Has a random act of kindness stayed in your memory forever?

[CrushWithEyeliner]

Once when I was 21 I was on the tube going home after work when I suddenly felt really really awful and had to get off the train. I wandered up to the ticket barrier when a guard saw me and asked me if I was OK. I was feeling so faint I couldn't even talk I just said I felt sick. He then took me into the back room where he and his colleagues made me sweet tea, toast and talked to me for ages until I felt better then called me a cab home, they were really concerned.

I know it sounds really silly but I have never forgotten how sweet they were to me and how much better I felt for it and it was so long ago and such a little thing - does anyone have any similar experiences?

LAtest one - which I'm sure will stick in my mind forever happened today - complete stranger handed me a folded up £10 on the bus as I was heading back to my DB's with the DS's. Told me to treat the Ds's with something tomorrow as they were so good - and then got off the bus and disappeared into the commuter crowd before I could say/do anything.

Up until then I had EXACTLY the right amount of money to be able to do the planned stuff with the DS's tomorrow and Friday and a small amount to spend on Friday night - I can now go out on Friday (first time in a LONG time) and actually enjoy myself instead of counting the pennies

This thread is fab

Mine relates to our very own Marslady, who e-mailed me her number so I could phone up for a chat when I was having nasty "is it or isn't it" contractions at 32 weeks . She also talked to me about my worries over VBAC vs elective C-section.

I thought it was fab, that someone who was, to all intents and purposes, just a nickname on a computer screen would take time out of her very busy schedule to put my mind at rest.

It makes me happy to be part of the MN community.

Then of course there were the 3 MN'ers - one was UCM, the others shall remain un-named who at various points in time have either lent me money - or in the case of the latter two gave me money when things have been tight. They know who they are and I'm very grateful.

oh, jamescagney, you've reminded me of when I wrote off my sister's car and had to sit in a hotel in Brompton-on-Swale on a dark, wet September night with all my luggage around about me waiting for the bloke I was visiting in Leeds for the weekend (now my DH ) to come and pick me up.

The regulars in the hotel took me under their wing and fed me brandy (for the shock) and kept me laughing and from dwelling on a very scary experience till DH arrived.

I did a walk for Breakthrough Breast Cancer in China (through the Gobi Desert). On the last day of treking I was exhausted and hot, as we finished the walk we entered a very poor village. A young boy quickly chnaged into a suit and asked all to come in and share some tea. He was really proud of his home (which was a stone bed in which he, his mother and siblings slept). He oftered us food and tea and he clearly had nothing, really, nothing. He was so concerned for our welfare. That boy absolutely blew me away with his kindness.

We were told not to offer any money as it would be an insult, so i just gave my toiletries and choc bars and hair bands to his little sisters.

Driving home one night past a Stud farm near Newmarket the White Van in front hit a Horse and stopped dead. Luckily I managed to stop in time so I did not hit him but the sight of that poor Horse(Polo Pony as it turned out, 2 had been let out by some kids thinking it was fun) was dreadful. The locals were out straight away and one couple in particular were fantastic and had given out cups of tea and coffee to those sat waiting to move. I had sat in my car with the lights on and engine off - giving light to the Police as they sorted out the crash. When they told me to go around my engine would not start. Lo and behold they did not have time to push start me

The couple I mentioned earlier found me and invited me back to theirs whilst I waited for the RAC. They were a bit tipsy as they had been in the Pub when the accident happenned but they were so kind and friendly.

I remember them everytime I drive past.

Whar a lovely lot of stories there are on here - some major but many minor acts of real kindness. Also, faced with desperation these acts of kindmess are so appreciated and as we can see here can completely change the way of thinking by the recipient.

I was 26, fell asleep on the last train home from London and ended up miles away from where I lived. I was in tears on Swindon station and the guard took me into his cabin, gave me tea and biscuits, found me some magazines, let me use his phone and then an hour later walked me to where my rather cross Dad was waiting to take me home. I have never forgotten that lovely man and my Mum sent him a little thank you note addressed to "the guard who looked after my scatty daughter last Saturday night". I hope it got to him.

