Random Act of Kindness - to balance all the ranty threads, tell me of a random act of kindness that you have never forgotten.

[MmeLindor.]

There is a lovely thread in Classics about Random Acts of Kindness so I thought we could do with a lovely fluffy thread to distract us from the shooting and disembowelment going on at the moment.

I will start.

When DD was going through the "terrible twos", she had a tantrum at the supermarket. She lay on the floor and wept bitterly because I would not give her what she wanted it. I tried reasoning with her, I tried being stern, and finally I walked away.

The sound of her screams echoed in the supermarket, people were looking at us. I thought that they were judging me, thinking that I was a bad mother.

A man walked by with his two daughters - about 9 and 11yo they were. He stopped, patted my arm and said, "It is a phase. It passes. You are doing the right thing".

It meant so much to me, that I was not alone and that other people were not judging me but feeling sorry for me. And probably being thankful that their DC were past that stage.

Has a stranger ever done or said something nice to you that you still remember years later?

I have one but it's not about me, it happened to a friend. I think about it quite often, actually.

My friend has 6 year old twin boys. She is a LP and has been since they were born (I have only known her a couple of years).
She says that the first few years of their lives were hell. She has no family close by and they were premature and poor sleepers.

One day when the boys were a few months old an older woman that she vaguely knew from a previous job turned up at the door with a present. She was so exhausted she burst in to tears at the door. Apparently the woman told her to sit down and she took over and looked after the boys and my friend had a sleep.

The woman then came at the following night at 6pm and bathed and put the boys to bed. She then came EVERY SINGLE DAY AT THE SAME TIME FOR 18 MONTHS . She would arrive at 6pm and leave at 8pm. Some times she never uttered a word she just walked in and took over.

My friend says this woman SAVED HER LIFE.

Some people are just quietly amazing.

the first year after Dp left me with three children aged 6, 2 & 1, I had just privately rented a flat. times were very tight. a colleague listened to me moan and then two days before christmas gave me a card. her and her sister (who I had met once!) gave me £100 each. Her mum, a pensioner, made me a christmas basket with treats in.

A couple stopped when I had a flat tyre (kids were all in the car, now aged 14, 10 & 9) the husband changed the tyre for me. :) ( I could have done it myself! honest!) Thank you Glasgow! :)

and to pay it back. was cycling up the mall at a quarter to six in the morning and spotted a woman lying by the side of the road. another cyclist had also stopped and looked a bit lost. She was having a fit. I called an ambulance, waited until they arrived and then cycled off into the sunrise. I also stopped when a cyclist had been knocked off his bike, he was in a lot of pain bt concious. I stayed until the ambulanmce came, held his hand, found out where his kids were in after-school care and phoned them to make sure they knew he wouldn't be picking them up on time.

it's important to do small things. :) it just makes things a bit better. :)

I have a couple more (what a wonderful world we live in!).

We were in NY for the first time. We'd gone for dinner at a pizza place and had just ordered when we noticed that the place only took cash. DH went out to get some cash but there was some issue with the transatlantic link and our UK cards weren't working. The food arrived whilst he was still out and about looking for some cash. He came back after half an hour and we told the waiter what the issue was. He went away and two minutes later came back and said, "the boss said don't worry about it - enjoy your meal." We were pathetically grateful and handed him a travellers cheque as security for us returning with the cash the next morning (we did not know how travellers cheques worked ). He then told us that he accepted travellers cheques and gave us our change. That was a meal well earned!

When I was shopping in town with DD aged 2, she had been fortunate enough to be given a balloon by someone doing promotions in the street. We went into a shop and took the lift to the second floor. I hadn't realised that when we got in the lift, I hadn't checked to see if the balloon was in too (it was on quite a long piece of string). When I realised that it hadn't made it in, the doors were already closed the lift moving. DD was distraught! We exited the lift and within a minute, a young man ran over to us with the balloon.

When I was about 7 months pregnant, I was using the Waterloo & City line as usual. It was super busy and I was being pushed and squashed when trying to get on the train. I stepped back as I wanted to protect my bump. A truly wonderful gentlemen stopped the crowd, put his hand behind my back and his arm to his side (so as to create space for me) to guide me onto the train. It was really thoughtful and welcome.

I was at Great Ormond Street yesterday with dd3. It was a long day for her and we were almost the last ones left in the day unit by 4 o'clock. dd3 was getting a bit tearful about walking back to the station and a lovely dad and his daughter who we had been chatting to walked us downstairs, showed us the back way out and a short cut which knocked a bit off the walk. He had been waiting ages to see a doctor but remained charming and polite to the nurses the whole time. He and his daughter spoke Arabic to each other and his English was not fantastic so perhaps hadn't lived in the UK for a long time but his whole manner was such a contrast to the youngish British men on the train who let a little girl sit on the floor all the way into London that morning.

