Acts of kindness

flaire

Last Christmas, when the snow cut off my village from the outside world, my next door neighbour's delivery of wood was delayed and she ran out of wood. She's an elderly lady and I offered to fetch her a bag of wood from the village shop. I tramped through the snow, bought the ridiculously heavy bag and started dragging it back.

I had to stop every few meters.

Coming towards me was a young boy (he was about 12) dragging a sledge behind him. As he approached he said 'That looks heavy.' Yes, I replied, it is. 'Would you like to borrow my sledge?' asks the boy. Yes, please, said I.

We turfed the wood onto the sledge and before I could take the reigns of the sledge he began tugging it down the street. We chatted as we walked and when we finally arrived outside my neighbour's house, I thanked the boy and wished him a very Happy Christmas. 'And you,' he said.

It made my Christmas. The ramdom kindnesses of strangers.

f x

(lovely thread btw)

chappers

Many years ago after travelling in India me and three friends arrived at the airport to come home, only to find that we had to pay 750rupees each as an airport departure tax, we had about 200 rupees between us and the airline just wouldn't budge, we were stranded without even the means to make a phone call home and with only a few hours to our flight we had to resort to begging at the front of the airport. Now 3000 rupees is and even then was nothing to us in the grand scheme of things , but to many Indians is a lot of money. Well within an hour to our flight departing we had managed to get together about a quarter of the money and decided to throw ourselves upon the mercy of the airline again, well once again they were having none of it.
At this point an Indian business man in the queue behind us overheard what was going on and kindly gave us the money we needed, When we asked him how we could contact him to pay him back he gave me his business card but told us not to bother. All he said was he hoped we had enjoyed his country.
That wasn't the end of it either, whilst waiting at the baggage carousel we met him again and he asked us where we lived and when we told him he asked how we were going to get home and then promtly pulled out £30 from his wallet and told us to use it for bus fare.
I will never forget the kindness of Mr Bandhu Parekh of the Gujarat Mineral Corporation and twenty years on I still have his business card somewhere, his attitude changed mine, for what I consider to be the better. Before that incident, if I had say found a wallet in the street I would probably have thought it fair game, pocketed the cash and thrown the wallet away . But from that day my attitude changed and many times since then I have helped total strangers out.

Julia4J

Hovel_lady wrote: »

Not sure how to word this but I'll try.

I am having a difficult time at the moment and would just like to say a huge thank you to everyone on the DFW board for being there. Especially the people who have posted in my diary who are helping me through some really painful stuff at the moment.

All the people who post replies on here that help others in difficulty, you are wonderful and the world is a much better place for having you around.
Posting a messge may seem like a small thing but it really is an "Act of kindness" so thank you xx

Dear Hovel Lady, Thought I would just post you to find out how you are doing today. I am so glad to hear that people have been connecting with you 'cos sometimes when going through painful stuff one's first instinct is to not connect with anybody at all. You are very brave to have done so and I do pray that whatever you are going through will not last much longer and that you will become stronger because of it. Could I add one other thing? Just a thought and I could be totally off the wall but I heard a wise woman once say something which has stuck with me and enabled me to get through troubled times more easily and it is: "Unforgiveness is the poison we drink hoping it will make the other person sick." If there is any of that in your life, please meditate on this and seek to release any who have hurt you in any way, please for your own soul's sake? OK? May you start to know increasing blessings.:A

Broomstick

I've remembered some different acts of kindness with huge impact. One was when I was a very young child and a neighbour lent me a descant recorder and a copy of 'The School Recorder Book One' for the summer holidays. I think she must have seen a bright little girl who was bored! Nobody in my family could read music or play an instrument but I was a very good reader and I was able to teach myself to play using these very simple resources. Nearly fifty years later, I still play and I've taught other people's children too. One of my ex-'pupils' is now teaching his own children. At school I was encouraged to take up an orchestral wind instrument based on my recorder-playing ability and that led to years of wonderful classical music making. It also led to playing the penny whistle and lots of folk music... all because of someone lending something quite small.

The other is similar in that, when my son was twelve, his best friend was leaving the country to live abroad and the family were having to declutter a huge amount of stuff. They passed on many books to him and amongst them was a nature one which fired my son's imagination in a way that nothing had done before. He explored the subject deeper and deeper, found experts who would treat him seriously as a child with a passion for the subject, got volunteer work on the strength of it, got paid part-time work on the strength of that, and now in his late teens, has two major national centres interested in employing him (as soon as they can find the funding)... all because someone passed on a book at the right time.

B x

Mojisola

chappers wrote: »

I will never forget the kindness of Mr Bandhu Parekh of the Gujarat Mineral Corporation and twenty years on I still have his business card somewhere, his attitude changed mine, for what I consider to be the better. Before that incident, if I had say found a wallet in the street I would probably have thought it fair game, pocketed the cash and thrown the wallet away . But from that day my attitude changed and many times since then I have helped total strangers out.

