Acts of kindness

Sally_A

Just bumping this up. It would be a shame if it fell off page 1.

Have always tried to go above and beyond, eg giving old people lifts in icy conditions, returning lost items whenever traceable (still have jewellery and an i-pod that were never claimed), and helping out lost people (loads of those in Bath) to the extent of driving them to where they want to go, or letting them follow me around the one way system.

Am off to the shops in a mo, will try to do a good deed, even if it is only getting an item from the top shelf for a shortie.:)

ClootiesMum

Talk about bringing a tear to my eye - but Karma does exist - honest.

When DH had been rushed into hospital several years ago he was still in on Christmas Eve & we didn't think he was getting out in time for Christmas - there were several work aquaintances who offered for me to visit the hospital & then go to have my Christmas lunch with them & their families before going back to the hospital. My faith in humanity had been restored (I declined them all but expressed how grateful I was for the offer & in the event DH got out @ 6pm Christmas Eve & was taken back in on the 27th)

But it's the little things - I was down the street the other day & an elderly gent with a stick & a bit unsteady on his feet was trying to pick up his ATM receipt that he had dropped - I couldn't believe that people were walking passed him.....I did pick it up for him.

And the best one to convince DH of Karma - we were on holiday & had taken a 3 hour parking ticket - 30 mins later we were leaving so put it back on the machine. A family sitting in a car eating HM sarnies with their own juice (made me think of a DFW or MSE family) got the ticket & waved a thanks. An hour later we went to another car park in another town & a woman pulled out her parking space in a full car park to give us the space & gave us her all day ticket to use.

Needless to say - we passed on when we left.

linz

My mum was behind a student in the queue at Kwik Save years ago. She saw him counting up his coppers to pay for his lunch and insisted on paying for his lunch herself.

I was driving home on the M6 toll road when it first opened and only cost £1. I paid for myself and gave £1 extra for the car behind.

Always try and give car parking tickets with time left on them to someone else.

I was shopping in Aldi a few weeks ago and found a folded up £10 on the floor. I handed it in to the assistant manager as I had visions of it belonging to a pensioner or a single parent who wouldn't be able to pay for their food. I just hope the woman I gave it to didn't pocket it.

My mum had been Christmas shopping years ago and she'd bought a set of women's dumbells which were for me . She didn't expect them to be so heavy and was struggling to get them back to the car. She offered a busker £5 to carry them to the car for her but he said he couldn't leave his dog. Oh well, the offer was there I s'pose!

Johnmcl7

The one that sticks in my mind is from a few years back when I'd had a fairly rough year with my bike stolen, several attempts to break into the car and as a finale someone smashed into the flat (as in broke the doors down which were heavy fire doors with a fire axe) and tore the place apart. You don't realise how hard these things hit you mentally until it happens so the following year I was just absolutely paranoid about the flat being broken into again or being mugged and having my phone stolen which the news headlines were warning about. I received a call from one of my parents to say I'd dropped my phone on the way to work which despite normally being very careful with my phones I hadn't even noticed. Someone had picked it up then phoned through family members until they had found someone, I went and picked it up thanking the person very much for it. It doesn't sound like much but it really lifted my mood that someone had found a fairly fancy new phone and immediately tried to track down the owner after having been subjected to the various thefts before.

There was one I saw on a digital camera forum where a young mum who had been very active posting photographs was selling up her equipment as she couldn't afford it any more despite enjoying it. Several of the forum members all organised to bid and win her items on ebay then messaged her to explain they didn't want her to lose her camera and lenses so telling her to keep the money and keep the equipment so she could carry on taking pictures.

I always try to help out others when I can in the hope someone will help me if I need it, it's good to see many other people feel the same.

John

Vince_Venison

Sally_A wrote: »

Just bumping this up. It would be a shame if it fell off page 1.

Have always tried to go above and beyond, eg giving old people lifts in icy conditions, returning lost items whenever traceable (still have jewellery and an i-pod that were never claimed), and helping out lost people (loads of those in Bath) to the extent of driving them to where they want to go, or letting them follow me around the one way system.

Am off to the shops in a mo, will try to do a good deed, even if it is only getting an item from the top shelf for a shortie.:)

As a shortie, I am very grateful to people like you!! Please keep up the good work; we vertically-challenged people apppreciate it!

Sally_A

Depends what you want off the top shelf Vince

charlies_mum

A few years ago we took my Mum and Dad out for Mother's Day lunch. The pub / restaurant was under new ownership, and when we arrived the landlord said his drinks licence hadn't come through so we could have whatever drinks we wanted, but he wouldn't be able to charge for them.

We had a few drinks (some people were going to town and ordering wine etc), and when we left, we gave him what we thought the drinks should have cost as a tip.

