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

[GimmeDaBoobehz]

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

She was so thankful which I brushed off as I've been there and she asked how old my DCs were as only someone who has been in that situation would help.

I don't agree, I have no kids, but I will always be first to help in any way I can, from carrying a child to helping with a buggy, whatever helps.
Love this thread.

l was in Sardinia on holiday and my DD (18months) developed a urine infection. l don't speak Italian and my French is minimal. In the remote part of Sardinia we were staying they don't speak English. I was very emotional as she was in so much pain and a lovely man stood behind me and translated everything l was saying to the pharmacist and then translated back to me. l got all the antibiotics l needed and the holiday was saved. He has so discrete and without him she would have needed to go to the hospital.

Nicest thing done for me was when I was suffering from a nervous breakdown and depression at University and on the train home. We were already delayed for two hours and I was getting more and more upset. A very kind academic-type man gets on at New St, sits opposite me and just talks to me for the whole five hour journey, sharing book recommendations, chatting about literature, sharing a bag of jelly babies and just generally making me feel better.

In what I have done for others, two things spring to mind simply because they were great fun to do. One is went my Nana died in the late November a few years ago, I found her Christmas supermarket savings card with £200 on it. I spent the lot the week after her funeral and donated the whole shop to the Christmas Boxes to the Elderly charity. It was fun!
Also, after seeing the Big Issue guy stood out in the icy rain in December last year, I went into the shop and bought him a golf umbrella, scarf, hat and gloves. He cried and I totally forgot to buy a Big Issue.

Bohemian your story touches me. My son had a nervous breakdown at uni. I'd like to think someone was kind to him. He's ok now.

When my son fractured his elbow all of the nursing staff in A&E and on the ward went above and beyond to help him. One nurse walked way out of her way trying to find us, to make sure that my son had some pain relief while he was x-rayed. I wrote to the head of nursing, describing each nurse whose names I didn't know and telling her the lovely things that they had each done. She wrote back to thank me, saying that at a time when nurse bashing was rife, it was lovely to get a positive letter. I'm so glad I wrote it.

The Mumsnet Internet strangers today who posted and PM'd all kinds of brilliant advice and offers of help to me. I had spent my last penny on rent and had no food in the house and no incoming money for the next 6 days.
Despite all the 'bloody mumsnet has turned horrible and nasty' threads I actually think it's still a wonderful, supportive place filled with kind people.

In real life, the lovely man who tried to stop a complete Tosspot from harassing me and an elderly lady at the bus stop the other day.

I once bought a pouch of tobacco for a homeless man I saw picking up doff ends from the dirty floor and smoking them. I don't think that really counts as a 'kind thing' but it made him happy.

I aspire to be as good a person as my DH is.

Just a few examples of his kindness:

1. he works in a convenience shop, and he gets to know his customers. The store had changed some of it's range and DH noticed an old lady looking confused. She said she came to the store as she didn't like making the journey to town, but that DH's store had stopped stocking the cat litter and food she normally bought so she had no choice, as the alternatives were more expensive. DH ordered in one of each just for her every week, even though his area manager gave him stick for it.

2. a lady came into DH's store at 10am and bought 3 bottles of vodka. He watched her leave after being served by another member of staff who knew of her. The lady rang the store an hour later, slurring and aggressive because she said one of the bottles wouldn't open. DH said he felt v uneasy, and one of the staff members said she lived round the corner, so DH went there with the store's security guard and found her front door o

*open. He called in and she appeared, hands bleeding and in a state. He called the police and ambulance and covered her hands until they arrived. He only told me this weeks later.

The last one is he found someone had left their car keys in the car lock in a car park in town, so he stood there for an hour until they came back.

In doctors waiting room yesterday dr was running 45 mins late. DD1 (3) running in and out of playhouse in waiting room shouting 'are you ALL RIGHT mummy? Is your tummy HURTING??' while 8 month old DS1 doing his cute sit on floor, happily sucking toys and merrily being sick everywhere routine. DD1 needed a wee very suddenly and a lovely lady saw my dilemma and said 'don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him!' and sat and played with him while I took DD1 to loo. Such a little thing really but was really stressed with dr appt as it was and when we chatted afterwards turned out her grandson had same name as my son (Ridley) - all of which just put me in a better frame of mind for an appointment I was dreading.

Last week I left my purse in the bank and went off shopping. Panicked when I realised I had lost it and DD2 told me I had left it in the bank (she remembered me putting it down). I raced back to the bank and the 'welcomer' lady at the front said 'we've got your purse'. Apparently they had run out onto the street to find me, then one lady found my driving licence card in the purse, looked up my records (I bank in another branch) and left a message on my mobile which hadn't yet come through to me. I was so grateful and relieved keep meaning to go back with box of chocolates.