I was travelling back from visitng my pen firend in the SOuth of Farnce aged 17. Carrying my heavy bag across Paris between Gard du Nord and Gard de Lyon, I tripped and fell dwon some stairs in the metro, sparining my ankle. I had a whole day in Paris, and after putting my bags in left luggage, then tried to hobble about and visit the Louvre. I was in so much pain that I didn't get much further than the the arches of the Louvre - I hadn't realsied it was so large. I birst into tears and a nice gendarme took pity on me. He sat me dwon, called the Police Secours and then came with me to the loca hospital, where they x-rayed my foot. I wandered out of the hpsital and discovered I was in the square beside Notre Dame.

I remember that every time I vist Paris - as we always go to a wee a wee cafe just beside Notre Dame and I think how most people wouldn't even know there was a hosptial there.

Ths thread has really got me thinking: it is a bit like that film "Pay it forward" and reminds me that I should really be doing more to pass on my own bit of karma. It is usually constrained to offering people small amounts of change when they are struggling to find the money at a checkout.

I have remembered another (embarassing) incident about a RAOK . Dh (dp at the time) and I were staying at a resort just north of Mombasa. We deciced to be brave and go for a meal in the evening in Mombasa. We had had our meal and were trying to catch a matatu (minibus) back to the resort in the dark. This guy kept on bugging us as we waited and we kept on shooing him away, saying we weren't interested. At the same time we were despairing of catching the matatu, as they all appeared tob e full. Eventually he got us to answer the question about where we were going, at which point he was able to tell us "Well, you don't wait here, you need to wait down there"

I was heavily pregnant with DS and had DD (20 months) in the car asleep . I had gone to the tip to drop off some junk and then was taking the car to the garage to get my exhaust fixed as it was a bit loose. While I was there though I noticed that my "loose" exhaust was actually hanging off! I was getting all flustered and stressed out and two lovely men (who were also dropping off stuff at the tip) came to my rescue. They went to find someone at the tip to get tools and were soon on the floor under my car trying to temporarily fix the exhaust. When they found they couldn't, the bloke at the tip who had come over brought out some string and they managed to string the exhaust up so it wasn't dragging on the road while I drove to the garage. They were so lovely and helpful - it was great. I was almost in tears, I was so relieved.

My exhaust dropped partially off one wet evening with 2 small DCs in the car.I got out to see what the noise was and a man came out of his house, got a mat to get down on the road (he was wearing a suit)and look underneath. He managed to pull off the bit that was hanging down and put it in the boot for me to get the short distance home. All in the pouring rain.I was most grateful as I wouldn't have had the strength to pull it off myself.

I slipped over on an icy pavement when I was 6 months pg. A lady and her mum came over to me and got help to lift me (how embarrassing!) What I remember most was how kind, caring and reassuring the mum was to dd who was 3 at the time. Bless her, she was terrified seeing her mum lying prone on the floor. They took us to the nearest cafe and bought us tea and biscuits. I still can't get over just how kind they were to us. I still keep in touch with them.

I'm so grateful to all the people who looked after me when I was pregnant and travelling by Northern line every day. I was a complete mess for the first 3 (and last 3!) months and kept on fainting all over the place. I;m particularly grateful to the guy who helped me at Camden Town when the tube I was on decided to go down the wrong branch of the Northern Line. He got me onto the new train shouted down the carriage to get people to move up and ran a competition to see who would give me their seat first. Lovely man.

What a lovely thread!

Mine was when dd was 1 day old. It was night 2 in hospital and dd just wouldn't stop crying. I fed her and fed her and as soon as I put her down to sleep she'd cry. I was exhauted and this lovely girl came and sat with me at about 2am (she wasn't a midwife) - she helped me latch dd on, she cuddled dd and winded her. She offered to take her awy so that I could get some sleep but I just couldn't let dd go - so she sat by my bedside while I splept with dd on my chest and watched to make sure she didn't roll off. It was only an hour's sleep but I was so grateful. I never saw her again so I was never able to thank her in person.

Don't know whether this qualifies as staying in my mind forever as this only happened about a month ago, but....

1. the Frenchman who risked his life sidestepping down a cliff-face to rescue DH's ski that had fallen off his boot from the chairlift. 2)the other Frenchman who hoisted DD (a hulking great 9 year old) on to his shoulder after he discovered her sobbing at the edge of the piste refusing to ski another inch further, and schussed down to the easy bit with her squealing in glee all the way. (DH and I were on the scene, promise, but with insufficient skills/muscles to do what he did, plus we'd lost patience with her by this time).

