AIBU to ask about something nice someone did for you randomly

[YetMoreNewBeginnings]

Inspired by seeing an obituary for a lovely wonderful, wonderful teacher from my childhood I’ve been thinking of the times people did something they didn’t have to do, just to be nice.

It’s to easy to focus on the bad things I thought it might be nice to have a thread of nice things people did just because they could or wanted too.

I had an appalling childhood. My parents were abusive and neglectful. My teacher when I was 6 was lovely. She used to give me her “extra” bananas or snacks in the morning or break times knowing that I was often hungry.

In the week of our school Christmas Fayre she ran competitions and blatantly made sure I won a “free” raffle ticket.

On the day of the fayre, which was the last day of school before the holidays, my raffle ticket won me a mystery hamper. It was in a lovely bag and contained those little boxes of breakfast cereals, it had crisps, and little individually wrapped biscuits. She’d even sourced the little things of milk that didn’t need to go in the fridge.

my older brother collected me and when we got home he helped me hide it and it was amazing in the holidays to be able to have secret snacks when I was hungry. I was the youngest by a long way so my siblings were much more adept at stealing food.

I only realised as an adult that my winning at the Fayre and the fact that I coincidentally “bumped into” her a few times in the summer holidays and she just happened to have odd foods leftover from picnics she’d been on weren’t at all coincidence.

She was instrumental eventually in me going to live with my grandparents.

Every Christmas for my whole life I’ve thought of that hamper. It was the best present I got.

Oh my goodness OP, you had a guardian angel.

I'm sorry you had such a sad childhood

I remember a lovely ticket office attendant once when I asked if anyone had handed in my lost gloves in the depths of winter; Nobody had but he gave me his!

Gosh, that was a tough read, you poor little babies xx

A while ago I had mentioned to one of the school mums that I was going on a training course and had to run to pick up one of my kids from nursery as it didn't leave me much time. When I got to the nursery, she had made me some pasta in a tupperware box and told me she had made plenty and thought of me in a rush. I thought that was really kind of her and I didn't even know her that well either.

I was working at a teaching job and left a bag of student assessments on the train. I was so depressed at the thought of getting them to sit their test again, and I'd have missed the data entry deadline. I told the lady at the ticket office and to my amazement she called down the line, got them taken off the train and sent me down there on the next train free of charge to collect them!

When I was poor and surviving on secondhand phones and sim-only contract my brother-in-law (then my sister’s boyfriend) promised to give me his old early smartphone when he upgraded. I was so excited. And then what he actually did was give me the brand new one. I was absolutely beside myself with joy. It’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.

That is a truly beautiful gesture. What were your results??? Fingers crossed for good news x

Your teacher sounded amazing OP. You’ve always remembered the kindness she showed you. May she rest in peace 💕

I’ve been the recipient of so many acts of kindness over the years - once I was standing under a bridge in the pouring rain with lots of other people. I’d just come off a train and needed to get to a meeting. There wasn’t a taxi to be had & a kind man going into the station, walked up to me and handed me his giant umbrella. I barely had a chance to thank him.

Another day I was shopping with DDs when they were little and they were asking me for teddies they’d seen. I said no weren’t shopping for teddies today. A lady heard me, obviously thought about it, approached me and asked if I would allow her to buy the teddies for them. She made such a good case that I agreed to it …

I try to pay it forward. I covered the cost of someone’s groceries recently in the supermarket - she was having to put things back.

On Christmas Eve I received money as a gift - I put it in a card and posted it through the door of a young couple with children who’d moved in opposite me a few months earlier. I knew they needed it more than I did.

I waitressed at a posh private dinner, where my table to look after was the Bangladeshi cricket team (I think the World Cup was in London).

They were all lovely and talked to me like a human, which isn’t always the case with hospitality staff.

I told them that my mum was in hospital, and one of them immediately went to talk to one of the event organisers. What he’d asked - oddly but sweetly - was whether he was allowed to give me the flower arrangement from the middle of the table to give to my mum.

I would have been able to take it home at the end of the night anyway, but him thinking about me (and checking, rather than just grabbing it) was so kind.

I was a bit sad when i was pregnant with my first baby as I live very far from my family. I turned up to an event with a relatively new social club and it was a surprise baby shower. It really meant a lot to me.