This is a lovely thought - all those little random acts of kindness cascading through the population, encouraging those who have been helped to help others.

ghostmadlittlemiss

The strangest thing just happened. I was reading through this thread, thinking that I couldn't think of any particular acts of kindness I could post about, when I decided to go downstairs for a cup of tea. When I got down there, I saw a letter on the doormat. I picked it up, thinking it was strange that only the one letter had arrived when I was expecting a few, and saw there was a note written on the back. Someone just down the road had had the letter put through their door by mistake, had accidentally opened it and had returned it to me. I opened the letter and in it was the copy of my Birth Certificate I was waiting to be returned! I'm guessing that as it arrived without any other post with it that they must've walked around to my house to make sure I got it back! Needless to say, I'll be going for a bunch of flowers later today to thank them. If this thread's taught me one thing, it's that all acts of kindness should be rewarded in some way, no matter how hard up you are. It doesn't have to be with money. If I was staying here, I'd help them out but I'm moving house tomorrow so I can't.
Kayleigh

midnight_sky

just a small act of kindness....
just taken my 6 yr old daughter to the shop.
An old lady dropped a pound on the floor and hadn't noticed so my lil girl picked it up and gave it to her.

When she had finished shopping the ladies husband turned to my daughter gave her a pound and said thats for being honest.

I think that was really sweet of him as he didn't have to do that, anyway like I said a small act of kindness compared to all the lovely stories on here. But still very sweet.

debtfreeby2013

This thread has warmed the cockles of my heart during my lunch break!

A few years ago I had been at a BBQ at a friends house and was a little, lets say, worse for wear!! My friend and I got in a taxi and I had been dropped off first, I got out of the taxi and as I got to my flat realised I had left my keys at my friends house (her 2 year old had been playing with them at one point and I forgot to put them back in my bag) my mobile had run out of battery and I only had £2 in my purse and no more money as it was 2 days before payday. I walked to the main road quite upset and a taxi stopped to see what the matter was, I explained my situation and told him if he could take me to my parents house I could give him the fare plus a very generous tip when we got there, he scoffed and drove off. By this point it was 3am and (mostly because I was very drunk and wandering round Cardiff on my own) I started to get panicky and, essentially, having a panic attack. I found one of the last remaining phone boxes left in the City and phoned my Dad who immediately said he would come and get me. When I put the phone down I was still really panicking and struggling to catch breath and sat on a wall across the road from where I was meeting my dad. A group of about 4 blokes crossed the road to avoid walking past me and then a girl came over who was on her own to see if I was ok. I explained to her what had happened and that my dad was coming so would be ok but she insisted she was staying with me until he arrived and she spent the next 10 mins helping to calm me down. When I spotted my dad I asked her how she was getting home, she said she lived at the top of the hill so was walking, I offered her a lift but she very politely refused and insisted she would be fine (I'm sure the safety issue crossed her mind so I completely understood) I told her I wanted to show her that I had appreciated what she had done for me helping to calm me down and keeping me company to make me feel safer but she insisted she wanted nothing and was just doing what she hoped someone would do for her was she in my position. She truly was my guardian angel and I have never forgotten what she did for me, I only wish I knew SOMETHING about her so I could have sent her flowers or something the following day but instead I just remember it when I feel that the world is all going to hell in a hand basket! It doesn't sound like much but it was exactly what I needed at the time.

cord123

My little brother (well 20 and 6ft 4") went off to Afghan yesterday with thr RE bomb disposal.... on saturday we all went on a night out in fancy dress to send him off in style! He was dressed as clockwork orange and on the back of his shirt I wrote 'Help a Hero, Buy me a drink, will be the last I have for 6 months' the amount of strangers that came up with a beer or a shot for him was amazing... one big group of lads came up and were talking to him saying that he was a good one and they could never do what he was doing and well done etc... I was, and am so proud of him and realised how much people really do respect our armed forces!

Great thread! xx

escortg3

My daughter as a single mother only ever had enough money for bills and nothing left over. For her birthday we had paid for her and a mate to have a holiday abroad. we Babysat.

Anyway. She had little money to go with but that wasnt a worry as it was all inclusive.

On arriving at the airport to come home she discovered that she had left her passport at the hotel. She rang me in tears. I rang the hotel and they arranged to put the passport in a cab and send to airport.

Then she phoned to say cab was there with her passport but she didnt have enough to pay the cab so they wouldnt release her passport. Cab driver had even called the police.

Daughter was crying on phone to me when some ladies interupted and asked my daughter was she was crying. She told them she had no money to pay cab and they very kindly gave her 30 euros.

I asked to speak to them on the phone for there address and would send money but they wouldnt have any of it. Said it was there good deed for the day.

Thankyou kind ladies.

My biggest kind deed was helping an old man that lived on his own. He asked me if i would go to the shop for him. He just said he wanted something to eat. Whilst in his house i had a look to see what he had in the cupboards.

Needless to say shopping cost me £60 as he had nothing to eat at all and he repaid me with a fiver for the shopping. I thanked him but said no keep it for another day. He gave me a big kiss. It made me cry