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.

I have 2.
Westminster Children's hospital 1973. I had major heart surgery as a 5 year old. Lots of things happened whilst I was in there, including the whole hospital being evacuated due to a bomb threat. There was a little girl who was 3 having similar surgery I guess but had it a bit earlier. She went home when I was asleep but I woke up to a pink bunny that she had left for me. I called her Jasmine bunny after the girl that gave her to me and I still have her 42 years on. I told my youngest who is 7 this story and she hugged Jasmine bunny with a tear in her eye!

My second was getting on a train to Manchester when I was 20 for a work course I was dreading. Had been before and was the only girl in an all male group. I was shy. There was a woman I sat next to who was a college lecturer.She told me to pretend, just for a week not to be shy. That every time I practised not being shy it would get easier and that I was a brave and courageous woman doing my job at such a young age. That woman genuinely changed my life. When I started teaching life skills to young people I used this example loads so she has helped many more

I got separated from my friends after a night clubbing at Manumission in Ibiza. When the night ended we needed to get back to San Antonio and I waited for a bus, but the driver pulled up, took one look at me and pulled off again. I ended up walking all the way back to the hotel with a lad who had also lost his mates. We chatted the whole way back. I never saw him again and I often wondered about where he was and what he was doing now.

I had to go into hospital for an operation when I was 10. There was a little boy probably aged 2 in the next cubicle and in the whole time I was there (5 days) no one came to visit him. He used to cry a lot and I'd cuddle him up in bed with me because I felt so sad for him

He had huge blue eyes, lovely blond curly hair and was just a lovely little boy. Never knew what was wrong with him. I remember feeling so sad that no one seemed bothered with him.

His name was Wayne. I often wonder what happened to him.

What a wonderful thread

Some years ago when my children were younger we went to IKEA in Warrington and got chatting to a man who was with his daughter in the play area. The next day we went to Chester and saw the same man with his partner and daughter and stopped to say Hello. The next day in Southport I saw the partner with her mum and the little girl . We were absolutely gobsmacked and the partner said to her Mum "This is the lady I was telling you about".I still think about the coincidence to this day and wonder if we should have all gone for a coffee to see if there was a reason for our meetings over the 3 days.

I was 19 in 2003. I was dancing with a large group of friends in our uni club. A beautiful tall brunette girl walked past and I was jealous of her. She kept walking past and I couldn't understand why. I then got a tap on my shoulder and she asked if my male friend was my boyfriend and I said no. She then asked if I was bi and told me that I had a beautiful body. Her name was Liz and she was just so confident. I wasn't ready for acknowledging my sexuality at the time, but I will always appreciate that experience and remember my shock at her showing an interest in me.

I was at a youth hostel in south Wales with a group of friends on a cycling holiday in 1988. We were chatting to a man in the hostel kitchen, and talking about where we had been and were going - we were going the opposite direction from him, and I said we'd be staying with an aunt in the village rather than in the hostel which he'd just come from. "Oh," he said, "Is your surname Molehill, by any chance?" "No, Bearhug," I said. The next day, I remembered that my great-grandmother's maiden name was Molehill, and I've wonder if he was some sort of distant relation who was also a Molehill. (I think he was Australian or a New Zealander or something not British, but I can't remember now.)

On a train once I saw literally the most beautiful man I have ever seen. This must be 30 years ago, but he had quite long wavy hair in the most gorgeous shade of dark red, kind of like a red setter. Nothing happened, but I remember thinking "you are so so beautiful".

When I was 18 I went to visit the missionary sisters of charity, I saw a young novitiate in a corridor and we both stopped in our tracks. She was tall and blonde, like a very young Kelly McGillis. I was dark with long hair and a summer tan. She put both of her hands out and held mine and spoke to me ...her name was Brigitte and she was french. We both stared at each other like we were lovers who had been reunited. I felt every hair on my neck stand up. We spoke greedily asking who we were and why we were there, until an older sister rushed over and ordered her away. I still dream about her sometimes 25 years later. I think she and I will meet in another life....or maybe we were lovers in a previous life.

20 years ago, I made eye contact with someone, with back and forth smiles, lots of looking for about an hour or more. It felt very intense yet subtle. I then had to leave to take my very drunk friend home. He came back the following week and I know it was to talk to me, but again I had to leave. I never saw him again, but still think about him. I had a real connection and think we will meet again one day..

Brilliant thread.

One person who has always stuck in my mind is a man who ran down the escalator at a M&S store when I got myself into a predicament carrying two huge and heavy bags half way down. Had he not dashed down and taken the bags from me, I would have lost my balance and fallen. He came out of nowhere to help me and never said a word. I am still massively grateful to him.

Another time was when I was a student in my early 20s. I was going through a really tough time. My grandmother had recently died and I had gone to Church one Sunday. During the Mass I started sobbing (and I mean sobbing...it wasn't pretty). I couldn't stop crying and was making the most awful noise. The people around me looked at me as though I was an alien and, at the end of the service I decided to stay seated because I felt so embarrassed. A young man, probably around my age at the time, came and sat down beside me, asked if I was ok and asked if I wanted to go for a coffee and chat with him. He said he was going through a tough time too. I declined (I was still crying and in a mess) but I have always felt enormously grateful towards him for his kindness and humanity. There must have been at least 800 people in the church that morning and he was the only one who came and offered support. I hope he is having a wonderful life.