Apparently, we were the only people who paid

olivia84

this is such a nice thread! makes me feel all warm and fuzzy! a few posts show how we shouldn't judge people on appearences. many years ago when i was about 14, my mum was driving me to school in our old battered orion. it had been snowing and the roads were a nightmare with all the slush and lo and behold my mum got us stuck trying to get up the hill near the school in front of about 100 4th years walking up the hill! i did my usual kevin and perry stroppiness about how embarrassed i was and how i would get such a ribbing from folk in my year and sat in the front seat wanting to fade away when about four 14 year old boys got behind the car and got us going again - i was so surprised as most of the boys in my year were not the good samaratin type! but it does make you think twice about people x

determined_new_ms

aw what a lovely thread - clearly these types of threads are very in vogue at the moment on MSE! Its taken me yesterday & this morning to read through!

I guess even though times were very hard up for me for many year - luckily now my luck has changed in respect of finances - I have been very blessed & helped out by many ppl. My ex-mil always used to call round on a Friday with a bag of food as she knew how hard up I was. Likewise I met one of my best friends on a snowy day, I needed to go into town with 2 babes in a pushchair & clearly not dressed for the weather. She offered me a lift and we became friends. She always helped me out by inviting me for dinner thursday through to Sunday, gave me food & encouragement, was my childminder so I could go to college & then uni. so many people were kind & helped me.

In return I have done nice things for people - it doesn't hurt or cost anything does it? a homeless man once knocked on my door and asked if I could spare something to eat as he had walked from cornwall to where we lived in the far south east. My and my son asked him to wait & made him a cheese sandwich and an apple. I gave a woman I worked with (I worked with vulnerable families) the last £400 she needed for a 3 month month deposit she needed to raise to secure a family home - unscrupelous letting agents made her give 3 mnths rent in advance as she was on benefits. By hook or by crook she raised almost all of it - we wrote to magazines & the Sun newspaper (captain crunch!) tellin her story which was so sad but the last £400 was beyond her. It really went beyond what I should have done and I would have been in trouble had my boss known by she was such a lovely woman & mother & had been through so much. I was prepared that I might not get it back but several months later she faithfully paid me back.

where I work there was a break in & a member of my staff & one of the clients had their bikes stolen. The bike was the clients lifeline and it was a crushing blow. My company was insured for the staff's possession, so my colleague claimed on the insurance & bought the client a really nice bike.

shabby_chic2011

After blubbing my eyes out after a marathon read of this thread and the others MSE posted on I felt I had to repost mine (apologies for the length):

A few years back I'd managed to get myself a job in central London and was commuting daily from rural Norfolk and never seemed to have any money for anything as I was on a very low wage but i loved my job so .... Anyway, late one Sunday night I was on the motorway and a foreign driver swerved into my lane (low speed) and smacked into the side of my car. I remember hitting my head but i was more shocked than anything and it was gone midnight, pitch black and i had to get home, sleep and get to the train station for 0525 in the morning to get to work so after a mild panic I got back in my car and finished the journey home. I felt a bit groggy the next morning but slept on the train in to London while the lovely people i saw every day on my route watched my belongings. After a few hours in the office I was really struggling so my boss asked what was wrong and told me to get to hospital asap. They were going to send one of the chappies with me but (being a tough country girl) I said no, I'd make it on my own and call them when I arrived.

Long story short, I didn't know London, I'd gone by NHS online saying the nearest hospital with an A&E unit - headed there, literally wobbling all over the path by the time i got out of the tube station, totally lost, crying my eyes out feeling more than a little scared as my sight was going fuzzy when a very well dressed elderly mother and daughter came up to me and asked if i was ok so i told them i was trying to get to an A&E ... they explained the hospital i'd been trying to get to only dealt with eye problems and that they'd get me a taxi to the next nearest at which point i know i don't have enough money to pay for it so attempted to walk away professing my gratitude for their advice and that i'd make it there on my own. Well they hooked me under an elbow each, hailed a taxi (who wouldn't accept any payment for it anyway), came with me to the hospital, took my purse and used the details to log me in telling the staff what i'd told them before, took my phone and called my work and mum to tell them what had happened and stayed with me until somebody from work arrived to stay with me. I've never needed help as much as i did then and i will be eternally grateful to them for the rest of my life, god knows what may have happened otherwise. (Turned out I had very severe concussion and should have gone to hospital the night before when i had the accident).

The chances of them reading this are slim I imagine but they didn't leave me any contact details, all I can vaguely remember is saying how lovely their clothes were and they said they ran a boutique tailors shop in central london. I think of them often whenever i do a 'good deed'.


I'm a firm believer it comes around, I always pass on my car parking tickets, always pick things up if anybody's dropped anything, I volunteer for numerous organisations in poorer areas with sports coaching, reading /maths help, help with CV's, job applications, uni applications etc. always pick up people at bus stops if i'm going on the bus route as i remember being that person waiting for a bus that would rarely turn up, cooking extra so i can pass on frozen extra's when there's somebody in need...anything i can do really. I don't begrudge anybody a second of my time, I truly believe good karma comes round in whichever form - as a 10 year old i remember being in the car with my brother following a lorry in horrific weather conditions and a car on the other side flashed it's lights at my mum and she slowed right down wondering what it was about and literally as she did that the lorry swerved across the road and overturned back towards us - had my mum not slowed to look for deer/etc our car would be underneath that lorry.


Big huge to everybody else out there showing faith in humanity - while some people may not appreciate it, there's a lot of us out there who never forget a good deed