To ask what's the nicest thing anyone has done for you?

[Pricklypear12]

Inspired by the nice little thread about nice little things...
What is the nicest thing(s) that anyone has ever done for you?
Big or small, I want to hear it all!

This is a small thing but made such a difference to me at a very difficult time. I was under an enormous amount of pressure at work and had a close bereavement plus a parent diagnosed with a serious illness. I was feeling like I might crack under the pressure.

I was dropping my youngest child off at nursery, deep in thought over how I was going to juggle all of the demands coming at me. The mum of one of DS friends was walking towards me, calling my name, with one of the widest, sunniest, most genuine smiles inviting us over to her house.

That smile made me feel so much better about everything and helped me put things in perspective. She is a lovely, kind person and I think she sensed I needed support even though, at the time, I didn't know her well.

I have a few myself and I'll post as I think of them.

Last year, my 1 day old DC1 passed away. The day after her funeral I was visiting her grave with my DH and was in bits. As I was leaving, a lady nearby stopped me and asked "is that a child?" as it could be seen that the grave was a small one. I replied "yes it's my daughter." And broke down. She gave me a hug and said God willing I'd have another child - and a year later I did!

My Mum was diagnosed with cancer and was having daily radiotherapy treatment. Unfortunately my Dad who would normally take her for her appointments was hospitalised due to gallstones so I took over her appointments. She made me stop outside a row of shops one day and disappeared for around 10 mins. When she came back she had a bunch of flowers. The flowers would've been enough (more than enough in fact) but it was the card that got me. It just said, "Thanks for being you". It was so thoughtful of her while she was going through her own traumas. She passed away not long after and I still cherish that card now.

My sister's boyfriend had promised to give me his old phone when he got an upgrade. Instead he gave me the new one. I was absolutely beside myself with joy, being on a sim only contract and hadn't had a new phone in years.

On my wedding day as I was getting ready, our lovely neighbours came round with their fancy camera and took photos and brought a cheerful mood into the house. They then later printed the photos and gave them to us. So kind!

The same neighbours were once taking care of our cat when we were abroad. The cat decided to do a poo on one of the beds (she's highly emotional). The neighbours cleaned it up and even took the bedding back to their house and washed it and then brought it back!

The neighbours were absolutely lovely and caring. I was so sad when they moved house and they also had 2 lovely cats that would wander in and out of ours.

Sitting at my desk at work. I was 20, and my boyfriend of 5 years had ditched me at the weekend.

I was sitting there with tears silently running down my face. Hair down, hoping nobody noticed.

The gorgeous bloke who I sat opposite got up from his desk and came and put a cup of tea on my desk. Never said a word about it, just the cup of tea. Made me feel so much better that someone cared without wanting to ask me about about it or make me talk about it.

My daughter saved my life when she was nearly 3

I had just fled my abusive partner, had a carrier bag of essentials with me and was suffering from two broken ribs and broken nose. A lovely man spotted me hiding in his street and took me into his house where he and his wife asked me to stay at theirs until the council opened in the morning. In the morning they gave me a cup of coffee and £10. I have kept in touch and will be forever grateful for their kindness.

Lovely, lovely thread (and so, so sorry for such a tragedy, @ParkheadParadise ❤️❤️).

One time we had massive building repairs on our house that had caused everything to be covered in brick dust - even the nursery. DS was 3.5 and I was due any day with DD when the repairs finally finished.

DH happened to mention it in passing to newish neighbours across the road... that afternoon they both arrived at our front door with mops, buckets & cleaning equipment and said 'we have 3 hours - where shall we start?'.

We were so, so touched - they did the upstairs whilst we did downstairs, and we became great friends.

Not me but my granny. She had Alzheimer’s and managed to escape out of the house (this was before we sadly had to put her into care). Long story short, she got lost and the police were called to help look for her on this cold December night. She had left without her shoes and jacket. Police eventually managed to find her. An unknown man had given her his fur coat. He left when the ambulance were called and we never got a a chance to say thank you. Such a rare act of kindness and particularly rare for London!

