Have you ever met a stranger, who you never saw again, that you still think about?

[Backinthe1960s]

It was at my local stamp club. We didn't get many new members turning up so when one did we all to used to make a big effort to make them feel welcome. It was the night of our annual quiz and he and I were in the same team. He seemed a really nice bloke with a vast knowledge of stamps and postal history and I thought he would be a good recruit for the club. Afterwards we went for a quick drink at the local pub, he paid for a drink for the two of us, then he went off towards the gents toilet.

I never saw him again and he never came back to the stamp club. For ages I wondered what happened to him.

The young lad who had been hit head on in his car and was wandering around shocked in the road. I took his hand, calmed him down and sat him down. I left him with the police once they arrived.... I did meet him a few weeks later and he said he recognised me but didnt know where from. I told him where from and he said I had been his "guardian angel" that day.

The lovely ladies who were sat around us on our first plane journey with our son who said how well behaved he had been when we had had a difficult time with him as he became unsettled.

I was on a hen weekend in Dublin about 10 years ago. Our first night there I met a guy in the first pub we went to. We locked eyes, chatted, he bought me a drink and then I left with my friends. We moved onto the next place, not really knowing where we were going and lo and behold about an hour later 'pub man' was back. We laughed about 'must stop meeting like this' we had a few drinks and we kissed (quite a lot!).
I was smitten, he wrote his number in my fag box paper.....

And I threw it away!!

I have photos of that weekend with him in some, we looked like we were together. His name was mark.

I was on a train going out of Waterloo and meant to be viewing a flat in Clapham. The train sailed through Clapham junction without stopping, to my surprise - it was a fast train to Woking. (I thought all trains out of Waterloo stopped at Clapham, it seems not).

I got in a panic about being late for the appointment as I needed to find a flat quite badly - my then BF had split up with me. The man next to me started to chat with me and reassured me I would not be too late.

I made some comment about how hard it was finding flatshares but I didn't want to live by myself because it was so lonely being single unexpectedly, and he said in a very warm and reassuring way 'oh but you won't be on your own forever'.

I am very introverted so to talk to a stranger on a train is usually beyond me, but he was so kind to me it cheered me up for days - and made me feel confident that there would be other men out there that would show an interest in me.

I was 25, insecure as hell and going out with a dreadful, perpetually stoned bloke who told me I was a lovely person but he didn't actually fancy me because I was too fat...

...and why oh why didn't I shout out to the cute bloke going on the down escalator at Leicester Sq tube, as I was on the up one and we gazed at each other and burst out laughing "WAIT" and dash down to meet him? I often wonder.

I was a very highly-strung and sensitive child with many neuroses and anxiety issues. Many years ago (early 70s, I was about 7 or 8) I was in a pub in South London with my mum. A lady came in and we ended up talking for what felt like hours. She told me all about the issues she had had as a child which were very similar to mine and I realised that I was not the only one who had these things.

She also told me this story of when she was little, she had a dog on wheels. She was convinced the dog on wheels was a dead dog, so she cut it open with a large knife and all this stuffing came out!

Meeting this lady was truly life changing for me, as I realised that the things I felt and thought were normal. I think about her all the time. I would love to meet her again to thank her for being so kind to me.

I once saw a girl, probably in her early teens or slightly younger, having an argument with her mum in Reading town centre. The girl was really distraught - not sure if she had mental health problems or was just really angry about whatever it was they were arguing about - and she started smashing eggs (they were outside a shop that had trays of eggs outside on crates). She must have smashed at least two trays of them. She was shouting "Mum get off me" and her mum was trying to restrain her by her arm.

For some reason (I was in my early 20s and had never done anything like that in my life) my sympathies were instinctively totally with the girl. She just had so much emotion. I'll never know what caused it all, but I really hoped she would manage to break free of her mum's grip and just run and run until she felt free. Now I know what it's like to be a parent, I'd probably react very differently if I saw an incident like that now, but I've often wondered what became of that girl and whether she's OK.

What a lovely thread so many fantastic people out there

The lovely man who comforted me when aged 17 I had to get a train home from London after my first boyfriend had dumped me. I blubbed all over his shoulder.

The Kiwi Girl, Anna, that I had one crazy night out with in Sydney, she was like my best friend and I wish we had exchanged contact details.

And the guy at Run To The Sun that I watched the sun come up with in 1998. Nothing happened, we just chatted all night. I'd like to know he is happy. He wasn't at the time.

