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?

The retired couple who live in a bungalow near us. My DD(4) was skipping down the path and fell, skidded and basically took the skin of both knees. It was that one time where I had no tissue, wet wipes, nothing!
I was ladened with shopping bags so struggling to carry her. An older man came out of his bungalow obviously to investigate the screaming, bloody snot faced child. He said ' I'll get my wife' ran in and the next thing we are sitting in a strangers kitchen. The lady cleaned and dressed the DD's knees whilst her husband put on a little puppet show with tea towels to calm her down. He drew smiley faces on her plasters.
When someone is selfless like that, it inspires you to be a better person, such a simple kind act to another person can really make your day.

A few years ago when I was having a stressful day with young kids was walking back from school and middle one was singing (I hadn't actually noticed she was singing) and an old lady came up to me and said 'children who sing are happy children' it was such a pat on the back after a tough day

The lovely lady on the bus who when DD was having a 6 year old strop because she didn't want to do her school reading book and 10 week old ds was screaming blue murder patted me on the shoulder and told me I was doing brilliantly and everyone had bad mornings then turned round to dd and said very firmly "well littlelistsandbudgets if you don't want to read it to your mum why don't you read it to me, I love stories"... and dd meek as anything did exactly that.. and ds went to sleep and I sat in a daze for the rest of the journey. She turned out to be a reception teacher.

Never saw her again. Often looked for her. Sometimes wonder if she was a guardian angel sent to me that morning never to be seen again...maybe even today shes on another bus calming another tormented mother

Also have rather fond memories of the lovely couple and the man from the waterboard who all stopped to help when DS managed to get his leg stuck in a cattle grid... I was in pieces to be honest but luckily for us couple were on their way home from shops and 3/4 of a bottle of cooking oil later DS's was lifted from cattle grid by strong man from waterboard!

Never knew who any of them where and occasionally have guilty feeling I owe some unknown strangers a bottle of oil!

I was at the airport checking in for my flight home from visiting my then DP who lived in a different country at the time, very sick and deep down I knew the relationship was soon to end. I was trying to hold it together but was not doing a good job.

A young woman kept catching my eye and smiling which helped calm me a little but I was still a wreck. The check in clerk was kind and said she would seat me on a row with just two seats so I could get some rest.

When I boarded the plane, the smiling girl was sat next to me! I’m sure the check in clerk had something to do with it.

Smiling girl had also just left her partner behind whilst she returned to London to study. We’ve stayed in touch for over a decade. She married her DP, I met someone else and we visit them every couple of years.

I am so grateful to that check in clerk and my dear smiling friend.

a little puppet show with tea towels
This has pushed me over the edge!! I love this thread!!

"A puppet show withteatowels" oh that did me in 😢

This is the loveliest thread I've read in a long, long time.

I can think of two occasions when strangers have been absolutely golden.

The first was when I was in hospital. My children were 4 and 1 and I was rushed in and looked like being in for a week or two (it ended up being two weeks) and I was distraught. I was admitted to the ward and sat sobbing in the bed. I was missing my kids and I knew that being in hospital was causing a HUGE disruption to my little family. The doctor came around with some students doctors, all very matter of fact and professional. An hour or two later one of the students appeared at my bedside and sat down. He'd noticed how upset I was so came to try and cheer me up once his shift had ended, he spent quite a while there just chatting...about families, about music, about anything really and I thought it was so thoughtful of him to do that after a long and stressful day working.

Same hospital but last year. The one year old mentioned above was by then 17 and needed surgery, quite major surgery and we were told to expect him to be in for a couple of days afterwards. Being 17 he was on an adult ward, it was his first time in hospital and the staff were so good with him and with us, they allowed us to be there earlier and let us stay after visiting had ended as there was a complication and his stay was a bit longer than expected and without a word from us they'd bring us sandwiches, crisps, tea and loads of biscuits.

This is a hospital that has a very very poor reputation but we've always found the care to be brilliant.

A lady in lidl behind me in the queue very recently who helped me pack my shopping at the till as I was carrying baby dd and had my two crazy boys with me, I had not planned to pick up so many things or would've gotten a trolley! She helped me pack and was lovely. I was very grateful.

DS1 threw the most spectacular 3 year old’s tantrum in the centre of town. I was 8 months pregnant and DH was at work. I spent 30 minutes trying to deal with DS1 (scratches all the way up both arms as I tried to carry him and failed). I was pretty close to breaking point by the time we got to the supermarket but there was nothing at home for lunch.

An older couple stopped to help me mamhandle a screaming banshee of DS1 into the trolley. ‘Oh, don’t worry dear, they all do it sometimes.’ Loved them so much for their help. Then another older lady meandered over to tell me she was glad I was ok now (DS1 had calmed eventually) and that I had been doing an amazing job dealing with him. Made me feel much better.

I should add that nobody tutted or was rude throughout the ordeal, which I was grateful for too!

DeLurking not sure if it wad a typo but 'mamhandle' made me smile.

Mamhandle - to try and pick up a trantruming toddler and not lose your temper 😁

I went on a long coach journey to Venice, a day trip whilst on holiday. I was sick on the coach, then on the boat to the harbour. I sat with my head in my arms at a little cafe table, while DH tried to find a pharmacy. A lady who had been watching from her balcony touched me gently on the arm, and said "You are English? You are not well? " As DH returned, she was helping me into her lovely little apartment , where she put me to bed, and I slept for two hours, then had a cup of fruit tea, while DH explored Venice on his own! She was called Brigitta, and I'll never ever forget her.