Horrible time after a horrible break up, I was feeling very low walking through town when someone pushed a gorgeous bunch of tulips into my hand and kept walking. So quick into the crowd I didn't even get time to register if they were male or female, but it made my day and everything seemed just a little bit brighter afterwards.

I try and repay kind things whenever I can.

Oh god this is heartbreaking and heartwarming.

2 hour commute home this evening. A lot of drivers were nice letting me out of junctions, etc.

What a lovely thread. I often try to do random acts of kindness. Paying for shopping if someone is struggling, filling trollies for foodbanks if they are collecting at supermarkets.

Today I came into school (primary teacher) and there was a bunch of daffs on my desk. It really did make me so happy and found out later it was the visiting Spanish teacher, she said she said I was a Ray of sunshine which I really was quite chocked by. It meant even more as I have my oncology checkup tomorrow and I'm bricking it.

Christ OP, I was not prepared to read this thread tonight, it's made me way too emotional.

Some of these stories are hard to read but with some lovely shining stars at the heart of them.

Thanks for sharing your lovely story @OP. I have a similar experience as a child about 9yrs. My teacher noticed i never went out at lunch time for lunch, I would just sit reading a book. One day, she asked why I hadn't gone to eat and I simply told her I had no money. She asked if I ever had money and i just told her the truth, that i was never given lunch money.

She told me every lunch time i should come up to her for lunch money. I did this until i left the school for secondary. I haven't seen her since and always wondered about her.

On Easter Sunday 2020 (so during lockdown) some local teenagers went round our village putting eggs and little toys and Happy Easter cards on the doorstep of houses where they knew kids lived.

It was so thoughtfully lovely of them in a really shit, lonely time.

If this were for me they were v good - margins & lymph nodes clear

So glad 🙏❤️

One summer, about 8 years ago, I was on a train heading back home from Wales. I had my baby with me, and the previous day we had done a last minute dash to my sister, who had attempted suicide. I had been up all night trying to convince her to come back with me, to live with me, and had been unsuccessful. On this train ride I remember feeling really blank, like I was disassociating to stop myself from sobbing my eyes out, and I was so tired and fed up, feeling like shit because I couldn't help my sister and I had just dragged my baby to another city then back, had been let down by child's father who was meant to drive us there or at least take care of his own baby while I did the trip... I just felt so empty and exhausted.

A woman called Pam and her teen/adult son came over to where we were sitting, and she gave my child a little wooden giraffe, saying she had been watching us and just wanted to give my baby a toy. I don't know if she could see how awful I felt, or if she did just want to give a toy to my child, but this moment of kindness woke me up, and I held it in my heart as I made my way home, small a moment as it was against the absolute nightmare of that time.

We still have the little wooden giraffe. It has their names on the bottom of it. Thank you, P & K.

Your post has given me goosebumps, OP. Thank you for sharing

In London I was waiting at a bus stop for the night bus alone. A dark bus with no destination stopped and the bus driver opened the door and told me that I had misses the last bus home and he was heading to the depot. I must have looked vulnerable so he told me to get on and drove me, on the dark bus, all the way home which was nowhere near the depot. Incredibly kind because otherwise I would have been forced to walk home which was more than an hour, alone in the dark. What a decent chap!

Love this thread.

Wow dmsandfloatydress you got the real Knightbus that night!

Shopping with dc and dh. Youngest had a massive meltdown which meant that we then sat on the floor in the supermarket until he could regulate himself. I tried not to make eye contact with people as I didn't want to feel judged. Suddenly caught sight of an older woman with her mother looking our way. She gave me the most liovely smile and a little nod as if to say ' you got this'. It gave me energy. Ds calmed. We bought some bananas and were sat eating them in the entrance foyer waiting for dh and dd who were doing the shopping. The lady and mum walked past, saw us and gave me that lovely smile again. I don't think she realised how much appreciated her actions.

We were driving home late one evening, came off the motorway and saw a car parked up on the roundabout with a woman sitting in. As we drove on we decided to drive back and check on her. Suddenly spotted a man walking away from the car with a petrol can. We stopped and offered him a lift and took him to the nearest petrol station. They didnt know the area but realised they didnt have enough duel to get home so felt it was safer coming off the motorway. Had he walked in the direction he was going it was about a 5 mile walk to the nearest petrol station. Walking in the opposite direction it was about a mile. He was very grateful x