Acts of kindness

purpleweasel

I was brought up to hold open doors etc so i do it on auto-pilot rather than as an act of kindness (but it's still nice to be thanked!). After hearing of my sister's struggles when heavily pregnant and rarely offered a seat on the train i always try & keep an eye out for anyone who ought to have mine. Someone said "if i've paid for a seat i have the same rights as she does, even if she is pregnant!" which i thought was a shame - rights yes but needs, not necessarily!

Once found a fiver on the floor in my local butchers' and handed it over the counter. OH thought i was daft but i thought what if the person really needed it? The butcher (honest bloke) said if no-one came back for it he would put it in the charity box.

Once saw an old bloke looking exhausted and quite frail at the entrance to the hospital car park. Turned out he had underestimated the distance to the main entrance (and i think overestimated his strength). Stood undecided for a minute as i didn't want to compromise his dignity but could bear to see him struggle so went over and offered to fetch him a chair. He was a bit reluctant to accept help but when he heard how far away the dept he was headed to was, he gave in, with relief.

I think the hardest part can be judging how much help someone will accept without offence - many older people especially have been brought up to not accept "charity" - but it's so nice to see how many people are willing to offer anyway. Do you think gracious acceptance is almost as hard as gracious offering?

immoral_angeluk

Quick update on the plight of Hospital bear, has a card left by Royal Mail today addressed to my daughter, so looks like he's home! Going to pick her up from nursery soon and take her to the post office so she can pick him up herself

Gettingtherequickly

Years ago, I used to be in St John Ambulance and we had a call from the local hospice asking if it would be possible for us to take someone to a wedding, the patient was on oxygen and would require carrying to & from the ambulance. They also said that he was quite ill and would only be able to stay for about 2 hours max.

My colleague & I duly picked him us from his home and took him off to the wedding, he spoke very little English so you can imagine our surprise when we discovered that he was the father of the bride and if the hospice had not asked if we could take him, he would not have been able to walk (or in his case wheel) up the aisle with his daughter. Some of the family asked us for our phone number so that they could contact us when he was ready to go home and we said that it wasn't a problem, we were going to sit in the ambulance and they could just come down whenever they were ready. Big mistake! There was a frantic laying of extra places and 2 guests of honour because they were so grateful that we were prepared to wait for the couple of hours. I got to dance with the groom and my colleague with the bride ( we must have looked ever so suave in our uniforms!) and we got a chance to speak to them, the wedding had been brought forward because of dad's illness, so while they may not have had they wedding of their dreams, they did have dad there.

How did dad get on that evening? Well, I eventually got home 9 hours later! But dad had a wonderful time, was obviously very tired, but because he knew we were there, he was able to relax and stay for as long as he could.

Everhopeful09

Am loving this thread! when I first started my MSE Journey I had virtually no food and would eat porridge for tea, my mate said he would keep an eye on the flat whilst I was away for a week. Came back to find a freezer full of food and other basics I didn't have with a little note saying if I ever repaid him he wouldn't be happy, he wanted to help me out! That did make me cry and I was well fed for a month : ). Now luckily the cupboards are full.

I always try to do random acts of kindness, however small it might make their day/week and realise that people do care, even completely strangers. Treat people how you wish to be treated.

EH xx

immoral_angeluk

Another update!! We just picked up Kaitlyn's parcel from the post office. I'm so touched I had to share it.

http://yfrog.com/h8yl4wbj
http://yfrog.com/nwu84j
yfrog.com/o034btgj


Not only did K get Hospital bear back, but he came in tow with an extra furry friend, a little lego spaceman, a little bag with writing pad and penciland a pack of glow in the dark stars.

It's taking all my strength not to cry!

Feline2001

immoral_angeluk wrote: »

Another update!! We just picked up Kaitlyn's parcel from the post office. I'm so touched I had to share it.

http://yfrog.com/h8yl4wbj
http://yfrog.com/nwu84j
yfrog.com/o034btgj


Not only did K get Hospital bear back, but he came in tow with an extra furry friend, a little lego spaceman, a little bag with writing pad and penciland a pack of glow in the dark stars.

It's taking all my strength not to cry!

Awwww - that is just soooo sweet!!!!
Am loving this whole thread - but that last post made me smile sooo much!

Oregon

Ok, I've got a story to contribute now

Last Thursday I was reading this thread and it was making me cry because 1) there were some really lovely stories and 2) it made me realise that some people out there are SO lovely so how comes I'm not friends with them instead of mine... Hmm

I posted something to that effect and then stopped reading the post as it was making me sadder and sadder

Today i posted on a different thread, just to have someone ask had I checked this one recently as there was a special message here for me

Have just read it and am crying again now! I need to toughen up eh?!?

So yes, I do believe that good people do random good things for strangers. Thank you so much ) Tomorrow I will go out of my way to do 2 good things for 2 strangers

X

Deep_In_Debt

Many years ago when my brother was living in the US, mum and I went out to stay with him in Connecticut. We were flying to Boston and hiring a car and driving down.

Anyway, there was a problem with the flight shortly after take off and we had to land again at Heathrow. As we were waiting at the airport we got chatting to an elderly gentleman who was on the flight as he was going to his granddaughter's wedding in Connecticut about an hour away from where my brother lived. When we eventually landed in Boston about 12 hours late, we saw the man again at the airport in a total panic as he had missed his train to the small town in Connecticut due to the flight delay and the next train would make him late for the wedding.

We approached him and said we were hiring a car and were heading in his direction and he could come with us if he liked. He protested and said we would be going about an hour out of our way but we were happy to do it. Luckily, we got him there in time despite hideous Friday evening rush hour traffic. He insisted on giving us money for petrol but we refused.

At some point we must have told him where we were staying as 3 days later a big bunch of flowers turned up with a note saying thanks to us, he had a great day and the wedding went well.

The next day we found $50 dollars in a rear seat pocket where he had been sitting. We regret that we never took his address so that we could return the money and thank him for the flowers.

Radders4

I've loved reading this thread and have a big pile of screwed up tissues to prove it. Am a big believer in karma, or you reap what you sow; events and happenings in my life prove this again and again.

Think that I'll be subscribing to this thread, and working extra hard at "paying it forward"...

Kath

AnW'sMum

Wow what a thread great to see so many people helping and being helped.

Two random acts spring to mind for us:

My DH died just over 5 years ago leaving my and our children aged 6 and 3 at the time. On the 1st anniversary of DH's death I received a card with a ticket for Alton towers and a note which said 'From someone who still cares about your happiness' . There were no clues to the identity of the person who sent this and I did not recognise the hand writing either so was unalbe to say thank you. I mentioned this to lots of people who had helped us in various ways that year in the hope that our appreciation reached the donor.

The second was whilst we were on holiday recently. We went to The Royal Signals Museum at Blandford Forum which we had been to with DH some years ago. As this is on an active MOD camp I had to produce ID. When asked if we had been before I said yes and was given a security pass with a copy of the picture of me holding our son (18 months old at the time) which was taken on our first visit. The officer told us that from their records it was 7 years almost to the day since we had last been. Our daugther was on a picture with DH which of course we did not need on this visit as he had passed away.

When we got to the museum I showed my pass and our daughter told the lady that we had not got her picture as she was on Daddy's pass which was not needed as he is no longer with us. The lady said what a pity and she would see if there was anything she could do. We then went into the museum and started wandering around. Quite a while later the lady came and found us and gave us a copy of both pictures that were on the passes (the passes have to be handed in at the end of your visit). I was so touched that she had a) tried and b) had been successful in getting the pictures that I burst into tears of gratitude! We had had a great time there but that kindness topped the day off for us