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 went to an art exhibition in Hong Kong in 1996. My friend and I really loved the paintings and were commenting on them enthusiastically. The gallery owner overheard us and presented me with a signed copy of the artist's book as we left, for free. It was a small thing maybe, but it made me happy for a long time afterwards and I will always treasure the book.

What a lovely thread, some really heart warming stories here

I was living in Manchester years ago. I had only been there a couple of months and was due to view a room to let. I didn't really know my way around but the landlord had told me that the bus stop was near a library, so I stupidly decided to get the bus and just get off when I saw the library. Well, I missed the stop and ended up sat on the bus with no idea where I was. The bus stopped at the end of the route and the bus driver, realising I'd missed my stop, asked me where I was supposed to get off. I told him and he offered to drive the bus back to that bus stop, which was about 20 minutes away, even though it was the end of his shift. He also gave me a cigarette and let me stand at the front of the bus smoking, whilst telling me lots of interesting things about the area

This thread is beautiful. pranma - your story made me a bit weepy. I hope you're better now.

I just remembered one of my own... when we lived in Germany I miscarried dc2 at 16 weeks. I was terribly distressed, as you can imagine. I was booked in for a d&c and had to go into to a German hospital to wait for the procedure. DH couldn't stay as dc1 was only about 2 and we had no idea how long it would all take, so i sent them off.

The nurse gave me a pessary to get things going. I was just lying in the bed, in a room on my own, weeping. I literally could not stop weeping. The nurse looking after me spoke very little English; she saw my distress and just came and sat at the side of my bed and took my hand in hers. She simply held my hand and looked me in the eye with such a sympathetic expression; I just lay there crying. It was awfully, awfully sad, but she was exactly what I needed. No words of 'comfort', no idle chit-chat, just quietness and peacefulness. I'll never forget her.

I know that's not exactly a random act of kindness, but it was so kind all the same.

Militarywag-i am a cynical witch and NEVER cry at mumsnet but your post has me in tears. Hope your Dd Is well now

When I was living in Manchester my friend (alone, female) was lost late at night. The bus driver (a Wall's bus - think they're out of business now) drove her all the way home, to her door on his way back to the depot. Aah. Something about Mancunian bus drivers eh? Maybe it was the same kindly lone wolf.

When I was on my way to the labour ward to give birth to DS2 I was staggering through the hospital, clearly in a lot of pain. I kept having to stop to vomit. DH was doing his best in an 'oh shit what do I do' sort of way. A lovely, tiny, rotund Turkish lady who must have been a visitor stopped and held my arm and hand and held me up pretty much all the way to the ward. I don't even know if I said thank you as I was being sick so much on arrival.

Wow restores your faith reading these.

Dp some how manged to reverse his car into a ditch. I was heavily pregnant at the time and we were standing at the road side trying to work out how we were going to get the car out. A man in a 4 x 4 pulled up and towed the car out. He wouldn't take any money for a drink just told dp to pay it forward. His wife told us he was secretly dying to use the new tow bar he'd had fitter a couple of weeks earlier.

Thank you foosty I will never forget Bonnie. I passed the 5 year since dx in October,so far so good.

I can remember also when I first got to Thailand on my first leg and my mozzie stuff just wasn't working, and I swell up with bites to massive hot mounds. :( Anyway I went into what looked like an apothecary, very hot and itchy and upset and realising what a long way from home I was and would be for a long time (beginning of trip.) Anyway this old motherly Thai woman took one look at my arms with these red mounds, and her face creased and she slung her towel over her shoulder and advanced on me, and felt the mounds, and tutted, and went off and came back with a little tub and applied it to me with a gentle fingertip again and again. It was only tiger balm but it cooled them right down and I still use it. I realised that there are lovely people everywhere and language is no barrier.

Ds1 fell off his scooter and cut his head badly outside a pub last year. I dashed in the pub to ask for something to clean him up and call a taxi to go to a&e and the pub manager instead drove dh and ds to the hospital himself immediately

I was on my way to an exam in a town a couple of hundred miles from home. I'd stayed there the night before, and in the morning headed out for the exam centre, only to end up hopelessly lost.

