to ask if a stranger has ever been kind to you?

[Penguinsarethebestest]

On the back of the negative thread of 'nasty to you'

Standing at the toilets at a station, bursting, no coins on me, about put a £20 note in the change machine that would had given me £19.70 all in coins. Nice random bloke pays the 30p for me to use the loo...

Student, broke, knackered, walking home up a big hill after a shift in late night takeaway 3 am, Cabbie stops, insists on giving me a free ride home the last mile and waits til I'm safely in door.

[HowFastIsTooFast]

Broke down sobbing in Manchester Airport train station years ago, having arrived heartbroken from an ended relationship and cut-short travelling experience and being told the line to Leeds (and my Mum) was closed. Chap came out of the ticket kiosk and sat on the floor with me, gently explaining what I needed to do to get home.

Shredded my tyre to ribbons on a hidden bit of granite in a country lane and a passing dog-walker helped me limp the car into a nearby garden centre car park before changing it for me, as I stood there helplessly in my white summer dress.

Walking down the street during a period in my life that I was very sad (related to above train station incident). A stranger pressed a bunch of tulips into my hands and made off. So fast I don't even know if it was a man or a woman. Made my entire year, pretty much.

I try and repay kindnesses as often as I can.

[lyralalala]

I fell down some stairs and broke my arm badly (bone through skin) when DS2 was 2 and thought I’d broken my ankle as well. A lovely, lovely elderly couple stopped. They called an ambulance, the man spent the 25 minutes we waited for it amusing DS to keep his attention off me and my pain. The lady then insisted on coming to the hospital with me and she kept DS amused in the ambulance and in the hospital. Her husband packed the buggy and my bags into his car and followed down. They stayed for 30 minutes until PIL arrived.

[wineandcheeseplease]

I was in the supermarket, carrying my 2 year old, very stressed. Went to pay and my card kept declining. I can't remember why, but I think I had another in the car that would work. The elderly lady behind me offered to pay for my shopping as she could see how stressed I was. Thankfuly I was able to go back to the car and then go and pay myself, but it was such a lovely offer.

[SallyWD]

I remember once I was stranded in Liverpool with 2 young children and lots of luggage, I'd lost a purse, didn't know how to get to the station and generally felt overwhelmed. I didn't ask anyone for help but must have looked pretty stressed. Over the course of the afternoon about 4 different people came up and asked of they could help - they all went out of their way to help me in a practical sense, giving up their time to assist me. I've never experienced this anywhere else. It was my only time in Liverpool and as a result I have this sense that Liverpudlians are very kind, caring and helpful people.

[unstableunicorn]

I've had strangers be kind or do nice things plenty of times, it's quite touching really.

Most recently I had a very bad panic attack outside a pizza express when a bunch of men followed me around late at night calling out racial slurs. The manager sat me down with a drink, gave me some food to take home and one of the other workers even walked me part of the way home.

Another time when I was about 18 I was chatting to a lady at a bookstore giving her recommendations and told her I'd like to work in publishing/ editing one day, she turned out to be a published author who got me a over a months worth of work experience at two different publishers! I was so excited I almost hugged her

On the flipside I always try and be nice to strangers, whenever I go out I always compliment strangers etc. One mum burst into tears when I complimented her dress and told her she looks lovely, said she'd been feeling horrible and frumpy since giving birth and I'd made her day!

[Coughsyrupsucks]

When our DD was born - horrendous labour, I nearly died, DD nearly died, just awful. A few days later she was still in SCBU and a super lovely nurse had given me a Polaroid of DD ‘to remember her by’ as she wasn’t expected to survive (I’d been so ill, and DH had been running between the two of us he hadn’t thought to take photos).

Anyway to make a phone call in those days you had to go outside with your mobile. I was in a wheelchair and DH left me inside the entrance while he made calls to our parents. So I’m sitting there feeling like death warmed up, looking at my Polaroid and I just utterly lost my shit. Started sobbing like the world was about to end. Loads of people walked past me in a traditional British fashion. And this older lady came up to me, asked what was wrong. I told her, well I’m not actually sure what I said but she got the gist. She pushed me to a quiet spot, sat and held my hand and told me all about her son who’d been super premature 40 years earlier and how he’d survived and how good technology was now (17 years ago) and basically calmed me down and have me so much strength to carry on. She stayed with me until DH came back and then disappeared off into the crowd.