A stranger took me in when I was 17 with nowhere else to go and helped me find a hostel completely selflessly

Shortly after I started dating DP, I caught flu, as I hadn't been able to get an appointment for my flu jab yet. I was so ill.

DP (then, just the bloke I'd been out on a few dates with), popped in to see me for an hour on the Sunday evening. For the next week, he sat with my head in his lap during the day, physically held me up at night so I could breathe, presumably took me to and from the toilet, washed me as I was sweating like a pig and only left me to buy more drinks, get advice from the chemist, as there was no way I'd be able to get to a GP. He also fed the cats, bought them food and cleaned the litter tray.

I sort of woke up properly for the first time on the Friday afternoon, said 'Have you finished work already?'. He answered 'Haven't been in all week. Can you manage some soup?' and held the mug of soup for me to drink from, I fell asleep again and only realised what he'd said somewhere around Sunday teatime.

Despite coming from a family of historical anti vaxxers, he started having an annual flu jab as a result of seeing how ill I was and didn't want to risk me catching anything off him.

A random kindness was a day when I'd just been to my Rheumatology appointment and felt terrible. I went into M&S to get something I could microwave, as there was no way I'd have managed to go anywhere further from the bus stop or cook - I was living alone for the first time and there was literally nobody who knew or cared about me in the world.

My hands and fingers were so swollen, I couldn't get the carrier bag to open as I couldn't grip the plastic at all and was trying to rub the sides together with the heels of my hands.

A very old man - obviously in his 80s - behind me at the till approached, gently took the bag from me and not only opened it, he packed my shopping in two bags to make it less strain on one side to carry - then said 'I understand if you don't feel comfortable, but my car is parked in the disabled space outside, it was set up for my wife to be able to get in and out of it easily and I'm more than happy to drive you home if you wish'.

I almost cried there and then. I saved for once I was home, though.

Sent me a care package of my favourite foods and book while I was stuck in hospital, two people did that for me actually as I was in hospital so long

My lovely optical clinic. I lost my much needed glasses on vacation. I was panicked as I can’t drive without them. Went to a place that did appointments and fitted you for glasses all on the same day. Left with glasses that seemed serviceable but not quite right.

When I arrived home I went to my opticians. I explained the situation and they fitted me for a quick recheck with my regular eye doctor.
The prescription I had been given was incorrect. I told them that I was currently driving 180 miles a day for work reasons.

They understood right away. There was no charge for visit as I had used up my yearly appointment points ( US insurance 😔) They ordered me a quick return lens prescription. They had me pick out new frames ( ones I chose on vacation were cheap and unflattering) and did not charge for those either.

This place has the most lovely, compassionate physician and staff. It made me so happy to know people and places like this still exist.

I was struggling massively with confidence in parenting. My parents were abusive, my grandparents (who took me in) had both died and trying to adjust from having my two girls to having my two girls and DH's DS was so difficult.

DH was widowed when I met him and DS was very young when he lost his Mummy so trying to find a way to balance being a parent to him, but also respectful worried me a lot

DH's MIL (now known to me as my Other-MIL) gave me a card on Mother's Day that contained, among other things, the words "I'm so glad that my Grandson has you as his wonderful Mum. His Mummy would be so pleased too".

She took away a world of worries, and boosted my confidence in one card.

35 weeks pregnant, had split with ex so I was on my own. I went into labour and gave birth within the space of 4 hours. I sent a group text to my friends to announce the birth. One friend realised I had nothing for the baby - we had a big Mothercare shopping trip planned for the following week - so she turned her car around (was on the way to a farm park with her kids) and went and bought me nappies, vests, babygros, wipes, Moses basket - basically everything needed for a newborn. She never accepted any money for it. She visited daily while we were in SCBU. I’ll never forget such incredible kindness when I was so scared and alone.