The rising panic as time ticked by only made things worse and I drove into an MFI car park to see if someone could give me directions, forgetting that it was only 8am and nothing was open. I sat there in tears, no idea where I was let alone where I was going, when a member of staff arrived for work, came over to my car, listened to my tale of woe, ran off to the store and then came back saying she'd told them she was going to be late, and told me to follow her.

She drove ahead of me all the way to the exam centre, by some miracle getting me there in time, and I was so all over the place I didn't even say a proper thank you.

If that was you, thank you so much. I passed the exam all thanks to you.

kellamity With actual people (rather than Telegraph bogeymen) he really was just incredibly generous. With time, advice, money, everything. Drove my mother mad

An act of kindness from my dad that always makes me feel lovely:

I worked in an amusement arcade and had a 'lovely' uniform. Knee length polyester skirt and polyester blouse, tights and court shoes.

Whilst I was on a full day shift at work (no windows) it started to snow. Didn't realise how much it was snowing till my dad arrived 5 minutes before I was due to finish. He'd brought me some trousers and wellys coat hat gloves scarf so he could walk me home. All the buses had been stopped and the roads were too dangerous to drive on. I was a very lucky daughter that night!

Both wedding related:

1. The taxi back to the hotel for our first night was the one thing I hadn't bothered to organise (we got married in central London). Friends flagged down a black cab, and without our knowledge covered it in balloons and stuff. He must have been held up for half an hour while I made dramatic, drunken goodbyes. We got to the hotel (a £10 fare - after all that time waiting!) and he wouldn't accept a penny.

2. Morning of my wedding, had an Ocado delivery to feed the hoards getting ready at ours before the 2.30pm wedding. They didn't bring the bread. I said - Oh no - it's for the salmon! And the guy went away, went to the local sainsbury's and came back with a loaf for us. And wouldn't accept payment. Amazing.

I had just finished a 24 hour shift at a hostel and it was pouring with rain- I knew I did not have enough money for a taxi home, but was so shattered could not wait for bus- told the taxi driver how much money I had and could he stop when the meter was at that and I would walk the rest of the way. When the meter read that amount he turned it off and and drove me all the way home. Saved me a 10 minute walk in the rain.

A friend and I were on holiday in Dublin when we were 21, we were short of cash so took left over bread rolls from breakfast. An Australian man saw us and bought us a meal that night! He had daughters our age and said he hoped someone would do the same for us

We lived in Africa and just before coming back to England my cleaner's mum travelled on a bush taxi for a day and a half to thank me for giving her daughter a job.
She apologised because all she had to give me were some mangoes from her garden, which she had brought with her in a plastic bag.

I'm actually welling up thinking about it after all these years!!!

I was about to get off the bus, with a buggy (complete with baby) and a toddler. I was struggling with the bags, the buggy & holding the toddlers hand. the bus driver. got out, took the toddler off the bus and held his hand at the bus stop until I had managed to get off. I almost cried, I was so grateful.

Going to Greenwich Park via the foot tunnel and lifts weren't working. Had toddler on bike and baby in pram. A lovely couple asked me if they could help then proceeded to carry both the bike and pram up some 80 steps for me. It's not often in London I encounter such thoughtful people and though it was a few years ago I still think about it when I encounter a twat I'm having a bad day

I was very pregnant with DS and DH was out at an evening meeting. It finished very late and on his way home he broke down 20 miles from home. I started having twinges and to be honest was panicking a bit. He rang the AA and explained the situation. They diverted the nearest patrol. The patrolman took the keys and arranged the recovery of the car whilst they got DH a taxi home. They wouldn't let us pay for the taxi and the control room staff rang me every 10 minutes to check if I needed anything. The patrolman even bought flowers when I'd had DS.

