me and my two kids to the car with his umbrella in a torrential rainstorm, and the kindness my toddler showed me the other day when I was upset. Sometimes a simple "don't worry Mummy, it's okay" is all you need

Many years I ago I was very skint and my BF has sent me a text and I didn't reply, she knew I always replied and realised it was likely because I didn't have any credit. Next text an hour later was a £20 top up voucher code. I'm not even sure she will remember now as so long ago but I've never forgot

Lovely thread.

My lovely mum was dying, she had only been diagnosed a couple of weeks before but she hated being in hospital and they had let her know there was nothing to be done so we had managed to get her out and taken her to my brother’s house. I was her main carer, supported by DB and DSIL, but DD was then just 5 and was very unsettled, seeing grandma so poorly and being at uncle’s house so far from home.

My lovely friend from my nearby home town knew DD well as we had often visited her and her little boy who was the same age and even though she had a 2-year-old as well she took DD in for a few days until my DP was able to join us. My dear mum passed the next day after DD’s return but I knew that I had been able to focus on DM in her dying days thanks to my friend’s kindness.

People often say ‘oh, let me know if I can do anything’ and it’s a bit of a platitude but my friend was really there for me and my family in our very bleakest hour. Bless her.

had a committment for a meal and birthday celebration for a meal with a dear friend.her husband and mine were overseas,2 hours before the appointed time i found out my dgm had died.
not wanting to disappoint my friend i went and did the meal and drinks.she went to play billiards and i went outside, slide into a corner,behind a big harley and burst into tears. heard the creak of leather and hands lifted me up .he pulled me into his lap without a word and let me snot and tear all over him.when he asked why.i told him,he took me back in and kept me company til my friend was ready to go.he is still a good friend after 30 yrs.
husband was attacked at work and suffered a tbi,in hospital for 5 weeks.no income, no family nearby.people started knocking on the door with envelopes,bags of groceries and food for the animals.i barely knew some of these people we had just moved here7 months earlier.
there are more but these 2 stand out.

DH lost his wallet and the person who found it got our address off his driving licence and brought it back round.

When I had DS1 and I was a wreck after being awake 4 days straight while being induced... I burst into tears at the thought of visitors (my DM and MIL!!) holding him and the lovely midwife leaned close to me and said "it's YOUR baby, no one else has to hold him if you don't want", her kindness in the face of my frankly hysterical behaviour was so appreciated.

When I was in my last year of uni I was living in a horrible council flat, with a seriously mentally ill alcoholic living above me who had made it his mission to make my life hell. The last straw was when he phoned the police and said I had shouted that I was going to kill him and I was questioned - luckily I had been away the weekend he accused me of saying this. The day I was questioned DHs father paid my first months rent and deposit for a room in a shared house so I could move that evening. That's one of many examples of my in laws kindness towards me.

The policeman who believed me when I finally called after more than twenty years of abuse.

Bumping

When my step dad died suddenly, I got a taxi to the station then on arrival realised Id left my debit card behind.

I was sobbing my heart out and one of the station staff came up to me and asked what the matter was. when he heard he told me.to wait where I was while he spoke to colleagues. Ten minutes later a guard was bundling me into a first class seat, totally ignoring my protests I hadn't and couldn't pay and saying he knew the chief executive would just want to get me to my mum! It was Virgin Trains.. hope Richard Branson felt the way the guard insisted he would. A kindness Ive never forgotten

Years ago when DCs were small I got the flu. XDH was away on one of his many work trips so I just had to manage. I walked DS to school (luckily only 2 streets away) and on the way back I felt so I'll I nearly laid down on someone's lawn for a rest. The only thing that stopped me was the thought of the fuss that would ensue if someone spotted me). Anyway, took myself straight to bed and told DD, who was barely 4, she needed to go downstairs and get herself some cereal for breakfast and then come straight back up and play in my room because I was poorly.
I must have dozed off because the next thing I knew, this tiny person was battling her way into the room with a tray - she'd made me breakfast too, including a cup of juice, and was apologising that she was sorry she couldn't make a cup of tea - it's the best breakfast in bed I've ever had.
She was an absolute star all day, including going down to make a sandwich at lunch time. Thanks to her, I had enough strength to get up and retrieve DS from school.

I have had a few acts of kindness and I try to give them out aswell, you never know how much tour actions may impact someone, a few that stick out for me.

• my bil had terminal cancer (he was only 34) and I was on the bus when my sister called to say he hadn’t got long left, when I got off the phone call crying a lady sitting opposite handed me a tissue, gave me a hug and got off the bus, I have never forgotten that simple act.

• my dd had a dairy allergy and cried all day, no one believed me though, the doctors at hospital, gp’s and the walk in had all told me that babies cry, I was at a baby group talking to a friend of a friend whose daughter had also got a dairy allergy but had been diagnosed, she came with me to the doctors came in with me and was my voice when I felt like no one believed me, she got the doctor to give me a trial of dairy free formula and as expected it was confirmed a few weeks later my dd she had an allergy. My friend is so amazing and we are so close now and see each other several times a week!

Christmas 2010 or 11 .

Had been down my parents for Christmas so obvs not at home.
Came home to a note in the letter box informing me a parcel had been left at a near neighbours so off I went to get it .

Well , it was a baking tray , potatoes, a whole chicken, veg, gravy granules, christmas pudding, crackers, mince pies and cream .

To this day I have no idea who had sent it or why . There was a card that simply said .
All we ask is that someday, when you are able, that you help somebody out .
I still have that card and I have, indeed, helped people out in some way or another .