Years ago when I was a young lass in my 20s I remember waiting for a district line train at South Ken station. There was a man who was behaving rather oddly, walking up and down the platform. Then he fixated on a girl, who looked a bit younger than me (around 18) and he stared at her and kept walking past her one way and then the next, staring at her menacingly. I felt anxious for her. So I went up to her and said 'Hi, how are you? Haven't see you for ages'. She clicked what I was doing and we started chatting. The guy walked off but I waited till her train came and made sure she got on and he was nowhere in sight. I guess it was a case of 'do to others what you would like done to yourself'.

I love reading these.
I have two.

I bought a Bumbo off ebay. I messaged say no rush to post as DD was only 3 months. Inside the Bumbo when it arrived was 5 gorgeous girls dresses from Next age 3-6m. Seller thought we might make use of them. We were skint and very grateful.

Other was this summer, stranded in pouring rain in Stratford Upon Avon at 9pm with crying 3yo, car had flat battery. A kind couple all dressed up for the theatre offered us a jumpstart.

We went to buy some guinea pigs at a fur and feather auction.The ones the dds wanted were a group of 4,and although we only really wanted 2,we had space for 4,so I bid for them.A lady was bidding against me and when I reached my limit I shook my head and dropped out.,DD1 promptly burst into tears and the auctioneer said something about the poor little girl being upset and the lady who had won them asked if we'd like to go halves with her.It was so kind of her and she let the girls pick the two they liked best and she kept the other two.What a kind person.

Kindest thing probably that a land lord took us on when DH was out of work, we were completely on our uppers and a lot of land lords wouldn't even look at us. He knew DH had interviews lined up and would be in work as soon as he could be, still I guess it could have been considered a gamble. I was very pg at the time. We moved in and things started to get back to some sort of normality. It turned out he was a good LL too, stuff was always fixed on time etc.

I think this should be in classics, how do I nominate it please?

Not my own story but DH...last winter when the snow came, he spent two hours gritting the whole street and individual paths.

There's a lot of elderly residents and he said he'd feel awful if one of them took a tumble when he was able to help a little. Aww!

This is going to massively out me so I'll keep the details brief. In a London park when my brother was four, my mother thought I had my eye on him (I was ten) and I thought I'd sent him after her. He got lost. A woman found him and brought him to the lost children's tent just as my mum came running up to it. I think she was so unbelievably relieved, she didn't even manage to thank her properly.

It took 16 years for mum and I to be able to have a discussion about it and neither of us will move an inch if we see a child that appears to be alone until we identify the responsible adult.

That lady will never know how grateful I am to her.

Goodness I think the best I can do is someone giving me a not used up yet parking ticket

tootired that is really, really lovely.

I forgot to say that I try to treat others as I'd like to be treated,offer to let people with a few items in front of me at checkouts,hold doors,help with buggies/wheelchairs.I had a clear out not long ago and found a thank you card.It was from a blind lady who I used to see at the bus station every morning,and each morning I';d walk with her to her work,to make sure she got there ok.I was 16/17 at the time and it was such a long time ago that I'd forgotten about it until I found the card again.I also remember driving past a tramp on my way home.I felt so sad about his situation that I made some sandwiches and a flask of hot tea and drove the 7 miles back again to hand them over to him.

Have nominated for classics as it deserves to be here longer than the 90 days _Chat stays around for. you nest of vipers.

Just a small one but one of my neighbours brought me a bag of apples from his apple tree just after I'd had DS. I made an apple pie and took him a big fat slice

About 15 yrs ago, I saw a little schoolboy fall off the back platform of one of the old route masters. He was horribly injured, bloodied, bent double and wailing in a way I will never forget. Everyone just walked on by, on their way to work, some looking at him in a kind of disgusted way as if he was a smelly old drunk or something . It was a child ffs - how could they just walk on by??? Anyway, I put my hand on his back (only place I could see that wouldn't hurt) and said "come with me, I will help you". We went up the first garden path we came to and I rang the bell, all the while desperately praying that someone would be in so I could call an ambulance (days before I had a mobile). Just unbelievable luck - it was a nursery and all the women there were first aid trained and even had a little sick bay. I hung around for a bit whilst they soothed him and patched him up before leaving. They called me later to tell me he had been taken to the neurosurgery unit at Roehampton but I never heard anything after that. Even though its years ago, I still wonder if he's ok and if he made a full recovery.

The one that really sticks in my mind is just a small thing. When DS was born he was very ill, and when he was about 5 days old we were in a hospital lift with him in a hospital pram with a very large monitor attached, and a nurse from SCBU with us, on the way for an MRI scan. An elderly couple in the lift peeked into the pram and, although DS was obviously not at all well, the lady just looked at me and said 'you must be so proud'.

It was the first time anyone had said that, everyone had been focussing on how ill he was, and what the latest news was, how worried/shocked we must be, and it was lovely that she had looked through that and seen my beautiful boy, and treated me like a 'normal' new mum. It meant so much, and still makes me well up to think about it, 3 years later. Oh, and DS is absolutely fine now