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.

Aged about 16 and travelling on a train through London. At the far end of the carriage was a young man a few years older than me with fair hair and piercing eyes.

We couldn't take our eyes off each other although neither of us approached.

It was only when I got off the train that it occurred to me that he looked very much like one of the Goss brothers from Bros.

Several years later one of them was being interviewed in a magazine (I forget whether it was Matt or Luke) and he was asked to describe the first time he fell in love.

He described sitting at opposites ends of train carriage travelling trough London and not being able to take his eyes from a girl with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes.

I like to think that he was describing me but I'll never know for sure

Wow raven. That is amazing.

Love this thread!

Ditto Raven it was so obviously meant to be ! And to think you never noticed yourself in pic before.

Muriel I used to adore those Goss brothers; I reckon your caught his eye :)

Love this thread.
I can think of a few.

The elderly couple who approached me on the bus when I was sobbing after exh had been his usual abusive self.

The posh homeless man who had had and then lost everything after his business went under. His wife had not wanted to know when he hadn't the money to maintain her lifestyle apparently.

The lady who worked at the community centre who brought us 'left over' food and meals regularly after now exh walked out of his job.

When I was an 18 yo goth/alternative girl I was heading to a rock club in the rain. This guy with red spiky hair and guy liner on ran up to me to offer his jacket to put over me.

He was a softly spoken scot and we chatted about music and hair dye as we queued to get in to the club. We saw each other a few times in passing at the club but never spoke again.

I often wonder what happened to him.

Bob, the gorgeous Scottish boy I met at a club when I was 16. Tall, dark haired, bright blue eyes, cheeky grin. We spent all night dancing, talking and kissing, in that electric haze of lust that you only get when you're a teenager. But it wasn't just lust - he was lovely and we really hit it off :)

I wanted to invite him and his mate back to ours afterwards (parents were away) but my older brother said no! Sensible sod Bob and I kissed goodbye at the bus stop and that was that, never saw him again. But I think of him always fondly, and often wonder about what might have been.

Yes, a gorgeous Danish boy. We went for a walk in the woods and kissed. We were both 15.

oh another one, had been to a work press event and missed the last train home. Being a bit tipsy but not drunk I decided to take a load of helium balloons from the event home for dd as they were lovely and the cleaner was popping them for the bin

So two am on a Saturday morning with a load of balloons and I'm clearly a target for drunks! I was continually pestered with people wanting a balloon then an older drunk started to really follow me and make me uncomfortable.

A young lad in Army uniform with his bags came over and pretended he knew me, he was heading home on leave and had missing his connection. He said he wouldn't like to think of his Mum out getting hassled. He stood and chatted to me for hours even missing his own train at four am so that he could take sure I was on mine at a later time (first train of the day on my line)

He was utterly lovely and I often wish I could tell his Mum or family.

i was in my early 20s and waiting for a bus home in Blackpool Bus Station.
A young woman with a little girl approached me and asked me to watch her little girl while she went off to find a phone box. We were stood right by some phones, but I figured she wanted privacy for the call, or was going to buy drugs. I knew I was a safe person for the little girl to stay with iyswim so I stood there and chatted to her. She was only about 3 or 4, had shoes with little animals on them. Often wonder if she was ok.

Muriel, that's amazing! I think it was you!

Love this thread :-)

raven, no way! spooky!

Me and my partner were on a holiday cruising up the coast of Norway. The boat was busy with locals using it to get up and down the country and it carried freight as well. Several stops a day and stunning scenery as we went way up into the Arctic circle. During the trip we got friendly with a retired chap who was on his own. He was from Germany and it turned out he was a retired surgeon whose wife had recently died. He was such a lovely man, cultured, engaging, interested in us and our lives. We spent many an evening teaching ourselves how to play Piquet, a rather complicated card game. We gave him our 'How to play' cards book when we parted, but I wish we had exchanged addresses. He was so brave and I found his outlook on life inspiring. We were so loved up after that holiday that nine months later at the age of 42 I had our precious one and only DS. We both remember the charming gentleman very fondly and the trip has become one of our special shared memories.

This one was very heartwarming for me. When DH and I met his mind was quite closed to same sex relationships. He couldn't get his head around it and was a bit squirmy, though he got on with my male, gay best friend.

On a holiday we got chatting to a couple of blokes who were ridiculously good company. Again, very cultured, interesting, funny and the type of folk who were genuinely interested in your life. I suspected they were a couple despite them not being openly "camp" or affectionate with each other. DH was staggered when they revealed they'd been a couple for more than 25years

Years on and the change in DH is immense. He cried recently watching "Philedelphia" and says he can't believe he used to (inwardly) hold those bigoted thoughts.

There's one girl I think about. Saw her on the train. She had been crying but was trying to hide it. I wanted to say something, but didn't know what to say and didn't want to come across as an interfering weirdo.

