What is the kindest thing a stanger has done for you?

[grannyinapram]

I'll start-

When I had my first baby I used to avoid going to my local shop because the door was really heavy and I always struggled to push the pram through it.
One night I was walking with the pram toward the big heavy door, then a little girl got out of a car in the car park and she ran over and opened the door for me. Then she ran back to the car! She wasn't close either, she came all the way Iver just for me.
Beautifully kind little girl.

Another time I was walking with my baby and my toddler in the rain, it came down heavy and we were all soaked (except baby with the rain cover)
someone stopped their car and offered me their umbrella. They couldn't tell because my face was soaked but I shed a tear. Wonderful lady.

Another time it was quite the opposite- it was a boiling hot summers day and I was walking with my then about 1 year old in the pram again. he was crying because it was hot. We walked past a hand car wash place and the man washing the car sprayed the hose into the air and gave us a lovely cooling down.

I'm sure I have many more but those are the ones I remember most.

These threads restore faith in humanity.

I have been in some ways incredibly lucky (and in others, not so much, but hey ho..)..

As a kid of about 8 or 9 ish... staying with friends, we were riding their ponies/bikes across a couple of miles of common to a local event. I didn't walk well then, and trying to ride/push/drag a racing bike across rough grass when everyone else was either on a pony or a mountain bike, I got left behind.

Trudging along, crying and kicking this blasted bike that by now has a flat tire and a buckled wheel, I passed a family in their garden having a bbq... they asked if I was ok.. I wasn't. They asked where I was going, they were attending the same event after lunch (and knew the family I was staying with), invited me in, put the bike in the garage, fed me lunch and their daughters (similar age to me) and I attended the event on their ponies and I got to ride in various classes borrowing one of their ponies which in hindsight I wouldn't have done with my 'friends' at all! I'd have spent the day holding ponies or bikes or being a dogsbody of some sort or other.

Aged 19, standing outside my then boyfriends rented house where he lived for uni, at the time we'd agreed I'd arrive, only he wasn't in (and no was anyone else).

I was soaked to the skin, it was heaving down, everything in my backpack was wet through, id been sat there almost an hour when the man who owned and was doing up the rental next door arrived to collect his mail, saw me, asked what was going on and took me into his house, put the heating on, helped me spread all my stuff over the radiators, left me in private to put on the driest stuff I had whilst he went to buy a kettle and teabags. He came back and made us a brew then gave me the keys and said to post them back through the door when I'd located useless boyfriend, and took me to the pub down the end of the road which did a pint, soup and chips for not a lot.

Boyfriend had 'forgotten' and had been in the fucking pub all day (not the one at the end of the street!)... he wasn't a boyfriend for much longer!

Came and sat with me when I was sitting alone in a hospital corridor with staff and patients walking past me while I wept because I'd just received a life limiting diagnosis.

Years ago when I was a student I had just checked my bank balance to realise I was heavily overdrawn and had no money left. A man at the train station was begging and he asked me for money...tears in my eyes I said "You have probably got more money than me." I went to sit on the platform to wait for my train, he emerged with a cup of tea and a doughnut in his hands for me....so sweet...I don't think I will ever forget the concerned look on his face...

This thread has healed my soul a bit. It has felt like a very dark world out there hasn’t it? But there really are so many wonderful, kind people out there.

My own story, to cut a very long story short, is that I was in a very abusive marriage and I had made secret plans to leave and start a new life. I was absolutely broke (thanks to my husband at the time) and realised at the very last moment that I couldn’t physically escape because I couldn’t take the car (despite my having paid every penny for it, it was in his name and I knew he’d call the police on me). I was suicidal with despair when an internet “friend” (but essentially a stranger) messaged me sent me enough money to buy w cheap as chips old banger. 2 days later I ran away and never looked back. As soon as I could, I repaid her.

I never want to encourage people to give money to strangers pleading poverty on the internet, but she literally saved my life and I will never forget that kindness.

I have too many to mention regarding my father with alzheimer's. The young lad who retrieved him from a cleaning cupboard and brought him out to where I was waiting outside when he got confused by the doors in the gents. The chap who help when he froze getting of a train one of the last time my parents risked going on the train. The shop assistants who patiently answered the same question multiple times. And many any others.

@ParkheadParadise

Posted about this before.