My friend had her dog returned to her last night by a total stranger who had found it 20 miles from home over 5 months ago. The dog's chip had migrated so the stranger's vet hadn't been able to ID it. He finally located my friend by searching facebook for people missing dogs in Cornwall.

The children are over the moon.

Another one.

While travelling I was with a friend in Istanbul. We decided to travel on the tram but unfortunately it was rush hour and completely packed with Turkish men on the way to work. More and more men got on until I was flattened against the wall of the tram. Then the man closest to me began sexually assaulting me. He managed to get his fingers down my trousers and up my T-shirt. I felt completely trapped and my friend couldn't see what was happening.

I was just thinking "I bloody hate Turkish men - bloody perverts" when I caught the eye of an old Turkish man who was in a position to see what the other guy was going to me.

He started talking loudly in Turkish to all the other men in the carriage and they all started shouted and joining in. The next thing the door opened and my abuser was dragged by a big group of men and literally thrown out of the tram.

The old Turkish man said "I am so sorry that happened in my country"

Several years ago whilst a student nurse in Birmingham, I was returning from a late shift at a hospital on the other side of the city. It was my first shift there and I was on the bus. Suddenly the bus stopped and the driver made everyone get off, due to an apparent bomb scare, all roads through the centre had been shut off by police. We stopped in a pretty rough looking area (graffiti said 'welcome to the ghetto') and being new to the city I was completely lost, it was dark, my phone battery had died. Whilst on the verge of tears a lovely lady, who was much more street wise than me, walked a mile out of her way with me till I got to a road I recognised and could get home. I'll always be grateful to that strangers help.

The most recent one for me is that I was out with my 2 DC after having a huge row with my OH feeling thoroughly fed up and got at. We were sitting at a table in a garden centre cafe(oh the life I lead) having lunch and this very old lady sitting with her family kept looking over in a stern way. I thought she was silently judging me for something or other, but the children were in fact being very good.

She and her family got up to leave and she came over(on crutches!) She was a West Country lady and leaned in and said to me "Mind you be a good Mother". I said pardon as I thought she was telling me to be a good mother ie implying I was not!

She leaned in again and said "Mind, you'm be a good Mother. I've been watching you. Your babies are lovely and they're the way they are because of you. You are blessed".

Well, I cried! She was so lovely and she came just at the right moment. What a dear. 91 she was, with 14 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren.

This sounds like a stealth boast but it's really not-they are right little terrors most of the time!

Plus it taught ME not to be so judgmental. I had been ready to get all defensive with her.

I have two that I can think of. A few weeks back I went into London with DS. On the way back there was a problem with the train and we got chucked off at a random station. The buses were all packed and I had DS, bags and a big buggy that is def not bus friendly. As a bus arrived a woman scooped up DS for me and held him for a good 15 mins (standing room only) so I could collapse the buggy and hold it and all my stuff. She was fab. Unlike the posh family at the other end who watched me throwing bits of buggy and bags off while holding DS and didn't lift a finger to help.

Also, when DS was born very tiny and premature, I could not be with him as I was off my face after CS. One of the docs pulled up a chair at his incubator and sat with him all night keeping an eye. I will always be grateful- not only did he get great care, but he wasn't alone on the first night of his life.

Lovely thread.

As a shy, emotionally abused teenager I was being bullied on my way to and from school every single day.

Lots of people witnessed the bullying but no-one ever did anything. One day I was walking past a bus shelter with around 5 people waiting. The bullies came out of a passageway and stopped right in front of me and started hitting me. A young lad (in his 20s) intervened. He got up and told them to leave me alone, then he came up to me and asked if I was alright. Up until then no-one gave a shit. I started crying and just ran home.

Even now, if a stranger asks me if I'm ok, I feel like crying.

It's just that thing that somebody actually does care. I always stop and help people myself now. I know how much it means.

I was flying to Johannesburg but with a change of planes in Harare (Zimbabwe). Did not have more than £10 cash on me as I was planning to get SA rands there.

