Strangers you remember fondly

[Conkernudge]

Thought it would be nice to have a thread talking about strangers who have touched your life, or who you remember for a good reason.

Mine:
My DH and I were heading up a long flight of stairs at a train station when suddenly we saw a frail old man overbalance near the top and start falling. My husband dived sideways and managed to catch him before he went head over heels. As the man was falling the lady he was with shouted “Stanley!” crossly. I’m sure she was terrified, rather than cross, but she gave him a bit of a telling off when she caught up with him, despite holding his hand tightly. They were obviously married or partners and he’d given her the shock of her life.

Now whenever I criticise my husband for something minor he goes “Stanley!” as though i’m telling him off for something unreasonable and we laugh.

The fall happened probably about 12 years ago now and it’s just stuck with us. We hope we’ll grow old together like they did.

So, which stranger do you remember and why?

When I was a student I was visiting a friend at her uni. Stayed overnight and made the drive home the following morning. My phone had been damaged beyond repair and I overslept so drove home in my pyjamas.

My car broke down. On the M25. Right by the Dartford tunnel.

I managed to pull into the hard shoulder and a kind lady who was obviously on her way to work (very smartly dressed in a suit and drive a very snazzy car) pulled over ahead of me. She took me into her car and phoned my dad, and then the AA. She waited with me until the tow truck came, and even gave me snacks because I hadn't eaten breakfast.

She was probably a couple of hours late to work at the very least, but I was 18 and terrified and she took the time out to really look after me. This was nearly ten years ago now but I will never forget her!

I was working abroad when I was a teenager. Living with a pretty miserable family who weren't particularly nice to me I wouldn't put up with that shot now. I didn't speak much of the language which didn't help.

I went out for a walk in the snow and ran into a lady who spoke very good English and had a lovely chat to her- she was really lovely, asked me all about myself and made me feel like I might be able to survive a while longer.
We walked together for a while and then we said goodbye and she just vanished into the snow. I didn't see her again but she helped me so much.

The bikers in the early 70's who helped us rescue ducklings from a cattlegrid, my mother was terrified, they were lovely

An elderly Jewish gentleman called Felix from Tel Aviv who I chatted with in the Rembrandthaus museum in Amsterdam years ago. Gentle, wise and amusing he was lovely company. I hope he's doing ok.

The stranger who approached me when I was dead on my feet with sleep deprivation and PND and told me she often saw me out and about with my DC, and she'd never seen any children so well cared for - they were always clean and being cuddled or fed and I was always paying them attention. I thought I was the world's worst mother at the time, due to PND and her words meant the world to me.

And a bizarre one. I was in a stationers once and a man who spoke no English approached me and showed me some forms. They had been photocopied by the shop for him but he was touching the paper and looking concerned. I checked the copies and saw that a couple of sentences at the end of the forms had no copied clearly and they were legally very important. I asked the shop to redo the copies and pointed to the bit he needed. To thank me, he touched my arm. It was weird, but I felt as though someone had flooded me with goodness and happiness - it was the first time I'd ever experienced 'healing hands'. he was a tiny elderly man in white robes with an embroidered white skull cap and he looked like an angel strayed off the path. I'll never forget him.

Travelling late night back to Manchester with a 3 year old, the trains were delayed and we were going to have to cross the city to get another train. Train was almost empty, everyone left my carriage at Stoke, and a huge biker got on with a beer and a very grim expression, and sat opposite us.
My daughter’s eyes got wider as she stared at him, and then she said ‘Sooo beautiful! So shiny! Shiny man’ and he grinned at her. She patted the chains and buckles, telling him he was lovely, and we talked about small children and his nephew who was 2. At Piccadilly, he helped us off, walked us to Victoria and saw us on the next train.
Another time, we were travelling through London at rush hour at the end of a three hour journey with two more to go. I had her in a sling, a backpack and a buggy and it was hard. A very smart man in a very expensive suit helped us up and down stairs all the way from Euston to Victoria. I thought he was going in our direction, but he gave a very shy smile and said ‘Oh dear me no. I live near Cockfosters’ and left us to go back the way we’d come, an hour on his journey for a stranger.
I’ve met a lot of lovely, interesting strangers over the years, sometimes help when I needed it, sometimes fascinating to talk to.