I had been in hospital for ten days undergoing tests as I had lost the feeling in my legs and arms. Following an MRI I had just been told it was due to a disc which had lodged in my spinal cord and I needed to undergo immediate surgery but I might not walk again. I was given the news on my own with the curtain pulled round my bed, and I was terrified.
A short while later a lady was admitted with a suspected stroke. She came into my cubicle and told me she had had the very same operation, showed me her scar, told me she recovered well and that I would be fine.
The funny thing was, I shouldn't have been in the stroke unit at all, it was a lack of beds which put me there. She had been brought in by her son and was adamant she wasn't staying and discharged herself that same night.
I really felt as if she just arrived to comfort me. I'll never forget her.

(And I did regain the use of my arms & legs!)

When I was about 18 I went to Covent Garden with dm and dsis. After a while, they went off to look at something in a shop and I said I would wait where I was. So I propped myself against a balustrade, trying to look all cool. A handsome Mediterranean type, tanned and curly haired in a whit linen suit (hey! It was the 80s) came up to me and asked, in heavy, exotic accents, "Excuse me, is your name Ingrid?" I, in my witty sophistication, replied "no." He walked on. When dm and dsis returned I related what had happened with a flush. They chorused "yeah, right!" Then, about five minutes later, he walked past again and gave me a lovely smile as I stood with my family. Now dm and dsis went "whoooooo!"

Have just remembered another. Eight years ago at Christmas i took Wilf to DL Paris. We were staying on the top floor of a four storey hotel and the fire alarm went off at midnight!! I was petrified and ran out on to the landing as did several other people. I said "OMG how am i going to get my son out he is disabled!" A lovely Australian couple said "do you need help moving him?" and i explained he was deaf and autistic. They followed me into the room. The man looked at the evacuation plan on the back of the door. The lady gathered Wilf's clothes up. I shook Wilf. He opened his eyes looked at me and said "Go away Mumma" Second shake i got "i alright Mumma." Third shake i signed "FIRE" and Wilf shot out of the bed. We managed to get him dressed and down the stairs. All the way down the stairs i was thinking "where's the fire? am i going to get out alive? Why did i ever watch The Towering Inferno?" When we eventually got outside it was -3 so they let us all into to reception and Wilf went and hid in the corner. It turned out that a drunk man had set fire to a smoke alarm with a cig lighter!!!" I would have loved a few minutes alone with him!!!
I thanked the couple profusely before we were allowed back upstairs and in the morning before we left i slid a thankyou note under their door.
I wouldnt have got Wilf out by myself and was so grateful for their help!

Lovely thread!

Queuing up to get into a club with the girls probably 20 years ago (in my twenties), I locked eyes with a tall blonde boy... we couldn't not stare at each other, it was electric. He walked into the club with his mates. I hoped I'd be able to find him inside. He came and found me (told me he searched high and low) and we spent the whole night kissing like a couple of teenagers. The connection was amazing. I didn't know his name. I didn't try and find out, I often wonder why I didn't even get his number! He was beautiful and shy almost, I don't know - so hard to explain. It wasn't the norm for me, and I got the same feeling from him. I knew where he lived (town) and I have often wondered about him and how my life would have been if we'd taken things further. I have never in my life felt anything like it, it was incredible. Precious memories...

When I was about 18 I went to Manchester to have an interview at the Uni.
I was travelling alone and had taken a radio with me for company. It must have been about 1993.
I laughed out loud at something on the radio and the lad opposite me did too.
We got talking about what we were listening to and from that on to my reason for travelling to Manchester. He gave me some advice about busses to catch etc. I seem to recall he got off at Stockport.

2005 and I was on Mat leave, DS was 16 weeks old. I had an interview with GAP in London. I went to get in my car to drive and Ex twunt DH said don't go over 80mph or it makes a knocking sound, but it drives ok.
(He'd bloody damaged my beloved sports car pissing about in it and not told me or fixed it.)

Anyhow on the motorway as it was too late to do anything. Car starts driving really strangely so I slow right down in the inner lane. Suddenly I see flames licking the windows, I pull in and the engine (in the back) is on fire, black smoke everywhere.

I try to get out of the car. Then realise my phone wallet etc is on the passenger seat. I open the door to grab them and a guy grabs me by the waist and pulls me from the car just as the flames really take hold.