I'll never forget the kindness of the GP I visited when I had PND. She always made sure to give me a double-length appointment and was so understanding and accepting. She helped me beyond measure. Thank you, Dr Robson!

Also worth a special mention is my DH who has shown me more kindness than anyone else in my life. Of course we've had ups and downs but he has been kind to me every day since we first met, in millions of tiny ways.

The lovely gentleman on Christmas Day who subverted a meltdown from ds1 by giving him a ride on his canal boat. Meant the rest of the day with the relatives went off well instead of disastrously.

My DD was in the children's hospital and I had sat with her for 10 days. I was exhausted due to lack of sleep, had cabin fever from not leaving the hospital and I was very emotional and teary. The hospital teacher came in for an hour in the morning. So I used that time to nip out for a walk, get some bits from the shop. This morning I walked outside and immediately burst into tears. I was walking down to the shop when this kind kind lady just stopped and asked be if I was ok and gave me a hug. She said she's been in my shoes before and knew how it felt and that everything would get better. I honestly was so touch. Such a simple and kind thing to do.

Last Sunday my DF and my 10 year old son took part in The Nation's Thank You parade to the Cenotaph. DF was wearing his DF's WW2 medals and DS was wearing his great great grandfather's WW1 medals. When we arrived into London by train 2 black cabbies offered to take all 6 of us to the meeting point in Pall Mall and wouldn't accept a penny, not even a tip. Apparently it's something the London black cab drivers do every year. We were so touched by their kindness - a real credit to our capital city. We donated what it would have cost us to the Royal British Legion.

I love this thread ❤️. I’ve been really poorly lately a mass on my brain is causing seizures and I’ve had to leave work quite a bit due to having seizures there I was upset the last time because it’s the last payday before Christmas and I can’t afford to lose the money. A couple of evenings later one of my friends from work knocked on my door with a card her and 3 others had chipped in and covered my last shift. I have honestly never known kindness like it and will be forever grateful that I know these people ❤️

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A girl in primary school helped me clean the floor up after I wet myself in a mean teachers lesson, and then took me to staff to get changed. She wasn’t even my friend and everyone else was just pointing and staring.

When I was 19, I went to France for my year abroad as part of my degree.

I turned up at the school where I was going to be a language assistant for the year, and there were no teachers to meet me. The caretaker showed me to a tiny, windowless room with a bed and nothing else, and I was informed this would be where I would be living. School was in the middle of nowhere, I had no food, no cooking facilities, and it was like a prison. It was Friday afternoon, and everyone else was about to leave for the weekend, leaving me alone, without food/transport in this cell like room. By chance, the school nurse was passing, and saw me crying in the room - she promptly invited me to come to her house, where she cooked me dinner, and I then ended up staying with her for a few weeks, until I found somewhere permanent to stay.

Without this kindness, I might well have not stayed to complete this year, and would have failed my degree. I still think of her, and hope she realises how her kindness really saved me.

5 years ago when the kids were mid primary i went to London for the Easter week with them to do the sights. Flew low cost, crash on the motorway and a massive jam meant we missed our home flights.

Couldnt afford replacement flights, was phoning round family to get financial help getting increasingly panicked and fraught (they were £400 for the 3 of us) and an elderly couple paid for us!

Jim and Anne from Newcastle, I'll never forget them they refused any attempts to have it paid back and we still sned christmas cards.

I've posted this before but there was a colleague at my old job who used to eat his lunch before 12 while working and disappear out of the office for 45 mins every day.
Assumed he was going out for a walk
Turns out months previously he'd helped an old lady nearby carry her shopping home from the co-op and afterwards he used to go round every midweek lunchtime have a cup of tea and read her the newspaper.
She died just before I left for a new job but 3 years later it still makes my eyes fizz thinking about it.

There was a lady who was looking at some flowers in our local Tesco’s a few years ago, they’d been marked down to 0.23p. My husband said, wow that’s a good price isn’t it! She stood, she thought and said, yes but I’m afraid that I’ll take them to the till and they’ll be more expensive... so he headed off and got a self scan device, scanned them and they were indeed 0.23p, she didn’t believe it and refused to buy them, so he headed off to the till. Paid for them, and headed to the customer services and explained what he had done, and asked if there was a sticker he could have to affix the receipt. They helped him stick the receipt on, he found her and gave her the lovely flowers. It seemed like a really kind thing for him to have done. I was proud of him. It cost so little but she was so happy.

DH went to a sainsburys and paid in a self scan machine, he left our last £7 in the machine. He mentioned leaving his change the other day to his work mate. A lady who worked there asked a few details and came back with a little bag containing the money. It was payday and we had averted crisis, but I actually cried that it was so nice someone handed it in. Times were really hard then. And £7 meant so much to me at the time.
M

@frogsoup. If you request your medical records her name will be there. You don't have to say thanks or give a gift but to know she was appreciated will mean everything x

I have been so lucky. So many people have been kind to me.

When I was younger and a single mum I was given so many hand me downs. I don't have family locally and had few friends and at one point it was a lifesaver to be able to clothe my DD.

I vowed to never take from anyone else and have passed on everything outgrown for free. When I moved in with DP, now DH, I gave away kids stuff, car seats, cotbed, stair gates. But I have had all that kindness back 10 fold.

I try now every week to do something kind,. Just for the sake of it. Because you never know when you will be down on your luck and need a leg up.

I do little things, because I can. I don't want anything back other than for the people who I make happy to do the same for others.

Keep it going and make the world a better place. Thanks to PP for sharing these stories because it makes me happier to be a parent today.