It just shows that random acts of kindness can have a huge impact in people's lives.

Namechanged as several people know this one.

Went with friends to a student ball in a hotel that we'd seen advertised - just had after dinner tickets so didn't have anywhere to sit apart from the floor when the evening's entertainment - a new comic came on. He'd come with a friend who sat with us on the floor and did some pre-planned heckling of his friend. Got talking to the friend and felt like there was a real connection. Then one of the friends we were with got turned down by a guy she'd fancied so she ran to the loos and cut her wrists. Later turned out that this was to be her way of getting attention - more of a scratch than an actual cut and never needed anything more than a dab of tcp and a small plaster to deal with it. But this was the first time and so we all rushed in to check on her. It was almost the end of the evening - tried to exchange numbers with the comic's friend but he was getting pulled into a taxi by the comic, my friends had also got into one and I wasn't brave enough to go with him instead of my friends. Pre mobile and internet days so needed a paper and pencil to exchange numbers and we didn't manage it.

Few months later, saw the comic on the tv. His new friend was on there too as his sidekick. Never brave enough to make contact, but it was a great evening and I do wonder what would have happened if friend hadn't tried to cut her wrists (or if she'd not used that night as the first time so we knew not to panic). These days, DH still doesn't watch programmes with those comedians in just out of habit.

Another one - went to buy a lottery ticket. Saturday evening, about half an hour before the deadline. But only a five minute walk to my local supermarket where I had got them from previously with no problems. Got there to discover the frustrated looking serving person explain to the person in front of me that their machine was broken and so he couldn't sell him a ticket. However he could tell us to try xx or yy shops as they had ticket machines and might be able to sell us one. I didn't know where they were so the guy in front of me, similar sort of age, maybe five years older, said he did and he'd show me as he was going to find them too. We walked along and chatted most companionably - tried both shops but they were closed and then he asked me if I wanted to go for a drink. Would have loved to but had a dp (he was away for 6 months and coming back the next weekend, he'd organised moving abroad for a stint without really involving me so I was pretty hacked off with him), and that evening I'd arranged to go to an event with some friends, I'd been involved in organising it so couldn't get out of it.

Probably for the best as dp then is now dh and all is good, but it does make me wonder if things could have been very different if I hadn't got anything pre-arranged to go to and had gone for a drink instead! I do mean to use it as the basis of a story at some point but haven't got around to it yet!

Finally - on honeymoon we went on a cruise. Average age of cruisers was old - we brought the average down quite considerably. We didn't care as we'd chosen it because it went to lots of interesting places. We'd had a fantastic time and on the last night at the gala dinner, we'd asked for a table for two, thinking we would have one romantic meal together as it was our honeymoon - we'd ended up meeting lots of fascinating people and so hadn't eaten alone much. They apologised but only had a table for four left, so sat us with two old ladies, both of whom were in their mid 80s.

Turned out one lived in Australia, one in the UK, and they met up on a cruise or two every year, alternating north and south hemispheres. One was a distinguished sculptress, the other a professor who'd started off as an archeologist on digs in Egypt with Agatha Christie. We were the last table chucked out of the dining room - they had so many amazing tales. The only thing we wished was that we'd met them at the start of the trip as our cruise included Egypt and we'd done the tours of the pyramids and Cairo Musuem. They'd gone on the tours too, to reminisce. So wished we'd been in their group - would have been fantastic to have heard their stories in the places that they'd happened! That was over 10 years ago now and I have no idea if they're still alive (I've forgotten their names now) but dh and I still remember them fondly!

Back in my student days I used to work at Argos. One Valentine's Day I was approached for help by an woman who was clearly at least in her mid to late sixties who wanted to buy an ironing board. She was rather eccentric in her furs and pearls and obviously was one of those people who were truly young at heart. During our conversation she told me that she was buying the ironing board as a present for her lover who was a judge. She hoped that if she could press his shirts better then his wife then he would leave her and after 30 years of being his mistress they could finally be together. She was so appreciative of my help that when leaving she came and found me and thrust a ticket to a rather exclusive nightclub in my hand and insisted that I must come and be her guest for a night.

I never did go but i still feel sad for her situation and admire her zest

Dogseggs reminded me!!

Last year I was racially abused in a cafe in London. I was until then enjoying an evening with two friends until two drunken guys came in, one of them said a homophobic slur to one friend and began chatting up my other friend. Then one of them turned to me and began on this gross disgusting diatribe of racism, slurs and so on. I told him how racist he was but being he carried on. We left and my friends just said "well at least he didn't hit you" and walked off to their respective stations, with me in tears. I walked back to my bus stop alone, still crying. A young Italian guy turned to me and said "in my country, when we cry and it's raining we say it is good because you cannot see the tears" (or words to that effect). I told him someone had been very horrible to me and he was so comforting, he had just arrived and had nowhere to stay in London but was heading to a hostel or something and then my bus came. I always wonder what happened to him - he was truly a sweetheart.

