Someone was just very kind to me

[Sairelou]

I'm still feeling a bit emotional about it too!

I took DCs to Morrisons cafe as we needed a couple of bits on the way home from the park and they were getting hungry. I went to pay and my contactless card wasn't working I couldn't remember my PIN either and after a couple of tries I was getting really flustered and hoping the ground would swallow me up. Typically I had left my credit card at home and no cash on me. I went to get DS who was sitting down at a nearby table to leave (bracing myself for the inevitable tantrum, understandably!) and the gentleman behind me in the queue offered to pay for our lunch!

I've put something on my FB page and hoping to track him down so I can repay him and I will certainly do the same if I see anyone else in that situation (provided I can remember my sodding PIN).

All warm n fuzzy now with something in my eye

This made me think about the time we were driving home with our three week old baby and we pulled over to feed him but we got caught in a snow drift it literally just dumped out of the sky DH was desperately trying to move the car but it was skidding every where and I just had a c section so couldn't push, when out of nowhere these lads came and just took over apparently they'd seen us from the local Chinese

I'll never forget that

This is a fab thread, loving all the stories.

Bluntness your story really touched me to, not often a big place like that gets its perfectly right, very glad they did.
I confess to a sniff or two

Another couple I've remembered.

Ages ago, someone I slightly know was pushing her toddler into town along a footpath. Somehow the toddler kicked a shoe off and the mum spent ages trying to find it again. She was in tears because they could hardly afford the first pair and certainly couldn't afford a replacement pair. Along came an elderly lady who asked what the matter was. She then took the mum and toddler back into town to Clarks and paid for a new pair. The mum wasn't aware that the lady knew where she lived, but about 6 weeks later an envelope and £30 was pushed through her door with a note saying "For the next pair of shoes."

Also, DH lost his wallet. He reported it immediately and cancelled his cards, but someone arrived at the door with it, having found his address inside the wallet. She refused to accept any money even though there was quite a lot in there.

Many years ago I was on my way to work travelling on the metro. I arrived at my station to discover I had no change in my purse. I was about to pelt home when a burly bloke tapped me on the shoulder and said he'd buy my ticket. He then offered me a £5 so I could get home a gain and get lunch. I had my cashpoint card so was able to refuse the £5.
I saw him again the next day at the station and offered to pay him back but he told me to pay it forward.
And I remember when I was travelling on a train with DS when he was about 3 months old. I was sitting in the area where the seats went down for bikes and buggies. A young lad with Downs Syndrome was escorted onto the train with a suitcase by another adult, settled in his seat and reminded what stop he was getting off at. It was the same stop as me so I made a mental note to check he got off OK.
About 30 minutes away from our stop I noticed the lad looking at me, DS and the pram and then looking at his suitcase. After a while he said something like 'Excuse me but when we get to X this is what we will do. I will put my suitcase off the train and B will take it. Then you will take the baby and I will get the pram and we will all get off safely.'
He'd spent ages working out how he could help me but still keep his suitcase safe. B was the adult meeting him at the other end.
When we arrived at X he was true to his word and organised me off the train, then mother henned me to the lift and over the lines and insisted that he and B walked me to my car.
I do think people are actually intinsically nice, we just need to give each other a chance to be nice. So often we are wary of others, so closed off from our surroundings and I think these stories show us that humans actually like to help.

I was supposed to be going to a local group last night with a neighbour. We're both new to the area and she suggested I might go with her. Unfortunately I had some some very bad news shortly before so when she called I had to apologise and say I couldn't go. She left a bunch of flowers by the back door while I was at work today because I looked so upset. I've only really spoken to her twice. Such a lovely, kind thing to do. I hope I get to know her better.

I was queuing to pay for my lunch in work and a lady was having trouble with her card being declined and a lovely lady came forward and paid it was a beautiful gesture I was really touched.

Jeff Yoir last story has made me tear up again. What a lovely, thoughtful young man. I think you're right. It's easy to feel like no-one cares when the news is so negative and it's so easy to see the bad things people are doing around the world but there is kindness everywhere, it's just often quieter.

Someone on a crowded commuter bus dipped into by bag and took my wallet. It was actually a beautiful designer wristlet that a dear friend had given me some years ago, and I was more upset about that in some ways than at losing my cash, credit cards and lipstick. Iwas shocked, since I rode the same bus every day and felt incredibly violated. I was fairly vocal at work (and in a post on FB) and by the end of that week I had received four new wristlets/cross bodies/wallets, including one from from the lovely friend who had given me the original one. I did feel oh so loved.

