What's the kindest thing a stranger has done for you?

[GimmeDaBoobehz]

Equally, what is the kindest thing you have done for a stranger?

(Oh, half of those aren't actually to/from strangers. I'm an idiot.)

nouvellevag I think its lovely hearing about all the acts of kindness

The people who helped my Mum when she had a heart attack in the street - the man driving by who saw her unconscious on the pavement and knocked on the nearest door to get help. The young woman who lived in the house he knocked at who called an ambulance. She then gave my Mum mouth to mouth/ CPR, very bravely (she told me later she was terrified!) following the ambulance person's instructions over the phone. She did this despite the fact my Mum was a complete stranger, who was covered in vomit and blood from hitting her head.

I only found out who she was when she telephoned ICU to find out how my Mum was while I was there and the nurse handed me the phone. There was no way to thank her enough for her selflessness, but we sent gifts and had a very tearful meet up when Mum was well enough. She said the photos in my Mum's purse of my children made her determined not to let them lose their Grandma. (Wibble, sniff) The ambulance crew were lovely too, they kept popping on to the ward to see how Mum was for days afterwards.

Loads...

I slipped on some ice a few years ago and couldn't get up again. A total stranger came along, got me up, ascertained that I had probably broken my elbow (I had) and went and got his wife to help. Turns out I vaguely knew the wife - she is a colleague, but in quite a large school. She looked after my toddler and baby while DH took me to hospital.

I've had my purse handed in several times when I've lost it, always with the contents intact. I try to write and say thank you when they leave an address.

When DD1 was a few weeks old, my car key snapped in the lock and I was totally stuck. I ran with pushchair to a locksmith's, which was about to shut. They stayed open late to help me - I had to call out the AA to retrieve the missing piece before they could make me a copy. It was a few days before Christmas - aaw. I took the man a hand made Christmas card for that one.

I only do little things really - buy the odd cup of tea or snack for homeless people, pass on tickets, etc. A couple of years ago, a guy was sleeping in the bus shelter near our house one night, and it was snowing. DH got chatting to him, and he was a really nice guy - he almost invited him in, but we had tiny children and he decided you can't be too careful... so he took him duvets and a warm sleeping bag, which were returned in the morning.

Years ago I was a student cycling from from uni when a car went through a red light and knocked me off my bike. I managed to get myself and bike to side of road and was blown away by the number of people who stopped to check I was ok, including the smartly dressed man who had witnessed it who took the time to come back and give me his details and who had taken down the number plate of the car. I remember almost nothing about the whole experience except that if it wasnt for the kind passers by I would just have limped home.

Sat in a church bawling my eyes out during a really tough time. A man came and sat beside me and offered a listening ear if I wanted to talk. Out of all the congregation, he was the only person to approach me. This was 20 years ago and I have never forgotten it. I wish I could thank him.

Another man came and helped me on an escalator when I had overloaded myself with boxes. I would have fallen (and potentially sustained a serious injury) if he had not run down the escalator and intervened.

Another man helped carry my dog when we got stuck on a rocky bit while climbing in the fells.

In return, I always try to help people. I particularly specialise in finding stray dogs and returning them home!

My dh and I were rescued in france by a wonderful man. I got the times of my flights mixed up because I confused the 24 hour clock with the 12 hour clock. thought our flights were at 10pm at night when actually they had left at 10am. got to Paris airport to find it closing, no where to stay no flights home. we'd missed out flight no hope of remittance, couldn't afford to fly home at such short notice the next day because it cost a bomb.

A lovely guy from air france, found us a lovely hotel late in the night-drove us there got us settled, picked us up at 5am in the morning and drove us to charles de gaulle station so we could catch the eurostar home. talk about above an beyond the call of duty.

I would like to thank the both kind and honest person who handed in my purse intact when I left it behind in the station.

I would also like to thank the security man who let me sit in their offices out of the summer heat when I suddenly felt faint one lunchtime.

The young lady, basically a stranger to me, who handed me a £10 note after I had served her (I worked in a building society at the time) when she knew I was soon going off on maternity leave.

I've paid for someone else's shopping when she did not have quite enough money on her.

I saw an elderly lady standing at a bus stop (I thought at the time she is going to be waiting a fair old while; that route only ran once an hour) with a massive present. I stopped the car and gave her a lift into town.

Years ago I came across a little toddler (18months or so) wandering around. I stopped and chatted to her and thought she sounded french (Papa etc) so used my school girl french to talk clothes and colours for about 15 minutes while others looked for her parents. Then a woman came up and said that she had found the distraught father about 300m away around the corner having a breakdown. I took her back, asked if he was french and said that she had been cheery but literally couldn't speak anymore for being overcome emotion. He almost looked like he was going into shock. I then just walked off leaving him with others who were helping him.

After losing my son for around the same time more recently I can understand the state he was in.

I put my purse on top of the health test machine in the pharmacy of a supermarket recently and then just went off into the shops, forgetting about it. Realised and panicked, running back through the shop and bumped into an old lady who had my purse in her hand. I gave her a massive hug!

My dd, with AS, was having a huge meltdown in a supermarket car park. She is 11, not a toddler, and was physically attacking me and I had to manhandle her into the car while she screamed obscenities, kicked the windows etc.
I don't blame people for not getting involved but a really kind lady did. She talked to me and made me feel less alone in that moment. She didn't judge, she didn't act shocked or disgusted by dd's behaviour I always wished she was on MN and would recognise herself when I told the story on a similar thread.
I once came across a lost and confused old man and drove him home. He had his address on a piece of paper but couldn't direct me. After about half an hour I finally got him home safely. Then he tried to offer me money (which I of course refused.)

i draw cards for people.its not much but id love to recieve a ltitle card if i needed one.ha,it sounds so pathetic!!
ive had many people there for me when i literally depended my life on them in the last few years.you maybe dont class that under kindness but for me especially my family that kindness when they faced my end so often must be a terrible to bear.