DH had the chance to pay it forward last year. There was a signalling problem on the London to Glasgow line and everyone was stuck at Birmingham international station. They were told the delay would be 2-4 hours. DH had decided to get a taxi to somewhere north of Birmingham so he could continue his journey. He found a taxi driver who would do it for £50. He rang me to say what was going on and it popped into my head to say "see if there's anyone else you can help". He looked along the platform and spotted a young couple with a very young baby. He approached them and they shared the taxi. He paid the extra for the driver to take them home. They'd been at the station for two hours and only had one spare nappy and one spare bottle of milk left. The young man cried when they got out of the taxi.

I cycle to work and there's a humpback bridge over the river as part of the cycle path, it's pretty steep and people often get off and walk. When I was about 7mo with dd2 I was cyc,ing in one morning and was halfway up the bridge and started flagging, it was clear I was about to grind to a halt when I felt a hand on my back and a chap cycling past helped push me to the top.

Just a very little thing, but it was such a knight in shining armour gesture!

A few years ago my DH was very ill and in hospital. I was at home after going to see him and my then boss who could be a bit of a grumpy bastard turned up at the house. I started talking about work, he promptly told me that he would make sure that everything was done, gave me a hug and a box of chocolates and went. A small thing but it meant a lot at the time.

I was also in a jewellers with my dd and mum who was getting something altered. Jeweller noticed dd looking at the shiny things just like her mother!, went into the back and came back with a little amethyst from his 'slightly foxed' box of stones and gave it to dd. So sweet!

It's always nice to be reminded that people are generally quite lovely.

Not quite the same thing as it only happened today but a kid told me that she'd really enjoyed the lesson today, had never understood past tense etc but now did. Really made my day. Comments like that from self-conscious teenagers (who aren't angling for anything!) are rare as hen's teeth, and all the more precious. Was a random act of kindness in my world today.

My DS got stuck on the continent last year in that dreadful snow. He had to travel on a horrendous journey in the clothes he stood up in which took a few days. He lost his glasses and couldn't see. He even had his wallet stolen.

But a kind lady at Eurostar broke all the rules and arranged for a ticket to be at Gare du Nord for him (with me paying from the UK) and upgraded him to first class! He got the last train out of France for days.

These are so nice and reminds me most people are kind. A bit teary at some of them though - MilitaryWAG I cried reading your post. Hope your DD is better.

When my Dad was in hospital and I was told the dreaded news that it was unlikely that he would recover and would die in the next few days, I went to the hospital chapel at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital (am not at all religous), it was empty and I just sobbed big lungfull snotty sobs, I then felt some arms around me, it was this little old lady. She said nothing and just held me, till my sobs had peaked and normalish breathing resumed, she kissed the top of my head and said I would be OK and left.

I really felt like she just glued me back together after being shattered. No idea who she was and I never thanked her. But it was the most touching moment ever from a total stranger I've experienced.

Cant actually believe that I have missed out the biggest random act(s) of kindness that have ever been shown to me so here goes..

When I was 10 years old my pet rabbit was stolen from her hutch, killed and chucked into someone's garden. A friend of ours called our local paper about it and it made front page news in our evening paper. Anyway during the next few weeks we got literally hundreds of phone calls and letters, both at home and via the paper offering me support and new rabbits. Was so lovely - when we did get a new rabbit from one of the people the paper did an article on that too and let us have a free photo.

Oh and with DS: the lovely lady in Wimpy who gave him a teddy to keep when he was upset, the lovely stallholders at the memrobillia fair on our annual holiday who give us free/heavily discounted stuff for DS and DS's keyworker while he was in toddlers at Nursary who opened the door to me once when I was in floods of tears. She put her arm round me and took me I to the staffroom for a chat and a cuppa - actually all the staff there really do seem to care for the whole family and not just the kids.

My choir friend who had only known me a month and randomly gave me a card and a teddy to wish me good luck with my GCSE's, my work collegue who risked getting herself in trouble to comfort me when I was having a meltdown...... Ok, I'll stop now but it just seems so nice to be able to post here to thank all these people even though they will probably never read this!