I do always try to jump in when I see someone struggling to come up with enough to pay - Pay It Forward!

Lovely stories (i too now appear to have something in my eye!).
We'd just moved to a new country to live and i was enjoying a celebratory meal with dh and DC in a bar. Got talking to an older couple on the next table who were natives of the country but on holiday in the area. They left after their food and we stayed on for a bit. When we came to leave and asked for the bill the waitress told us they had paid for our meal as a welcome to the country present.

I've had several lovely experiences but the one I'll never forget is on the day of my job interview. I was sat at a bus stop sobbing, I'd left early enough that I could get two of my half hourly buses into the interview incase anything happened. The first was cancelled then the second didn't turn up on time and I desperately needed the job but knew if I was late for my interview I didn't stand a chance. My DP was suffering severely with his MH and because of the amount of time he had to have off we were struggling with bills. A little old lady who lived in the house behind the bus stop came out and hugged me to calm me down. When she found out why I was crying she was horrified as she'd seen how long I'd been waiting through the window, commented that it was hard enough for young people to find jobs without bus dramas and bundled me into her car. I got to my interview with 5 minutes to spare and got the job. I'll never forget what she did for me, it made such a huge difference to the life of me and my family and still does today. I don't live on that street anymore but every year at Christmas I get her and her husband a box of chocolates.

A few years ago now, on a Monday morning, I was told at the hospital I had cancer but the specialist nurse wasn't around so no one could tell me how bad it was or any details really.
So I felt like I was on another planet really and went straight to an aa meeting.
Afterwards a lovely man just gave me a big hug as he said I looked like I needed it. I managed to tell him what was wrong and he said
'It'll be fine, you'll get through it, whatever happens'
He was just so kind, I'll never forget that!

A few months ago I was on a long train journey, at a table opposite a woman with her 3yo DD, and she was getting more and more fractious because mums phone signal kept cutting out so she couldn't watch her cartoons.
So I just turned my tablet round and asked what she'd like to watch as I have loads of Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol downloaded for my DGD's.
Mum was ever so grateful and insisted on buying my cup of tea when the trolley came round!

I have found out the cafe in town who do suspended cuppas and I always go in and pay for one when I'm passing

I love all these stories!

Our town apparently took "Random Act of Kindness" Week very seriously one year.

An older couple randomly bought my daughter a Frisbee because, "it was Random Act of Kindness Week,and she looked like one of the happiest children they'd seen."

So that was lovely. Walking home, it was windy and my daughter let go of her Frisbee and it flew down the street. As she started to cry, a younger man saw her, ran down the sidewalk and grabbed it from going under a parked car. He returned it to us and told her, "You're very lucky, I was due a good deed today!" And just went on his way.

It was so sweet.

Posted about this a long time ago l think but my son used to stand at a bus stop with my two dgds waiting for the school bus. An old lady whose house was right behind bus stop used
to sit looking out her front
window watching and my two dgds about 5 and 7
then started waving to her
and she started waving back etc. On fine mornings
she started come out to
her gate and chat to them
while they waited for the bus. Just before Christmas
my son got dgds to help make a card from all three of them and they gave it to
her. He also bought a jigsaw as she'd mentioned
she enjoyed them and got the girls to wrap it and they all took it across. Sh
e was absolutely made up with this but when they were invited in noticed the
solitary card in pride of place :( He ended up inviting her to Xmas dinner which she declined but she agreed to having a dinner taken across (DS is very good cook) From then my DS started doing shopping errands for her etc and she came to dote on my dgds and looked forward to them popping in. All this came from a simple wave from a child to an old lady and of course my son's lovely caring nature. I must have done something right!!

Bahhhhhumbug Your son sounds wonderful

A couple of years ago I went back to university to do another degree and was a horribly broke student all over again.
One evening I got back from my shitty part-time job absolutely exhausted and starving and went to the supermarket to pick up some food. I only had about £8 left in my bank account so added everything up as I went around, but I must have miscalculated because when I got to the checkout I was a few pounds over.
I was so embarrassed - the cashier was lovely though, she took some of the items off with her scanner, but, instead of keeping them, she put them back my shopping bag with a wink and sent me on my way. I was SO grateful!