I broke down on the m6, couldn't move my car to the hard shoulder. A lovely lovely man pushed the car over for me, I jumped out of my car and gave him a massive cuddle, whilst crying my eyes out! Ha he was so nice, told me what to say to the breakdown people too.

I was at court for a contested child arrangements hearing, where I had to represent myself against vile abusive ex.

I was cross examined for 3.5 hours in a 7 hour hearing. They found in my favour and I almost collapsed. I walked out the room and fell into a chair, unable to stand.

This wonderful lady bought me a hot chocolate from the machine. It was the best drink I've ever had. I hate hot chocolate. But it gave me enough strength to get up, dust myself off and get to the train to race back and collect my children.

I'll remember her for the rest of my life. I was on my knees and she literally picked me. Incredible.

My DD had been monitored for a few hours in the GP bays of our local hospital, she has a few health issues so not uncommon for us to be sent there by the GP. Everything was okay and we were sent home, but my instinct was putting doubt in my mind. DH went on ahead to bring the car round to the pick up/drop off area. As I was walking down the concourse with DD in her pram, she projectile vomited black coffee granule sick everywhere, I sprinted back to the ward where i threw her at the doctor, I couldn't speak for the tears and panic, but a lady who I have never seen before or since got me a chair, tissues and a drink of water and sat holding my hand while I calmed down, she stayed until DH came back, I'll always remember her kindness, i didn't get her name and despite several visits back to the ward since I've never seen her to thank her.

This actually happened quite recently. I was waiting for a doctors appointment, and an elderly lady (this is relevant) and her son sat down next to me. I was preoccupied with my own things, but overheard them say something about needing a tissue, so I offered one of mine to the lady. Both the lady and her son were very lovely in response to me offering, but the lady said that there weren't many people like me around these days and to keep being me.

I have really low self-confidence anyway, but for a total stranger to be that nice when I was just trying to be polite, well, it's really stuck with me. Usually I get people giving me needless negative comments.

Not exactly a stranger but after my nan died I realised I didn't have any recent photos of me and her except my wedding day to my exh. I contacted my photographer to order a lovely a4 photo of me and her I went to pick it up and pay for it and her said no charge.
I burst into tears and gave him a bug. I hadn't even told him my nan had died so it felt like he was doing it to be nice.

I gave him a hug not a bug

This is a lovely thread.

When DS1 was about 3, I (stupidly) let him sit in one of the small, high supermarket trolleys. At one point, he'd decided to stand up in it and I hadn't noticed. I swung the trolley round and he flew out, landing with s huge horrible whack to the back of his head.

He was screaming, I was hugging him and crying. I fell to pieces and didn't know what to do. Suddenly a woman appeared from nowhere and took charge. She asked him questions, checked his eyes and ears, and just kept rubbing, rubbing, rubbing the back of his head. At one point I thought he must be getting annoyed with all the rubbing.

Eventually she gave him back to me and told me to take him to the Dr, but that he would be ok. Then she literally was just gone.

I did take him to the Dr and he was fine - he didn't even have a bump on the back of his head.

The weird thing, though, was that as we left the shop, a shiny coin on the floor caught my eye. I picked it up - it had an angel on it.

I've always thought that woman was his guardian angel. I had the coin cast in silver and set on a chain for him to wear whenever he needs some celestial support.

This is such a lovely thread!

Mine is the day after DS1 was released from a short stay in hospital for viral wheeze at around 2yo. None of us had had any sleep for about a week and I’d taken him to the park for some fresh air. On the way home he was refusing to get in the buggy and arching his back and screaming. I was desperate to get home and this lady came over with her bike and started chatting to DS1 and telling him all about her bike. She then said ‘now you sit in the buggy and watch the flashing light on the back as I ride away’ and he did!! I blubbed all the way home, pushing a happy DS1 in his buggy while he chattered about the light. It was such a tiny thing for her but a massive, massive help for me at a time when I was so completely overwhelmed.

At a bus stop a very elderly lady spoke to me, told me she was a psychic 🤔
She was lovely and as I got in the bus I said goodbye she looked at dd and said ‘she’s going to adore her little blonde haired blue eyed brother’
I wasn’t even pregnant or so I thought and both me and she have dark hair and brown eyes .....
About 8 months later guess who arrived

*me and DH!