Before I could do anything, she got up to get off the train. As she stood by the door, she wiped her eyes, squared her shoulders, took a deep breath, notched her chin up and walked off the train like a badass.

Its so stupid but I felt strangely proud of her. She was clearly upset but pulled herself together and walked off the train like she owned it. I think of her everytime I need to come across as strong when I'm upset.

how is this not in Classics yet?

Wow Raven what a wonderful coincidence, it made me feel all warm inside
That could be a line in a film.

Have nominated this for Classics!!

Something reminded me of a creepy stranger today.

My sister used to collect bookmarks, and used to go to a local monthly book fair, and ask the stall holders if they had any. Quite a few gave them to her. There was one man who initially seemed friendly and sent some through the post. However, we realised he wasn't quite what he seem, and my parents had to intervene. I don't remember if we ever knew why, Except that he was coming across a bit creepy.

Years later, was delving in a cupboard full of stuff, we came across some letters which he had sent. They were full of admiration and poems for my sister. The poems were all typed in red ink ( pre-Internet days). I feel freaked out about it still just thinking about it. My sister would have been 10-12 years approx ( don't remember exactly when it happened) and he was an adult. We were both quite naive teenagers( people were more naive pre-Internet), but knew that it wasn't right. I sometimes wonder why my parents kept the letters. Evidence? Knowing my mum( a hoarder), she still has them!

Sorry this isn't one of the lovely stories on this thread. However, this stranger ( and i still remember his name) sends a chill through me all these decades later.

Not as interesting a story as most here but I'm loving this thread and would like to post about my stranger that I think about. A midwife (or maybe a postnatal nurse?) who was doing the rounds on the ward where I was the evening my son was born.

She checked we were both OK and I seem to remember quite a surreal conversation with her where she said some women experience pleasure in childbirth akin to orgasm! I assured her that had not been my experience and we laughed. She had a really kind face and reminded me of an actress whose name I cannot put my finger on. Still bugs me as to who she reminds me of to this day - over 12 years later.

For some of the less enthralling stories (mine included) that we've shared on here there must be that element of a certain something that makes us remember the person/experience. Of the thousands of encounters we must have had since what is the little element that makes something stay with us so vividly?

Oliviaaah's story has just reminded me of one too.

We went to Norway on holiday when I was about 8 - we took the ferry overnight to get there and were then on a coach to get to the hotel afterwards.

On the ferry we were sitting in the lounge after supper, when somebody discovered that one of the old men - Fred - also on the tour could play the piano, so asked permission from the band playing to see if he could play us a tune. It turned out that he'd once been a pianist for the old silent movies so he could play brilliantly without any music - people in the audience would shout out things like 'the cowboys are coming' or 'they're falling in love' or 'the aliens are invading' and he could just improvise perfectly to suit the mood. He was there for the rest of the evening.

We ended up in the same hotel as Fred and there was a piano there too that he played most nights to entertain everyone. It was an amazing talent to experience, especially not having been old enough to remember silent films! It was different from just listening to somebody playing piano pieces nicely because the audience were the ones creating the course of the soundtrack they were listening to from their suggestions.

Fred was in his 80s then so would be long gone now, but we still remember his wonderful talent!

These are so amazing! Keep them coming people!

Torrentialrain I know what you mean about those moments where you have a real connection at an emotional moment - I had an ELCS with DD1 because she was breech, it was all fine & complication free, but of course I was still nervous.

I remember the nurse who was the senior person in charge of the theatre (not sure exactly of her title) who looked after me while the spinal was going in - she had a hand on my shoulder and said something like 'I'm going to concentrate on you, so you just focus on me and don't think about what's going on behind you' and was such a calm presence it really got me through the whole experience. I guess she had done the same many many times before (which is what made her so good at her job) but it was really special to me.

Marshmallow yes. It's times of heightened emotion isn't it?

Wonderful stories on here.

Many years ago I had an accident coming out of a roundabout. The other driver was totally at fault and my car ended up on the central reservation on the other side. I was too shaken up to get out of my car. There was a young couple, who had their small baby in the car with them, who had been just behind me and seen the whole thing. They stopped by my car and phoned the Police (the driver at fault, by this time, had also stopped and started being massively abusive towards me). The witness/husband moved the abusive-accident-causer away from me and the witness/wife took me to their car, sat me in their passenger seat and gave me a carton of Ribena whilst we waited for the Police who, fortunately, arrived fairly quickly.

I will never forget that young couple. It was a baking hot day, they had their small baby in their car and, I'm sure, wanted to get to wherever they were going quite quickly - but they were so, so kind to stay with me. They gave a witness statement to the Police and they also gave me their details for my insurance claim. The next week I wrote them a nice thank-you note.

Their 'wee baby' would be probably be in his/her mid 20s by now! They were such a lovely couple.