Donkey's story warmed my heart. How happy for her.

I've been up half the night reading this thread! What wonderful stories - thank you all.

Some beautiful stories here. I am racking my memory - I fall in love all the time (or used to!) but 3 DCs and no sleep have made my brain go foggy....

DS was a forceps birthday. I was 21 and terrified, DH was stunned. As the room filled up with medics and they put my feet up in stirrups a trainee midwife grabbed my hand, looked into my eyes and said " I'm here and I'm going to stay with you" Her connecting with me at that moment has stayed with me for over 20 years. She made a scary situation much less so.

,* birth.

Mulligrubs I have a story similar to yours.

I was going in for an emergency C-section and I was completely out of it and in horrible pain, I was screaming. I don't remember anyone but then this nurse/midwife? with big breasts came over and hugged me while everyone around me was running around. In my haze I remember thinking she had the loveliest, softest breasts in the world and I just rested my head on her chest. I think she was actually holding me down while they did something. She had such kind and soothing words to me and actually gave me some comfort when I was in a very horrible situation.

I met a man on a course who utterly changed the course of my life.

We spent four days together, were completely inseparable, stayed up until 3 every night talking, and were utterly perfect for each other.

Sadly, I was married at the time, so nothing remotely romantic or sexual happened. We parted with a hug and I never saw him again.

But in that four days, that man gave me my self esteem back just by treating me like a person he liked and respected. He asked for nothing in return and behaved like a total gentleman.

Leaving him behind was one of the most painful things I've ever experienced. I simply can't think about him now. He's preserved in amber; a beautiful memory.

It took me another five years to escape my marriage, but the fact that I knew there was something better out there is purely down to him. Part of me will love him forever.

When I was 17 or 18 I went on one of the Sail Training Association's Tall Ships for 2 weeks. We were sailing from Leith, just outside Edinburgh, so I had to get the train from London to Edinburgh. My parents came to see me off and, at Kings Cross, there was another girl my age with a similar kit bag. Her parents had come to see her off as well, both sets of parents got talking so she and I sat together on the train. Just after we'd sat down, six rather rough & ready looking, loud Scotsmen came and sat with us - two in the seats opposite and the other four across the aisle from us. I suppose we felt a bit intimidated, but they were just having a good time. New friend and I were discussing our forthcoming adventure and the two opposite us, with half an ear on our conversation, asked us where we were going. When we told them, one of them guffawed and shouted over to his mates "hey, these two wee lassies are going to learn how to sail a three-masted schooner in the North Sea!"

Much merriment ensued, but it then turned out they were all in the Merchant Navy, had just come back from a long trip and were returning home to Scotland on leave. Although professional seamen, they either hadn't heard of the STA, or hadn't realised that there were female crews sometimes. At some point NF or I mentioned that we'd been told to learn how to tie various knots, but we weren't that good at it. At which point one of them whipped out a piece of rope from his kit bag and we ended up having a comprehensive knot tying lesson! They were a really nice bunch and we spent the whole journey chatting to them.

This is a great thread.

I keep thinking of other people

After I had given birth to DC4 I was in a ward on my own feeling happy, comfortable and relaxed. Feeding was going well and I think I must have seemed very together. I was so impressed with this nurse who seemed to go out her way to fuss me and the baby - even though I clearly didn't need it. She gushed about how beautiful DD2 was (and she wasn't the prettiest of babies) and was just lovely. I thought it was really kind and thoughtful of her. She didn't have to do, I didn't need it but it was very much appreciated.

I've told this one before...not quite a meeting, but still...

when I first met dh1, I teased him a bit for having a rather nicely framed photo of himself on the mantelpiece in his flat - it seemed a bit vain. He explained that it was his mum's favourite picture of him, taken by his brother the summer before he left for university, & she'd had several copies printed & framed for various grannies & aunties - there'd been one spare, so he'd ended up with it!

Now that I have a ds of my own, I can see exactly why MIL1 loved it - it's a gorgeous snapshot of a handsome 18yo lad just on the verge of manhood. He's standing in the crowd at a rock festival, his back to the distant stage, grinning cockily at the camera with a can of cider in his hand.

The photo knocked about throughout our relationship - on various shelves & walls in various flats & houses. Sadly the cider was prophetic - dh1 suffered from alcoholism & died at the age of 31 after a seizure.

I re-married, had kids, & most of the photos of dh1 were put away. This particular picture is one of the three of him I still have on display - even though it dates from several years before dh1 & I met, it's just a lovely smiley photo & I've always liked it.

It wasn't until about 5 years ago, 10 years after dh1's death, that I was packing the photo for a house move & suddenly noticed the two teenage girls sitting on a rug behind him, their backs to the camera as they're facing the stage. One has black, crimped hair. The other has long red hair - you can just see her profile as she's half-turned to laugh with her friend.

The redhead is my best mate from school. The black haired girl is me.

Jesus Christ raven, that has just sent shivers down my spine. That is an incredible story. How sad though that your DH1 didn't know x