At Harare airport arrivals I was told that I needed a "transit visa" even though I was literally walking straight onto another plane and not leaving the airport. The visa cost US$50 and had to be paid in cash. I only had the £10, and my credit and debit cards. I explained that I did not have enough cash and two large men then appeared holding machine guns and stood near me. I asked if there was a cash machine I could use and they said no, the only cash machine in the airport was broken. I asked what they expected me to do as I clearly could not live the rest of my life in the arrivals hall and I did not have $50 in cash. They just shrugged and wriggled their guns. I was in tears by this time and getting pretty scared.

The lady behind me in the queue then tapped me on the shoulder and handed me some cash. I have never been so relieved! (of course I took her bank details and by that afternoon I had transferred the money into her account).

(I did complain to British Airways lter that they should warn passengers about this and that you are going to need some cash if you change in Harare. They just said it was my "responsibility to ensure that I knew about visa requirements in the countried I was visiting". I thought this pretty unhelpful, very much in contrast to the nice helpful lady from the plane).

Fab thread.

When my DD was days away from her first birthday she fell off the coffee table at home and split her head open on the fireplace. Blood spurting out from her forehead everywhere. I just picked her up, grabbed my bag and starting running to the nearby Minor Injuries Unit (very close to us). By this point we were both covered in blood but I was pretty unfit and struggling. Some young man jumped out of his car, took her off me and ran the rest of the way with her. He then pressed the emergency call button in the place and helped hand her over to a nurse before disappearing before I could thank him. It was so kind and meant the world to me. DD was fine and a couple of nurses glued her head up. As soon as she was OK, I felt really faint from the shock and panic. They told me to lie down, got me a cup of tea and let me stay in the room until DH was home and could come to collect us both. It wasn't a long wait but I really appreciated it.

Lots of lovely people have helped me with the buggy over the years. DD when older was having a tantrum in the centre of town. I had baby DS in a buggy and was trying to hold on to DD to stop her running off (and into a road) while she flailed and wailed, kicking me, the works. I was feeling terrible and another mum stopped, asked if I needed any help and then told me that everyone's been there and smiled at me. Thank you!

We've had special cuddly toys returned to us on numerous occasions as well, I'm always moved to see how kind people are with a child's loved toy.

I love doing little things when I can, it can be appreciated so much.

The day my twins were born. It had been a shocker - massive bleeding, awake all night, nil-by-mouth and then emergency c section under GA followed by further epic bleeding. I was lying in HDU feeling as if I was dying, retching from a bad reaction to the morphine and feeling as if my stomach would tear open with every heave. I knew if I had a dry cracker or something it would help with the nausea but we had no food with us as we weren't prepared for any of it. I was getting pretty desperate with the sickness as it was just rising and rising and the heaving and retching was just agony.

The midwives said the kitchen was shut (it was 4pm) at which point I started to cry (hormones. Long night...) until a man's voice floated over the curtain and said "I have some bread. I have to pray over it first". It was a Jewish guy whose wife had given birth to a little boy at 26 weeks that morning. He sang over the bread, blessing it, and gave it to me. It was honestly the best thing I have ever tasted. Their little boy died two days later and, lovely Jewish couple at Queen Charlottes October 2006, in the unlikely event that you are reading this, I think about your little boy on his (and my daughters') birthday. My twins know all about the kind man who gave me bread on the day of their birth when I was so ill.

kitstwins, I don't often cry at posts. But I am doing now.

Me too rhubarb

Very moving.

I was at my grandma's funeral this week - she was 91. I love(d) her but, in all honesty, she could be a difficult lady. She was a tad negative about things and could be somewhat critical.

Well, despite her advanced age, all these people turned up at the funeral. There were many tales of how she helped people in the community. Looked after endless children, cleaned people's houses, ran errands for them, got shopping. Some of the things she did every day for years, a bit like the lady who helped with the twins earlier in the thread. She also did tons of voluntary work usually involving children and babies.

I knew about some of it, but the scale of what she did was quite a surprise. It was very moving.

I think that the greatest kindness can come from the most unexpected people. It is so important not to judge people on what they have to offer by way of social niceties and how smiley they are. People like this often just want to do it quietly without fanfare, preferably anonymously and without fuss.