My dd was Murdered 5 years ago. She was found by a man returning from night shift. He stayed with her until the police came, placed his jacket over her.
Not once did he talk to any reporters or give any interviews. He came to her funeral and also had to give evidence at her trial.
We finally got to meet him before the trial and thank him in person.
I will never forget what he done for my dd and will always be eternally grateful.

@ParkheadParadise I'm truly sorry for your loss. I hope you hold lots of wonderful memories of your DD.

@ParkheadParadise I am a local girl to you and I wonder if you are who I think you are. Either way bless you

We were on Holiday and had to catch a connecting flight in Qatar, it was 2am and the kids had fallen asleep. DD3 was 3 at the time fell asleep as we were coming off the plane, so I was dragging the hand luggage and carrying her. Hubby was carrying 6 year old and trying to keep 9yr old with him. One of the airport staff ushered us in to the electric cart and took us towards the lift. He came with us in the lift and took us to the first class lounge,checked us in and told us to rest and let the kids sleep. It was the only time we've ever been in a first class of anything 😂

To this day we still talk about how lovely it was of the man to help us, it was such a kind gesture.

A medical student from Canada who held my hand while I went through a traumatic Labour. She was meant to be observing but she saw how much I was struggling and was so kind to me.

A time I’d broken down, stood in tears at the side of the road with baby DD. A man in a recovery truck appeared, took me to the nearest services and wouldn’t accept payment.

Oh and one time I was at the airport going to New York. I am scared of flying and I was crying as we queued to board. Dh (now ex) was not being sympathetic and said I was showing him up. Lady behind me put her arm around me, held my hand, and talked to me about her son who was graduating from university in the US and how she was so proud to be going to see this. Absolute distraction that I needed.

Mine is little compared to most but I've passed it forward
Back in the late 1980s I was 20 and had a job doing a "mans job" in insurance, real Ashes to Ashes stuff. Although I lived down south I had to go on week long courses to central Manchester.
I did the first one and it was terrible. I was out of my depth, the blokes on the course were unkind and I was the only girl. I am naturally pretty shy.
On the second course, I got on the train and happened to sit next to a woman who was a college lecturer.i got chatting to her and told her how much I was dreading the week ahead.
She told me to pretend just for a week not to be shy. To spend the week acting. Also in the group exercise to answer the very first question I could, cos then you would be less likely to be left with one you couldn't. At lunch to ask where best to go for dinner and arrange that. To make small talk and just ask people about themselves. As the only woman on the course to eat my meal and then ask for a cab and to let them get on with their evening. How to get a cab.
Nobody had ever given me any help or advice ever like that. Working class parents who had manners but weren't socially confident.
That week, acting on this womens wise words changed me as a person.

Last night DS rang to say he'd run his car off the road (driving too fast) on a tiny narrow country lane. Could I please bring a shovel to help dig him out.

Got there and saw we really needed a mini-digger, not 2 spades. Someone stopped, talked to DS, and figured out how to tow DS out.

Gold star to that man. May his karma be ever great.

Aged 20 I went on a holiday tour around Egypt. I felt safe going alone because it was an organised tour group with British tour guides. The highlight of the trip was a two day desert trek. Unfortunately I got really bad diarrhoea and dehydration so I wasn’t allowed to go. The guides said I had to stay in the hotel on my own for two days then take the bus to meet them at the end point of the trek.

A lovely older gentleman (who was also on the tour by himself) offered to stay in the hotel with me and take the bus with me. He was very respectful and never tried anything funny, had no ulterior motive, just saw a young woman and wanted to make sure she was safe. He kept an eye on me and ate dinner with me both evenings then took the bus with me. There was no reason he couldn’t have gone on the trek and he missed out on that part of his tour to keep an eye on a young lady who would otherwise have been alone in a foreign country.

Another holiday one. I was walking back from the restaurant after breakfast and felt faint. We were a few yards from our room but my legs buckled and I collapsed. A family walking past stopped and the husband put me in the recovery position while his wife and my husband went to find the medics. The husband stayed with me and his 2 children kept my 3 DDs company. Eventually the medics arrived and I had to be taken to the hospital. He and his wife went back to our room to look after dds. I was discharged after a couple of hours and when we got back they left a note to say they took the kids to the restaurant for some ice cream.
The next day we saw the family in the waterpark and I got a great big bear hug from the couple. They had just arrived that morning at the hotel and we're going to the waterpark when they spotted me on the ground. I obviously have no recollection of the event but am forever grateful to them for taking care of the kids. Although in hind sight not a good idea leaving them with total strangers!