DD survived and I will never forget that lady’s kindness. I always try and pay it forward, I became a much nicer person because of her.

[Sunnydayshereatlast]

Driving in France, drive shaft snapped on my car. Car bent one way, caravan another. A motor cyclist pulled over gesticulating in French (??). He reappears with a car and a dw driving another car, loaded all dc into the cars, hitched up the caravan and asked where we were staying... Tow truck came and took dh +car away one direction, me, 2 cars +dc and rescuers went off on another direction.. Fast forward an hour and caravan pitched on site, fellow caravaner (German, I don't understand a word) returned from supermarket with bags of essentials!! Garage loaned dh a car, fixed ours in a couple of days - no impact on the holiday at all!
Wow!!

[Merryoldgoat]

I fell over in the street and sprained both ankles. Three strangers rushed to help me - one called my mother in law who lived in the street over, a man got me in his car to drive me to MIL and the third person (a traffic warden on a bicycle) followed to ensure I got there safely and the both walked me in.

[rosiethehen]

Once, back in 1994. Nothing since however.

[borntohula]

Lots and lots of times. Few years ago, I was at work and really struggling to hold it together after getting dumped. A customer asked me if I was alright and that's when I lost it. I was horribly embarrassed but she was so lovely and non-judgemental. That one stands out.

[k1233]

Quite literally face planted into the footpath. Two very lovely men (in different vehicles) pulled over and helped me for a good while, till blood stopped pouring down my face. Even offered to drive me home, which was very kind.

[cstaff]

I was in town Xmas shopping a few years ago and on the bus on my way home I had a bad epilepsy seizure and was taken to hospital. When I came around I remembered that I had spent a few hundred on clothes and presents but there was no sign of them in the hospital when I asked

I got out the following day and my neighbour came in with all my shopping and said that some guy who had been on the bus had dropped them off. I never found out who it was. I presume it was someone who recognised me but didn't know me personally.

[Cramitmaam]

I was bullied in school. I didn't have many friends. One day I was late for a lesson and in my hurry I tripped on the stairs and hit my knee. Everybody nearby pointed and laughed, but then one girl who I had never seen before appeared in front of me and helped me up. She was smiling and asked if I was ok. She didn't seem to give a shit that everyone else was laughing. No malice. She wasn't taking the piss. She genuinely wanted to know that I was OK. I never saw her again after that.

She probably stopped me from doing something very stupid. I'll always remember her.

[turtletum]

This is such a lovely thread!

Lots of little things like passing on parking ticket in a hospital car park, shop owner giving my toddler a free toy when I was struggling with his tantrum (over tired).

As a teenager, I went to V festival just for one day. Had planned on sleeping in the train station for a few hours before getting early train home but they shut the station. I'm now wandering around an unknown city at 2am with limited funds, drunks everywhere and all the cheap hostels booked up. A policeman kindly gives me a lift to the police station and let's me sleep in reception, while the receptionist kept me well supplied with cups of tea.

I was driving through the countryside on a winter's morning when the car in front spun off the road into a shallow ditch, due to black ice. I pulled over to see if I could help. Turns out it was a family in the car but the wife couldn't drive and was also pregnant. The dad wanted to try to push the car out so I offered to drive their car. It didn't work but more people stopped, moor people pushed. Eventually someone stopped who had a tow hook and was able to pull the car out.

As a kid, I lived on a farm and my dad bought an old tractor at a farm sale. He planned to drive it home, despite the breaks being worn, and then repair it. However, he met a sheep coming the other way and for a split second forgot about the bad brakes, so was soon rolling backwards down the hill, until the tractor hit the bank and threw him over it. The tractor was stuck so he walked back to the nearest farm house to seek help. On arrival, the immediately call an ambulance. My dad was in shock, had concussion and broken ribs, but hasn't yet realised how bad his injuries were. They also rang my mum so we could meet him at the hospital. Once my dad was a bit here, he went back to that farm to thank them, and came away with a puppy! Their sheep dog had recently had puppies and she turned out to be the best sheep dog and pet.