He was a lorry driver who'd seen what had happened and pulled infront of me, whilst radioing another driver to pull in behind. The other guy called the fire brigade and police.

He dragged me away from the car as the flames were reaching everywhere, and black spumes of smoke covered us.

Lifted me into his cab and climbed in. Poured me a cup of tea from his thermos and strangely lit me a cigarette. He was about to bollock me gently but he saw my then Puss in Boots eyes in my sooty smeared face.

Give me a hug and called me cariad. This made me burst into tears as I am Welsh. Told him and he pulled out a tin of Welsh cakes from the back, his wife had made that day.

So we sat and chatted until the police took me to their car.

I never got the chance to find out his name, or the other guy. I was in shock and didn't even see the haulage company name.

But if he hadn't pulled me away I might have left DS motherless that day.

He was a little Welsh Guardian Angel. ????

About eight years ago I was getting the bus back home from town and ended up sitting next to an elderly lady who began chatting to me. She told me that she'd been in town to buy a new pair of shoes and has searched high and low for some that she liked, but had eventually found some and she took them out of the bag and began showing them to me. When we reached my stop I said goodbyes nd and got off, as the bus pulled off I noticed the lady was waving at me through the window and so I waved back to her.

I got thaf bus loads more times but never saw her again. I got the impression she was lonely and glad of someone to talk to, she was in her 80's then and I often wonder if she's even still alive.

About 10 years ago now I met a young trans lad who was a friend of a friend and was not too long into living as a man. I chatted with him for most of the night and we got on really well. Our mutual friend told me at the end of the night that the lad had really appreciated that I'd accepted him as male straight away but it never occurred to me to do otherwise. I never saw him again but I think of him and wonder whether he's happy now as he was struggling a bit at the time we met.

A woman and her children that I let stay in my flat in 2011 during the Manchester riot. She'd got off a train from Liverpool to a city in shut down and gangs roaming smashing windows. I had gone outside to check the dopey neighbours hadnt left the doors unlocked and saw her crying by a broken phone box.
She was drunk and unloaded her life story about her abusive ex and how he made her work as a prostitute. Her children were gorgeous but so quiet. She rang her new boyfriend who also sounded like a real piece of work and he came to get them.
I did try to give her the number for women's aid but she wasn't really listening to me. I hope she managed to make a happy life

I met Estée Lauder in the ladies room of a smart restaurant in Paris in the late 1980s. She smiled at me while we were washing our hands ( I did not realise who she was at the time). She then said I needed to have a bit of lipstick to "brighten me up", and proceeded to give me a rapid but much needed makeover ( I was young and gauche). Explaining she was in Paris for a few days, she scribbled on a card and told me to go to the reception of her hotel the next day when something would be waiting for me. I duly turned up, feeling totally intimidated , and a basket of Estée Lauder goodies was waiting for me with the sweetest note, wishing me well for the future.

I was out with a friend some 15years ago and the most handsome man i have ever seen walked up to me and told me i was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He was gorgeous, however, i had just got engaged. I am now divorced and remarried, but often wonder about the handsome one and what might have been!

ExConstance, I love the idea of your angels.

SO MANY! This is such a good idea for a thread.

1. Not so long ago my boyfriend and I were coming back from Stoke-On-Trent I think. An older Irish lady in the station sat by us and asked us to help her get back from the station as she couldn't see when the next train to Wolverhampton would be. We told her. Anyway over the hour or so that we waited for her train, the lady received a phone call and she began crying, talking about how she's sorry to talk about (the caller's father) that way, but he was also her husband and she just can't take it any more, she can't take it, she's had years of it and he'll never change and some other really upsetting stuff. When she got off the phone she apologised for crying in public and said how rude she had been. I told her it was fine, gave her a tissue and said I hope she'd be okay. :(

2. On a similar vein when I was maybe 16 I received a landline call from a frantic sounding woman. I never used to pick up the landline at home, but this time I did. She said "IS THIS SOCIAL SERVICES??????" sounding near tears. "um... no, really sorry but you have the wrong number but I hope you'll be okay". The lady was very apologetic and hung up.

3. On a happier note, I went to a houseparty in the first year of university with a few of my halls friends. I wandered off upstairs and ended up in a room full of kids from the music school. I got chatting to one guy who... really melted my heart. He was lovely, charming and flirty without being obvious. And one point, I noticed he was staring at me with the most beautiful look in his eyes, but I DIDN'T MEET HIS GAZE. I was trying to be cute and coy and unaware but instead I left without kissing him!

