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.

Oh I have another one! I was in London, been to a meeting and it was raining. I was walking back to the Tube Station to go to the station home. I was walking down a long side street and I was thinking about the meeting and not really paying attention.

Suddenly a Black Cab pulled up next to me, he told me to get in. I was a bit he told me there was a guy following me, looked round and there was a guy looking a bit sheepish, who’d spun round and was jogging off in the opposite direction. The Cabbie drove me back to Kings Cross and didn’t charge me. Absolutely lovely guy!

Lovely stories, I've both given and received kindness.

Lots of times :)
Helping me reach the top shelf in a shop, stopping to help during a car breakdown, paying for parking when I was a little short (and broke, but they didn't know that), helping to carry things (I'm quite small, I think a lot of tall/large people tend to instinctually help smaller people).
I remember a particular women who helped me in morocco, avoid some conmen (trying to exort £200 from me, for the pleasure of following me!).
Lots of people I haven't known well have had my back in the past. There are lots of good people in the world.

Twice my family have had a meal out purchased by a stranger and I was given a floral bouquet at a warehouse club. All three instances were while our disabled son was with us in his wheelchair

Coming back from Margate on a packed boiling train, 3 hours to home, 10 year old ds asks for water. We have none. No snacks trolley on the train either. A woman gives us her unopened chilled bottle of water.

When my bil died I was sitting on the bus crying, a lovely lady without a word cane over to me and gave me a tissue and a squeeze on my arm, never forgotten this even though it was six years ago!

Lots and lots of times, but the one that has always stuck with me was when I was living in London and went to meet a friend at Kings Cross. I only had my keys and my travel card with me so felt really guilty when a homeless bloke asked me for money. I apologised and explained that I didn't actually have any with me, and bless him he told me to stay where I was, and as soon as he'd got enough money he'd come back and buy me a cup of tea. I didn't take him up on it, but I was really touched that someone with so little was prepared to share it.

There's a certain shine to my eyes reading some of these and it's reminded me of one of my favourites from a Mumsnet Classics: Strangers you remember fondly

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/3287274-Strangers-you-remember-fondly?msgid=79235381

When I was very pregnant with my first child, I bought a few nursing bras on eBay. I was a student without much money and nursing bras were £££. Lady who I bought them off sent me a few more, some nice nursing tops, and a bundle of newborn, 0-3 and 3-6mo clothes. All of the above in near perfect nick. It meant so much as I had very little money :)

I’ve done similar - whenever people bought bundles of baby clothes I’d always give them extra.

A stranger once paid for 4 x prescriptions for me - I couldn’t afford them all and the pharmacy wouldn’t let me pay for one part of the prescription but not the other. This wasn’t that long ago and 4 prescriptions is almost 40 quid. I was so grateful - the prescriptions are for anti anxiety meds, and pain medication (gall bladder). I really needed them!

Lots of nice comments when the babies were small - I had three under three and lots of comments about how they were beautiful, happy children and so nice to see me breastfeeding etc. I was very very young when I had them all and nervous every time!

@lilgreen

This thread has me in tears. *@FanOfKindness* what a gem you found!

He really is a gem A longer story, but perhaps even nicer than the first act of kindness, was how gentle and patient he was while I tried to get over everything exBF did to me (it took a few years)

He has been kind to me every single day since then. (He's just brought me a cup of tea and biscuits in bed )

I've had a couple of people give me money for a car park machine.

Have also stayed at some outstanding B&Bs with lovely people running them - yes we're paying for the room, but they have gone way beyond what they need to do.

And there was the time (when en route to one of the B&Bs) that my husband was turning into a country lane in the dark and managed to miss the road and drive onto a patch of grass next to it. It had rained and rained and rained and we got stuck in the mud. Someone saw us and came back with rope and towed us off. We weren't that far from the B&B but wouldn't' have got a mobile signal to call them.

Crashed my car. I was stuck in the middle of a roundabout in shock and on my own. An amazing off duty paramedic stopped and sorted me out. He must have spent an hour getting me to a safe place and helping me. I was so shaken up I didn’t even get his name to say thank you. He must have been so late for work.

My son threw up. It was like The Exorcist movie. A kind lady came over and just gave me some baby wipes and helped me.
That was 20+ years ago. I still remember her!

I remember I'd run into the coop after work and I'd forgotten that their stupid self scan machines were card only until after I'd scanned through, I only had cash on me and there was a big queue at the manual tills. The woman scanning her own shopping realised my mistake and instantly paid for my shopping without a pause, and she wouldn't even accept any cash in return. I was only buying one item so it wasn't much money but its something thats always stayed with me.

In my 20s I was once standing in a long queue waiting for the bus when me and the man standing next to me got hit by what I can only describe as the result of a severely incontinent seagull. Before I even had time to react both me and the man were surrounded by about 6 women, all of whom produced tissues, bottles of water and wipes at breakneck speed and proceeded to wipe us down with seemingly no thought or care as to whether they got dirty themselves by helping us.