I got really really drunk in a city with my a friend and we lost each other. I couldn't find my hotel anywhere so I just sat on the floor outside a building and I have vague memory of a group of lads picking me up and walking me back to the hotel! So so grateful to them! What an idiot and lesson learnt!!!!

I was behind a man in M&S and he was obviously buying alcohol for a big party. But he had various vouchers and discount codes and was having to do multiple transactions and it was taking ages. He did keep apologising and j didn't really mind but as his last transaction he bought a bunch of tulips and gave them to me! It was so unexpected and lovely.

I used to get a train from my house to dd's nursery/work when she was younger.
Not for anything was it known as the school kid express. 4 carriages and it was just about do-able. Anything less and it was hell on wheels, literally.

Predictably a 2 carriage train rolls up. These 2 schoolgirls from the local dodgy reputation school gave up their seats so dd and I could have a seat. Dd was understandably upset at this point by all the pushing and shoving of a train full of teenage school kids. One of the girls spent the journey playing Peppa Pig on her phone for dd, while the other one recruited a few of her mates to 'guard the babby' I.e. stand around dd so she couldn't get pushed anymore. I got the name of the Peppa Pig phone girl from one of her books in her open school bag, so I sent an email to the girls school. The girl and her friends were singled out by the head for a citizenship award.

I changed my working patterns not long after so I didnt have to endure the 0803 again.

When i was 7 i went on a train journey to a strange place far from home with my dad, who was a chronic alcoholic. The man who happened to be sitting opposite us was also drinking heavily. By the time we were almost at our station i started telling my dad it was time to get off but he was so drunk he had no idea what i was saying. I asked the other man to help me tell my dad we had to get off but he was just laughing, also very drunk. I was distressed and sobbing pleading my dad to listen.

Someone must have been watching because out of nowhere at the stop we were meant to get off at the police got on and escorted us off the train. Not the happiest of endings but I've always wanted to thank that person for caring. I've also wondered if they ever thought of me and what must have become of me in my life and wanted to tell them we luckily had a mum with a head on her shoulders who eventually got us away from my dad and we're all doing great

I have arthritis and was waiting for a knee replacement and was travelling on the train to visit my husband in a hospital in Liverpool, a lady boarded the train and sat next to me, we were chatting, and she said she lived just past the hospital and would share her taxi, so I didn't need to get the bus from the station, I knew he was very ill but was trying to keep a brave face. She wouldn't take my share of the fare and had made my journey so much easier. I stayed with him at the hospital until the next day when he died, but I have always remembered her kindness.

@Charleyhorses

Mine is little compared to most but I've passed it forward Back in the late 1980s I was 20 and had a job doing a "mans job" in insurance, real Ashes to Ashes stuff. Although I lived down south I had to go on week long courses to central Manchester. I did the first one and it was terrible. I was out of my depth, the blokes on the course were unkind and I was the only girl. I am naturally pretty shy. On the second course, I got on the train and happened to sit next to a woman who was a college lecturer.i got chatting to her and told her how much I was dreading the week ahead. She told me to pretend just for a week not to be shy. To spend the week acting. Also in the group exercise to answer the very first question I could, cos then you would be less likely to be left with one you couldn't. At lunch to ask where best to go for dinner and arrange that. To make small talk and just ask people about themselves. As the only woman on the course to eat my meal and then ask for a cab and to let them get on with their evening. How to get a cab. Nobody had ever given me any help or advice ever like that. Working class parents who had manners but weren't socially confident. That week, acting on this womens wise words changed me as a person.

I love this.

@ParkheadParadise everytime you post about your dear daughter it brings tears to my eyes,your love and grief burst through your words.i wish you peace.

@FestiveChristmasLights I've had the most awful day and have been so close to tears all day. I read your comment and it has literally just set me off... Floodgates have opened. I am so so so sorry that happened to you.. 😘😘😘😘😘 I just want to hug you x

@FestiveChristmasLights @ParkheadParadise I'm so so sorry 😢😢. I'm so glad you experienced kindness through such awful times. My heart broke reading both your comments. I'm sad here sobbing 😢