When I was eighteen I was at the university sports ball, my dad had said he'd pick me up and I'd asked him to come around midnight. By about twenty to I was getting a bit fed up as most people had got very drunk by that point, so I went down to the reception area to wait and sat down near a group of people who were in the same hotel for some other function. One of the men, who looked maybe in his mid-twenties came over to me and started chatting me up, but in a really creepy way; he was sitting far too close and moving in as if to kiss me and not taking the hint that I wasn't interested, and I asked him to please leave me alone, but he wouldn't. His friends were standing not far away and they were asking him to leave me alone too, but he wouldn't listen to them either. So after a few minutes I got up and walked outside to wait for my dad, but the guy followed me out and came up to me again and kept hassling me. I was feeling really threatened by this point.

However, a guy who had been at the same dance as me was outside waiting for a taxi, he was with another guy and two girls (I believe they were two couples), and he came up to me, pushed the horrible man away and, standing between the man and me, said suitably aggressively "leave my girlfriend alone". He then called his friends over, they asked if I was okay, asked if I had money for a taxi, and when I said I was waiting on a lift they waited with me until my dad came, missing a taxi they could have got themselves in the process. I was so grateful to them.

thornrose Your post has really made me think. As a passer-by I would not have known what to do in that situation. I will think about at least staying with the Mum if I ever witness something like that, and at least providing moral support or helping with her bags, even if I cannot intervene.

Poor you though...you must have felt really alone and vulnerable.

Aw thanks Mudcity, I can't express how much it helped. This was 3 years ago and I'll never forget it.

Absolutely skint! I sent my young daughter with my last £5 to the corner shop for a carton of milk.

She returned with the milk and a bunch of flowers for me from the neighboring florists. She was so pleased to see me smile.

How could I be cross? She's still as thoughtful today.

I had a ROK happen to me this week.
I shall start at the beginning,in December 2011 my dd age 5 at the time visited a grotto and was given a teddybear. This teddy was nothing special but became very precious to my dd she called him christmas bear.
During 2012 we went through a bad year my grandma died and dp and I split for a while :( . Christmas bear became even more of a comfort to dd he sat on her pillow all day and she cuddled him all night.
Things got better but christmas bear was still very loved and comforting to dd. I noticed last week he was getting very threadbear and tired looking and we also had a night where he vanished and dd was distraught. We found him but it got me thinking about getting another.
I googled and searched for 2 days but found nothing in the end I rang the factory that was on his label.
The woman on the phone didn't have a clue which bear I was talking about but asked me to email a photo and she would try her best to look.
I didn't hold out much hope but got home from work to an email saying she had spent the afternoon searching and found him in the archives and if I sent our address she would send him to us free of charge!
I'm so happy dd is 7 now so will know he isn't christmas bear but we are going to give him to her Christmas Day with a letter from Father Christmas saying he was dropping christmas bears brother off as he missed him and had heard how much his brother was loved here. :)
Soppy but it has made me so happy.
So if you ever need a teddy or a lot of them Aurora toys are amazing.

I wish I could thank the strangers who looked after DH when he collapsed on the platform at Hammersmith station in 2009... Someone gave him their coat for his head, they called an ambulance and he was taken to hospital , briefcase and wallet intact.

A few years ago I tried to find monkey 2 to replace dds favourite friend. A lovely MNer sent him for free and was happy to help. he us still treasured

I fell off my bike while cycling home (the brakes came away from the frame and jammed the front wheel so I went flying over the handlebars). It was dark and I was cycling on the pavement (I know - but it was on a ring road/business park near a city so hardly any pedestrians - and thank god I was on the pavement or I'd probably have been run over). I landed flat on my face with the bike underneath me. I thought I'd broken something as my legs were in agony and I'd hit the ground with such force that my gloves had ripped. It was a busy road with lots of streetlights but I laid there for at least a few minutes getting my breath back - a woman stopped her car and made sure I was OK, and helped me ring my then boyfriend (now DH) but I couldn't get hold of him. She couldn't fit my bike in her car otherwise she'd've dropped me home. I still think about her and how she really calmed me down!

I should so like to thank the midwife in attendance with me and dd, from royal derby hospital in May 2010. She was just saying how nice it was to finish her shift with an uncomplicated birth when I started bleeding everywhere. She stayed on an extra 2 hours to make sure I was all right - and god knows medical staff don't have short shifts to start with.
My memory is a bit foggy, after being up all night on gas and air and then blood loss so I didn't get her name properly. I wish I'd chased it up more - I asked the local midwife and health people and left a thank you of their website, but never did get her identified.

Can I please go on record as saying that our NHs medical staff are wonderful dedicated people who get a really shit deal from their bosses, the government and the media. And they're still there for us when we need them.

Two people who I vaguely knew and hadn't seen in years heard about my Ex dumping us without a roof or any of our belongings or access to our bank account. They contacted me through the internet, got my details and sent me money and clothes/toys for my LO.

RAOKs caught on dash mounted cameras. The music is perfect too.

I've just gone to the shops for food after a person I know with mental health issues just told me they hadn't eaten properly in a week. He said he'd been living off sugary coffee so I've also spent time getting info from the Internet about sugar and caffeine. I hope he feels better soon.