Between Christmas and New Year last year our 15 yr old daughter suffered a huge brain haemorrhage and spent a long time in hospital, word got out to people who we have lost contact with, one of whom turned up out of the blue laden down with m and s food bags with enough ready meals for lunches and dinners to last us a week. Her thoughtfulness really touched me.

Ds is epileptic and had his first seizure at six months old when I was home alone with him and dd. Dh has always been awful at taking his phone to work so had no way of contacting him to get him home. My mum and dad live across the road but were several hundred miles away at a family funeral. Neighbours at work. Hysterical dd had to be dragged out from behind the sofa and bundled into the ambulance very quickly. One wonderful paramedic carefully locked up and made sure I had my keys while I was into much of a panic to do it. While another held ds so I could sort dd out and talked to us all the way to the hospital assuring me ds was fine with him and telling me about all the babies he'd delivered and what a privilege it was to hold mine.

Dbil eventually managed to colect dh from work and get him on route to the hospital. Dh had a fraction of the taxi fare in his pocket but asked the first driver he saw if they would take it to get him to a and e as he needed to get dd asap. The driver did no problem and dh shoved the money at him and ran in. The taxi driver then circled the hospital for the best part of an hour waiting for dh to come out with dd. He was so pleased to catch them as dh came out to the bus stop as he'd been worrying how they would get home with no money and took them home. He recognised dd a couple of months later when we walked past a taxi rank and jumped out to ask how ds was doing.

Many years ago when I had managed to get out of a very abusive marriage. Ex cleared out all bank accounts and mortgage and everything.

So I was scrimping money together whilst taking care of both very young DC.

For a while I lived wage to wage and one evening after a really long day I was exhausted and we didn't have food in the house and I thought I had enough money to get us three a take away. I ordered on the phone and always paid on my debit card. My debit card got rejected that day. I was so indescribably tired and defeated and barely holding it together (some nights I'd just have a cup of tea and go to bed but I had to feed my dc).
The take away guy turned up at my door with the food and told me to pay whenever. I immediately wrote him a cheque dated it to my pay day and asked him to cash it when I was paid.

It was such a massive big deal to me, he will never ever know how grateful I am for that act of kindness. I still think of him years later.

Fucks sake. Keep crying.

I ran away from a job in Croydon and a lady gave me all her change, £8, for a train ticket. Didn't get her address but I am more than happy to give her the current equivalent if I ever find her. So kind and reinforced when the staff at the train station wouldn't let me get on the train and someone pay at the other end. I then went to the coach station and the security guard gave me £35 to get home. ended up engaged to him and then left when he hit me but that day he was kind but I know now I felt indebted .

Oh, I forgot to mention the young man who offered to and carried my 10 year old in his arms when he was stung by a weevil fish. I was alone with three kids (one thankfully older). It was a 100 m walk and DS was in a lot of pain.
Very kind.

Bahhhhhumbug I remember you story about the old lady from before, it's so lovely, as are all the stories on here.

This thread needs to go into Classics for us all to remind ourselves that there is a lot of good in the world.

Another one. We had recently moved to the area and went for a dog walk in a place we didn't know, we got hopelessly lost and it was starting to get dark. We finally emerged onto a road and there was a house opposite with a family waving goodbye to guests. I went over to ask the way back to where we'd started the walk (and left our car) and the guy said that it was actually about 3 miles away but he bundled us and our dog (all of us with very muddy feet) into his pristine car and drove us back. We were so incredibly grateful to him and said to ourselves we really must pay it forward. About a week later a guy in a classic car broke down outside our house so dp went out with tool kit and got the car started again. It felt great to have done someone else a good turn after having received one ourselves.

This is such a beautiful thread.
I agree it should go in classics.
I can't stop crying reading these.

Such a lovely lovely thread.
A few years ago, I had to take our 21 yr old cat to be pts, we were both devastated. I had to go to the vet alone because DH had been called into work on an urgent rush job. He told the boss about the cat and that he wanted to get away asap because he didn't want me to be alone and we were going to bury her that afternoon in the yard. As he was leaving the boss and his son came out to him with a large flat stepping stone they'd got from the garden center, they'd sandblasted our cat's name into it! They'd also bought us a rose bush and a card, bloody hell, I'm blowing snot again just thinking about how kind they were.

Oh I really have to stop treading this thread...

Echoes that was a lovely thing to do what a great boss