I used to waitress at a cafe in Soho, and we had our fair share of the local loonies come in for a can of coke and a bag of chips. One very busy evening an aggressive drunk homeless man started shouting abuse at me over the counter when I (really really carefully) turned him down after he asked me on a date. He was mid fifties and I was twenty. He called me horrid names and I had to step outside to breathe and hold back tears. The cafe was heaving and I had no other waitresses to help. A lady stepped away from her husband and her meal and came outside to give me a hug and tell me to forget all about it, and that his words didn't mean anything. She kept an eye on me the whole time she was there and I felt so reassured by her presence. It made a massive difference to me, especially as the (male) chefs on duty didn't intervene at all and I felt really nervous that this guy would come back in and kick off again.

When my first DS was 4 weeks old we had to fly from Adelaide to Sydney, as we were moving house. (DH was driving)

I was so nervous about taking the baby on the plane, but when I got on, I was sitting next to a friendly but nervous looking woman. She told me she had never flown before (!) but she had 6 children and was on her way to see her first grandchild. I had flown loads of times, but never had a baby, so I talked her through the various noises (that’s the wheels going up etc) and she held my tiny baby, which distracted her and made me feel better (he slept basically the whole way).

So we were each the others saviour on that journey!

Another one - my friend and I were on the greyhound bus from Niagara to New York. My friend got chatting to a group of (honestly fairly dodgy looking) men for ages.

It turned out they had all just been released from prison and were heading home. Anyway, when we, freshfaced 19 year olds, arrived in NY, these men walked us out of the terminal, into the taxi rank, told us which areas to avoid, and were absolutely lovely. Learnt a good lesson there not to judge by how people look.

An elderly man who offered to mend my pushchair after a wheel came off in the drs surgery randomly. He lived on my street but we had never met,he fixed it and wouldn't accept my offer of payment

The man who, when I turned to him in the post office queue at 5 months pregnant on a hot day and said "I think I'm going to faint", said "I think you are", and presumably caught me. I came round on a chair behind the counter.

The school bus driver when I was 11. At that age I was so shy and I’d got on the bus and realised I’d left my bag at the bus stop. I panicked and ran downstairs to tell the driver. He stopped the bus, smiled and winked at me and said ‘can you run fast’? And he waited while I went to get it. He was just so nice to this scared 11 year old.

I never met the lady but I'll never forget her.

My daughter was a new mum and living 4 hours away from me. One day she managed to get to the mall to do a small food shop. It was going well so she decided afterwards to have a coffee and feed the baby. As it happens the baby was unsettled and the coffee got told but a lovely lady had been watching and when my girl put her coffee down the woman appeared at her side with another coffee for her. But not only that she said to my daughter you sit here and have a rest and Im going to look after your baby for 15 minutes - I'll be sitting at the next table. My daughter was so tired she handed over the baby and the lovely lady sat at the next table and soothed my granddaughter to sleep.

My daughter told the lady I'll never be able to thank you enough and the lady said to her - there's no need to thank me, just dont ever forget by always helping another mum out.

My daughter has never forgotten and her and despite the fact I didnt meet the woman I'll never forget her either for the care she gave to my daughter and granddaughter when they were far away from me.

Im actually really fortunate when it comes to kindness from others and there have been countless strangers who've touched my life via my now adult son who is severely disabled. One of them was a woman who sat at a table next to us in a hotel and enjoyed my sons happiness about being in EuroDisney as much as I did. She wouldn't leave till we left and on the way out she said to me - Ive just experienced a joyful heart in the purest sense for the first time in a very long time. Thank you.

Could this thread go in Classics. Its just so lovely.

When I was about 15me and a friend ended up in a dodgy part of Manchester ( mosside) where we had been very firmly told by her parents we were NoT to go.
This was at a time where Mosside was pretty notorious and there were Black anti police riots and all sorts going on
We came out of a club at around 2 and couldn’t find a taxi, we found a phone box ( pre mobiles) but couldnt persuade a taxi to come to that area
A car full of men(white) pulled up and offered us a lift, obviously we said no but didn’t know what to do or how to get home and they were getting persistent.Then another car pulled up and a group of black men got out. They told the other car full of men to leave right now as they were on their “patch” and if they didn’t 2 more cars of their friends would arrive soon.
We were absolutely terrified but as the car left one of the Men turned to us and said “ little girls, what are you doing?” In a very kind voice
We tearfully explained and he said we had to phone our friends Dad for a lift right now and while he might be cross he would be glad we were safe. We did and the men waited until friends Dad turned up and left.
We got the mother of all bollockngs and were grounded but I’m really grateful for those men who rescued a pair of silly little Mc girls who thought they were cool but were totally out of their depth

I had one just the other day. Was walking along a paved path by a lake when I suddenly realised the path had become the top of a wall and it was quite a jump down to the proper path below. DH and DC bumbling along on path below me, squinting up at me wondering what I'd do. Out of nowhere this elderly man appeared and just held up his hand to me. I jumped down, we smiled and he walked off. Just a lovely helping hand out of nowhere.

About 10 years ago I was just about to pick my two children up from school when i discovered our beloved family cat had been run over. He was lying at the bottom of the drive and not a pretty sight - his head was all covered in blood.

I was obviously very upset and panicking because i couldn't be late for DCs but didn't want them to see him like that.

Family down the road were moving out that day and the woman said i'll pop him in one of our boxes. Turns out she was a vet nurse and had a strong stomach.

So on the walk home i had to explain what had happened, cue lots of tears. When i saw her she said she'd cleaned him up in case they wanted to see him. My eldest did and she had laid him on a towel in the box and there was no trace of blood (i think she even realigned his jaw).

We buried him in the towel.

What an unbelievably lovely thing to do especially on a busy day. It was a shame she was moving out that day.

Not a stranger but the triage nurse was very kind to me today I went with a sore eye and ended up breaking down about my menopause there was snot and sobs I ended up coming away with a hug and HRT