4. Similarly... Reuben. Back in my pre-uni days, I went on an overnight visit to a university that's known for having a high percentage of private and boarding school kids. I got talking to the boarding school educated Reuben ("yah, but I got a bursury so my parents got a fair whack off") who had the loveliest blue eyes, bright blonde hair - the dream boarding school boy. We spent the entire two days together and whilst I have no doubt that he was not attracted to me in retrospect - the idea of us strolling through the town together, hand in hand, was what got me through my A Levels! Even after I utterly embarrassed myself in front of him with a dry cough during a mini-seminar, I still very much looked forward to freshers week mishaps with him. (I didn't go to that uni in the end).

5. My current boyfriend could have been added here if I didn't have the confidence to chat to him and then give him my number! He would be known as the lovely, sexy, bearded guy who I utterly confused when I tried to teach him Auld Lang Syne... he's not from this country and still doesn't get the point of it :(

6. Also, I'm bisexual but as a teen I was exclusively into girls. I remember one holiday in Majorca I was so infatuated with a girl who sold slush puppies a few streets from my hotel! She was so smiley and once I was waiting on the opposite side of the street and we glanced shyly over at each other. And then again on a cruise, an older woman (probably 26ish but I was only 16 at the time!) called Eunice who was a waitress. Never forgotten her or her name, but a quick fb search reveals she was not super into me as I convinced myself - she's a wife and mother! And I was just a kiddy!

My DD was born by caesarean, and was kept in special care for several days.

I had a catheter in, due to a bowel condition (TMI) had poor control, was unable to clean myself up because of the stitches - and then the lochia came in. I felt really dirty and horrible. I also got baby blues and was upset about DD.

The midwives were all busy, but they sent me a young nurse auxiliary, called I think Trixie or Trudy, who stayed with me for an hour and cleaned me up. She helped empty my bowels (TMI again, sorry) then shaved me; and finally washed me. Did it all without making me feel embarrassed or dirty. Was cheerful and just got on with the job.

I hope she is now a matron and all her staff respect and emulate her. The NHS needs nurses like her.

Yes, years ago, about 83 or 84, I left the dentist in Sloane Square and got on a City bound train. There was a chap in the dentist leaving at the same sort of time as me and he got on the tube just after me. He was perfectly normal, stockbroker/city type but probably about 10/15 years older than me. He got off the tube before me and before he did, he thrust his card into my hand, told me he thought I was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen and to ring him if I'd like dinner. I don't know what I did with his card and have no recollection of his name. I think I just thought he was too old for me or not my type.

I have often looked back and thought about it and wondered who he was and what might have happened if I'd accepted him invitation.

The family who came to my help when my car broke down in the middle of nowhere, at night and in the pouring rain. This was pre mobiles so the had to drive me to the nearest town miles away to call the AA and then drive me back. They even offered to wait for the AA guy to turn up. I was only 17.
I am sure I was extremely grateful and polite but I wish I had taken their details so I could have written to them.

I didn't meet him, but I was eating in a restaurant with my boyfriend (now Dh) and an older man was also a customer eating with his girlfriend/wife/possibly daughter on the next table. I was aware of him when he arrived, and thoughout the whole meal. I was about 30, he must have been about 60. I have never known such attraction before or since (about 20 years ago). I still feel a bit rocked by the attraction I had towards him. Weird.

I had something incredibly similar to this. In the USA with my sister, really excited to be going to a posh supper club to see a singer I was very much into (not well known on this side of the pond and never toured or performed here as far as I know).

A few tables away from us was this man, middle aged, average looking, with his wife/girlfriend, and it was like an electric wire running between the two of us. He clocked me, I clocked him ... and that was it.

I tried to concentrate on meal, conversation with sis, the performer I was so excited to be seeing at last ... but I'd just be drawn back to this man and every time I glanced his way he would be looking right back, looking as bewildered as I felt. Missed the singer's set entirely, didn't notice what we ate, drank, spoke about - just this overwhelming magnetic pull towards this man.

Weirdest thing ever. Nothing I could do about it (and wouldn't have done anyway), we left, flew home a few days later and that was that. Never forgotten it though ...that hairs on the back of the neck, shivers down the spine, electric attraction to someone. It's over 10 years ago and when I think about it, I still can't fathom what the hell was going on. Never had it before or since.