[Snaketime]

About a month after having my DS I was in Morrisons shopping with him in the baby bit of the trolley and this lovely lady came over to me and started talking/asking questions about my DS, we say bye and I carry on shopping, next thing she comes up behind me and had bought him a 3 pack of beautiful baby grows. We were really struggling for money and it meant so much. I still have the baby grows.

[2pinkginsplease]

I love this kind of thread.

My ds is 18 and is a keen cyclist, he was about 20 odd miles from home and came off his bike, into a ditch, someone had driven too close to him, lady stopped her car to make sure he was ok and took him and his bike to her nearby friends house, gorgeous house in the middle of acres of land, they cleaned him up and gave him tea and cake until we arrived. We were very thankful.

I sent a thank you card to them.

[HowFastIsTooFast]

@crossstitchingnana

These are bringing me to tears.

Same! I'm having a horrible couple of days at work and just taken 10 minutes to read this thread and now I'm all teared up and full of hope that the world is a nicer place than it can seem x

[PurBal]

I fell asleep on the last train home. I was 19 and a student. The driver drove me the 30 minute drive home, would have had to walk otherwise.

[ThreeCubesBalancing]

I had to get a train and then a taxi to a conference centre in the middle of nowhere in my early 20s, it was a conference my boss was attending so I had to be on time, and anyway I wanted to seem professional. At the outgoing train station I couldn't get any money out to pay for the taxi at the other end as my card kept being declined. Phoned the bank on the train and they wouldn't reinstate my card unless I could tell them the exact amount I had spent in the supermarket the other day, which I couldn't. I was in tears as I couldn't see how I was going to get to the conference centre, and a man who had overheard me came and gave me £20 to get a cab, and told me not to pay it back. I was so grateful to him.
Another bloke once gave me an enormous bunch of flowers as I was leaving work. I still don't know why, I wondered if he had been stood up or something, he didn't want to chat me up, or anything, just "do you want these flowers? Here you go. Bye." It made me really happy as I couldn't afford to buy flowers at the time!

[ThreeCubesBalancing]

Oh and another time I was waiting with two young children at a bus stop outside a zoo, which was in the middle of nowhere, and just one bus an hour. A bus stopped for us, even though the driver said he wasn't supposed to pick us up because he was on training or something, and drove us right to our bus stop, no other stops!

[NoraEphronsneck]

Going on holiday with four young DC a few years ago, as we had left after work late on the Friday night we didn't expect to get to our destination until midnight.
Driving along a deserted country road with no stopping places when one of he DC was violently sick everywhere, all over her siblings and our holiday luggage at their feet. The first place we found to pull into was opposite one solitary house on this road.
We got out and started to attempt to clean up when the couple from the house came out to see why we'd stopped They went back into their house returning with wipes, flannels, carrier bags and black bags for dirty clothes and cartons of juice for the children.
So very kind of them and made a bad situation much better.

[AllsortsofAwkward]

I was 6 years old and I was stood on the bench looking at the fairground when my leg slipped through the bench and jammed above my knee. My mother,father and brothers tried to get my leg out but it was stuck a nice man with a car Jack tried to get it out but it broke and another lady from the arcade came and gave me a teddy bear to calm me down. The fire brigade were called to get my leg out and lucky it wasnt broken.

[1300cakes]

I was shopping during the recent covid panic buying and was in the bread aisle,but there was no bread there. I wasn't bothered, just thought I'd get some crackers etc instead, but a lady came up to me and handed me a loaf. She said she had picked up two and "on second thoughts, I don't really need this one".

[DelurkingAJ]

Another one...a few years ago DS1 was 3 (and I was pregnant with DS2), we went to see friends in London and DS1 had a wee before we left but when we reached Bank station he suddenly started the ‘I’m desperate for a wee’ dance. I was trying to work out where we could surface for loos on a Sunday when a lovely lady from TfL appeared, looked at him, said ‘you’ll never make it’ and whisked us off to the staff loos.

[ItsSpittingEverybodyIn]

Another one, when I was about 20 I was in abusive relationship, had an injury that needed emergency surgery. I recovered well and was told I could go home on the Friday but one of the nurses had noticed that my partner was probably too blame for my injury and she whispered to me, I don't think you're ready to go home until Monday, stay the weekend and I'll look after you. I spent the whole weekend on a tiny ward with two lovely old ladies and I was so pampered. When I did go home, I went back to my mums and literally never saw my partner again.