My husband had just left me after 21 years together and I was in the back of a taxi on my way to the airport, The taxi driver obviously knew there was something wrong with me but said nothing, he let me sit there in silence all the way there. once we got to the airport he got out of the taxi and when I got out he just gave me the biggest bear hug, got back in his car and said "I had a feeling you really needed that" I did.

My best friends husband. He seriously went out of his way one time and bent over backwards to help me when I had a flat tyre. What he did for me that day was amazing and he doesn’t know how grateful I still am to him over 2yrs later!

When my DS was born premature he was in the NICU for a month. I was by his side all day every day and expressing every two hours so I could feed him. I was close to breaking point when a dr spotted me looking down and came to speak to me. He told me he was prescribing me a day off and I was not to come in the next day. I had to spend some time looking after myself and they would look after my boy. I cried on the way home as he was so kind. And it did me the world of good to have some time on my own.

I’m a lecturer, and was going through a bit of a shitty time. I’d mentioned in passing to my main class that my DP had been made redundant, but just as a casual remark when it fitted into something that was being discussed in a tutorial. Over the next few months, without me realising, they gathered bits of information, and as they were leaving to graduate they gave me the most amazing, thoughtful gift. There were vouchers for our favourite restaurant, lovely flowers, treats for our cat, wine, sweets, notebooks with my favourite animal on them, a whole host of things. They had been so subtle and clever, and I was blown away by how kind they were.

Another time I mentioned to a group of students that health and safety had confiscated all the office kettles. The next week I turned up to find a Costa sitting on my desk!

I've got a couple.
When DS1 was in P2, I had treatment for breast cancer. The day after my first chemo, he was sick at school. The school secretary brought him home herself as she knew I wouldn't be feeling great.

At the same time, my mumsnet antenatal group (I was diagnosed when DD was 8 weeks old) sent me the most fantastic care package.

My DSis made the choice to end her life last year. My friends clubbed together and bought me Cook vouchers, and a book of poetry which I used to read Funeral Blues at her funeral.

I was a pizza delivery driver when I was quite young. I had only been driving about 6 months and after doing 60-70 hour weeks at two different jobs I'd saved up enough money to buy myself a lovely new car and it was my absolute pride and joy. I'd had it a couple of months when I was driving home after my shift and a woman pulled out right in front of me driving very fast and crashed into me. I was injured and my car was smashed to pieces - I was absolutely heartbroken as it was obviously a write-off. The woman who had pulled out in front of me didn't really care and I was sat at the side of the road crying at 11pm in the middle of winter having an anxiety attack. A lovely man in a lorry who seemed to have just finished his shift pulled over and stayed with me for an hour. He moved my car out of the road for me, making sure id taken photos of the damage first. He rang the emergency services and calmed me down. He rang my brother to come and pick me up and stayed whilst the police and ambulance attended. He gave me his number and said that as he had witnessed the crash and saw it was not my fault, he would be happy to speak to my insurance company as a witness. Later on I thought of how he had probably had a long day and wanted to get home to his family but took the time to stay with me and help anyway.

I have twins. When they were very little, I was beyond exhausted as they never slept more than 2 hours at a time. My friend secretly arranged with my husband that she drove 200 miles to our house and cared for them while we stopped in a local hotel she had booked for us. Still makes me tear up years later

Not the nicest thing, but just come home from a very blustery dog walk to a bunch of flowers, a hot tea and a doughnut from DH. Very welcome right now!

Little things mean so much :-)

I'd bumped into an old acquaintance who was unwell. I was off work with very poor mental health and we ended up chatting about this at the time. Later that evening she turned up with a home cooked meal including sides of vegetables and bread. It was so thoughtful and so appreciated. She thankfully got well again, and after a while I was much better. At a time when I felt so hopeless she showed me how people can be so helpful.