I was touched at how they helped without a seconds thought and I was very thankful that I could get the bus home without looking and smelling like I hadn't washed for a year!

A night out in Brighton a few years ago (pre children!). I drank far too much and was looking rather unwell on the steps by the beach. Group of men went past who kept looking at me, I thought they were laughing at me. They came back 5 minutes later, handed my friend some food and a couple of bottles of water and told me they hoped I’d feel better soon. Weird and I assumed the worst when we first saw them looking but they were lovely.

I was in hospital having a HSG to check if my tubes were clear etc, it was pretty painful and the whole thing was upsetting. There was a lovely young nurse who just held my hand and I always remember that it made me feel so much better. She was only about 18 and I was 30 and sobbing like a baby!

I have rescued an old man from the side of the road near my house, I think he had Parkinson's had gone for a walk and had some form of attack. I got him in my car, he couldn't speak - only point towards where he lived, but when I got him to his house it was much harder to then get him back out of the car!

Oh god and this one which was last week! Queued for ages and ages to get into the shops, seriously, close to two hours.
Got in and did a massive shop - came to pay and my card wouldn’t work - no reason. I was mortified and panicking. I realised I could get money out but 1) we are only meant to pay with card and 2) this would mean letting me through the barricaded back doors to access the cash point. I explained what was going on to the store manager who had come over, apologised and said I’d put everything back. He let me through the doors, let me get cash, let me pay with cash, and told all the tutting and eye rolling customers to have a word with themselves. I wouldn’t have managed to get to the shops for another week or so after that and I was so so grateful.

Lovely London taxi driver took me home for free when I was a stupid teenager walking home from a night out...told me he wouldn't want his daughter doing that. So sweet

And finally - I’ve shared this in classics - related to first said baby. Lovely nurse in the huge postnatal ward held DS whilst I went and had a hot shower (first in my four day labour and c section) and then when I got back, waited whilst I gave him a feed, settled him in his cot and then tucked me up in bed. It may have been the most comforting thing anyone’s ever done for me to be honest.

If this sounds like the sort of thing a nice 1950s nurse would have done in a maternity home, you’d be right, but this was in 2009...

Not a one off, but the women in my AA group were lovely and welcoming when I first joined and needed support to stop drinking. They spent hours listening to me, offering advice and information, just generally giving me a reason to come back and keep trying.

Most of them had been sober for years, and so didn't "need" to be there, but did it to pay forward the help they had gotten when they were new and struggling.

the women in my AA group were lovely and welcoming

To clarify it was a mixed group and lots of the men were great too, I just felt less vulnerable with the women.

38 weeks pregnant, on crutches with SPD, and mother of the world's grumpiest toddler...
We went to the supermarket cafe as I could just about stagger from a P&C space to the cafe and back. After lunch, DS wanted to go to the toy ausle, and I just didn't have the spare energy and pain threshold for it, so he had a full-on, floor polishing tantrum by the entrance of the cafe/ store. I couldn't bend down to him any more, let alone pick him up. Several minutes in, a lovely older couple came up and asked for some help. It wasn't the first offer, and I had optomistically declined the previous people, but it was becoming clear that this one was not blowing over quickly...
They very kindly, not only picked him up, but carried him to a ride-on then insisted on putting 50p in for him to cheer him up which worked wonders. I was then able to walk him safely back to the car as I was dependent entirely on his good will.
I remain forever grateful for that act of kindness.

Also 3 times I've lost a mobile phone in public. 3 times I've got it back!
First time dropped on a country walk and taken to the nearest pub and DH's ICE number texted.
Second time dropped when getting in/ out of the car around the pregnant/ new baby stage for DS2 and handed in to the estate agent opposit.
Third time slipped out of pocket, was found by someone entering the community centre and reunited with it when I checked in there on realising an hour later.

I'm a teacher and went to pick up a book I'd ordered from Waterstones when I was around 8 months pregnant... I had 1 year old DS1 in the pram.

Put the book in the basket of the pram... then went to get ds1 some lunch... put a drink in the basket of the pram and the book was missing!! I needed it for the Monday for a lesson observation and it was Saturday teatime, it had been ordered in and was 3-5 days delivery.

I retraced my steps and went back to the shop... no sign! I burst into tears (hormones) and the women immediately sent me to cafe, ordered me a hot chocolate and a cake and a cookie for toddler ds1..free of charge... she then came over, had found a copy in a store in the next town and was going to collect it herself for me to pick up tomorrow! I actually contacted Waterstones head office I was so impressed with the customer service! I went to pay for the replacement book and was told it was on the house! Amazing!

Oh my, these are lovely and some are sad...
Stranger helping to lift the pram up the stairs, while in supermarket someone gave me a supermarket voucher that was expiring that day. It wasn't for much but I used it and was very chuffed