When I was unknowingly preggers with DS I was sitting on the M6 in a big long traffic jam when I suddenly started having a heavy nosebleed. I didn't have a single tissue in the car and was just panicking. Suddenly there was a knock on my window and a gentleman was standing there with a box of tissues for me and wet wipes to tidy me up. Very grateful.
I also had a bad/good experience in Asda. DS had an exploding poo that was literally dribbling out of his tiny shoes. The Asda staff gave me one tiny little wet wipe whilst my husband ran around the store to get supplies. The lady who was also in the baby changing room looked at me in disgust, packed her daughter up and walked out. Seconds later another woman walked in and immediately got out nappy bags and wipes and helped me get my DS and the room clean and tidy again without me even asking.
My FIL was also the type to do good deeds. He saw a couple struggling with their car on the main road. He went over to see if they were okay, they were canadian tourists and the car that there 'house swap' had given them had broken down. He towed them back to the garage he owned where they found the car was not immediately repairable. He gave them one of the pool cars so that they could complete there journey to the wedding they were attending and had travelled over for (they were travelling on to Buxton). He told them to let him know where they were leaving it and post the keys back. He also arranged for the swap car to be fixed and returned to the house. The keys were posted back as promised. He never asked for a penny but a month or so later a cheque arrived along with a huge bunch of flowers for my MIL and an invite to stay with them in Canada at their expense. Sadly my FIL died a year or so later from cancer so never got to take the trip.
The church and outside were filled to capcity with people who he had helped in life and who were so grateful to have know him.

I knew I had one...here it is.

I had a wonderful cat, sweet gentle little thing - he went missing one night and didn't come back. We looked and looked. He had been chipped & I thought if anything bad happened I would surely receive a call. A neighbour told me they saw a sign up on a light pole about a cat which had been involved in an accident. It said he had been taken to an animal hospital. I called, but was told though my cat had been seen by the vet, it was out of hours and they couldn't tell me any information about him. He was apparently scanned for a chip, but no chip found, so they hadn't contacted me. I was confused and so angry that they wouldn't tell me if he was ok or not.

The next day I found out he had been taken into the hospital by a man who accidentally hit him with his car. He died. I got the number of the gentleman who took him to the vet. I spoke with him & he told me what had happened. I was so sad to lose my wonderful cat, but so grateful that this man was so kind to take him, in the middle of the night, to get help and I was so glad he was not alone in the gutter when he died. There's always a right and wrong way to deal with a bad accident & I was thankful for the care he took of my beautiful puss.

My best friend also has her midwife to thank for her sons life. Not unusual you might think but when her waters broke the midwife slipped on them and broke her arm. The baby's heartbeat had been very irratic up until that point and the labour was progressing very quickly. The midwife refused to leave my friends side until the consultant came as she knew something was seriously wrong although it was likely she would give birth shortly. She did not know what was causing the problem but as the labour progressed the problem got worse but still she demanded a consultant see my friend and that she not be allowed to continue with a natural labour.

When the consultant came they argued the point and my friend was taken into surgery.
As it turned out her son had no chest bone or clavicles. Every contraction was basically crushing his heart and lungs hence his distress. Babis with this condition die during the birth as they often labour quickly and travel easily down the birth canal (due to the lack of shoulder width).

Had this angel of a midwife not been there, he wouldnt be here now. Only one other child has survived with this condition in the UK and the only reason she survived is because it was a planned c-section.

Love this thread, too many lovely stories to mention each one but they have really helped me to remember the good in the world.

I'm going to add one more, the lovely lady in the garden centre cafe with her grandaughter this lunchtime who stayed with distraught DS1 and baby DS2 when DS1 peed himself in the play corner , while I ran to the car to get him a change of clothes, By the time I returned she had calmed DS1 down, then she sat with DS2 while I took DS1 to the toilets to sort him out. I hope she realises how much easier she made it for me and DS1 - night and day compared to dragging toddler and baby across car park, both to toilets etc. It was just really kind and helpful.

This is a good thread.

Random acts of kindness:

The time, during a very low point in my life, I got stranded in a strange city (had gone there to try to persuade an ex-boyfriend to get back with me - majorly sad, I know) and a total stranger offered me a bed for the night, he didn't come on to me or anything, he just found me crying in the street and was kind (he gave me his bed to sleep in whilst he slept on the sofa).

Then the time the following morning when I didn't have enough money for the coach home (had been too embarrassed to ask Lovely Guy coz he'd already done enough) and I approached two young girls in the bus station and asked if they could give me a few quid and they said yes.

On my way to uni for first day, Plymouth to Newcastle, conductor says my ticket my dad had bought was invalid for that day. Had to pay him my rent money for new ticket. Arrived at station late, no taxis left. Taxi came and I just cried so much. Set off for Halls. he pulled in at a garage and came back with tissues and a huge bar of chocolate. when we arrived at halls he grabbed the first lad he could and said, "look after this girl, she has had a rough day". I am still friends with that student today 15 years later. And, he still looks out for me.

I have cried my way through several of these and laughed alot at the Croydon teenagers story. It's not often you find the time to read a thread from beginning to end...but it was worth it.