What a lovely thread this is.

About 20 years ago I was dragging a heavy bag of belongings along a street in Liverpool with tears streaming down my face (I'd just discovered that my much loved boyfriend had been shagging around). A guy stopped me and insisted on carrying the bag to my street. On the way he put up with my "All men are bastards" rant and just nodded sagely. What a sweetie.

Patsy

Don't know whether this qualifies as staying in my mind forever as this only happened about a month ago, but....

1. the Frenchman who risked his life sidestepping down a cliff-face to rescue DH's ski that had fallen off his boot from the chairlift. 2)the other Frenchman who hoisted DD (a hulking great 9 year old) on to his shoulder after he discovered her sobbing at the edge of the piste refusing to ski another inch further, and schussed down to the easy bit with her squealing in glee all the way. (DH and I were on the scene, promise, but with insufficient skills/muscles to do what he did, plus we'd lost patience with her by this time).

oh califrau he sounds YUMMY

I was on my way to a friend's house and driving along the Fosse Way when my wheel fell off (and bounced over a nearby fence, I hasten to add!), so I was stranded in the middle of no-where on my own. I called the RAC who said they'd be an hour, but actually they took over 3 hours (by which point it was very dark, cold and wet!). I was quite close to a little cottage and a guy came out after about an hour with a cup of coffee, said he'd passed me on his way back from work. We stood and had a chat and he said to come up to his cottage if I needed to get warm. I thought that was a really nice gesture, I didn't know him from adam.

this is going back to when i was at secondary school i was walking home in the rain after some bullys stole my bus fair it was about a mile and a half home , it was chucking it down and i was cold wet and tired a woman was walking towards me and asked if i wanted a day rider ( a bus ticket for £2.50 where you can use it all day on any bus) she must have read my mind she truly was an angel!

I read this thread last night with a lump in my throat - how lovely people can be

The kindness I met with from hospital staff during my brother's illness was always so welcome; I can't fault the many different nurses, doctors, cleaners, porters, techies and other staff who made sure he was treated like a person, not a case, while he was sick. I know he met many more than I did and had a few less happy times, but overall I was really stunned at how people who spend their lives dealing with complex and fraught situations could still find the time to care about patients and their families in such an individual way.

In particular, two things stand out: the first was when Si was first admitted to hospital, when a series of traumatic events culminating in emergency spinal decompression resulted in him being diagnosed with a rare, horrible and difficult to treat cancer. He ended up spending a month in a specialist hospital, having three operations and being told progressively worse news about his disease and prognosis. Obviously this was a massive shock to all of us - he was only in his early thirties and the cancer was a complete bolt from the blue.

Simon's surgical consultant was brilliant but very busy and hardly ever available, physically or emotionally, which is fair enough. But the SpR, Dr Way, despite being attached to this very busy team, always went out of his way to make time for Si, to keep him abreast of all the test results, developments, procedures etc. He always had time to explain things, to sit and have a chat, and I got the sense that he genuinely liked Si (which wasn't hard). When it became clear that the cancer had already spread to Si's lungs, meaning he was Stage 3 at diagnosis and realistically faced a very slim chance of survival even past five years, Dr Way made time to come down and tell him himself, as soon as he knew, and to be there for all of Si's questions and fears. He always had the time. That was so important to all of us, in such a scary situation. And he never made Simon feel like just a fascinating medical case - he was just a person.

The other thing that stands out is less happy, but one of those tiny insignificant moments that actually means so much. My brother died last year after a period of sharp decline, and we all spent his last week camped out around his bed basically waiting for it to happen. He slipped away one morning; my DP went out to tell a member of staff as the rest of us stood sobbing and shocked. A young Australian nurse came in, spoke to us a little bit, and went over to him, and as she checked him over I heard her say "Poor love". It was so clearly a spontaneous expression, not staged for us grieving relatives to hear, but just because she was moved by the sight of him lying in his bed, so reduced and degraded by disease. For some reason it meant a lot to me and still does...that she marked his passing with compassion.

I was trying to park my car in a car park and ended up too close to a concrete pillar. I still hadn't parked properly and I knew that I would damage my car if I moved it any further. I just just sat there in tears not knowing what to do.

A man knocked on the window and told me he could move it. He said it would end up scratched but it had to be moved and he could limit the damage.

What a nice man.