Not long after becoming a single parent I was in a shop with my dc. A man standing nearby asked for some advice on an item for his ds. We exchanged a few words and a few pleasantries. He went to the till, looked over his shoulder at me a couple of times, then came back. I thought oh no, weirdo alert. He said I just wanted to say I think you're really lovely. He then finished paying and walked away with a good bye.

I had to hold back the tears I was so touched. I'd been through a really rough patch and had lost my faith in people. My dc just stood there wide eyed saying Mum, are you going to cry?

When I was pregnant with DD2 I drive to an out of town shopping centre. I was in the cafe and when I stood up I bled all over the floor. I went to the toilet and continued to bleed. I was crying in the phone hysterically to my husband telling him I had miscarried. A lady in the toilets was lovely to me. Several hours later I found out DD2 was still alive and I wanted to let her know but never could. And the man who rescued a teddy for DD2's Christmas present that I left in top of my car. He followed me home to give it to me. Lovely thread.

When ds was about a year old we had a rotten holiday because we were staying with my in laws, I had pnd, ds wasn't sleeping and dh had to work every single day. One day I took ds to the beach and took him into the sea with me. It was such a happy moment. When we got out an old lady came up to me and said that it had made her so happy to see me and ds playing in the sea because we were having so much fun and I obviously loved him so much. She can't possibly have known what that meant to me in the depths of pnd on a very lonely holiday - I am still so grateful.

I used to work as a Nanny and take ds (5) with me to work, we used to cycle the 2 miles each way. One road we used to go down was so long and so quiet, ds ended up going over his handle bars and smashing full face first into the tarmac (he had a helmet) when I stopped I just grabbed him and was crying, he was crying, there was so much blood, but then there was this elderly man, no idea where he came from, he was so calming and was supplied with so much tissue! He just kept handing me more and more as I cried and comforted ds and tried to clean up as much of the blood as I could.

DS was just about 2 months old and my DM had passed away 2 days previously and husband was working away overseas trying to get home...I was a mess my house was a mess and had totally forgotten Health Visior was coming.

She arrived did her usual checks then asked if I wanted to have a quick shower and wash and dry my hair as she had an hour before her next appointment......by the time I came downstairs she had done a load of washing, done my dishes, sterilised bottles and vaccines (all whilst watching DS).

I broke down in tears thinking she would report me for not coping...she hugged me, told me she was amazed I was standing in the circumstances and it was what she hoped someone would do for her daughter.....i still get a bit teary when I think about it and DS is 7 now.

*vacummed not vaccines!!

When my twins were in nicu after a very traumatic premature birth, the staff were putting awful pressure on me to breastfeed. A student midwife who was on a placement in the ward stopped and spoke to me one day and asked how i was. I opened up to her about it and she told me nobody could make me do it, it was ok to say "no more" and that my mental health was more important. I was on the verge of a breakdown and that wonderful young woman pulled me back from the edge, just by taking a minute to ask how i was.

At Easter a few years ago my DS was only a few months old and we'd had a difficult few weeks, with DS having been very suddenly taken poorly at 4 weeks old requiring emergency surgery and a hospital stay. I was exhausted and struggling to deal with everything that had gone on, as well as getting a hang of being a new mum. The sun was shining and I decided to take DS out for a little walk. I was singing 'You are my sunshine' to him as we walked along and we passed a tiny church. A gentleman was taking a big box of daffodils into the church, presumably for the Easter service. He saw DS and I walking past, grabbed a little bunch of daffodils and gave them to me saying 'They are from the little one for you, to say thank you for being such a lovely mummy'. It was so kind and at a time I was feeling like I was on my knees with stress and exhaustion, and every time I looked at those flowers I got a real boost.

I was heavily pregnant (about a week before ds was born) and struggling to carry a few bags of shopping the mile from the shop to my house.

It was boiling hot, I was in loads of pain and having to put my shopping down about every four steps so it was taking ages to get home too. All of this had me on the verge of tears.

A man walking in the opposite direction stopped, picked up all of my shopping and carried it home for me, then gave me his unopened water bottle.

I then promptly burst into tears anyway once on the other side of my front door but for an entirely different reason