Acts of kindness

fed_up_and_confused

last year was pretty bad for me - my dad was diagnosed with 2 brain tumours..... one a survivable grade 2 the other a bloomin horrible gonna get you within 6 - 12 months grade 4. my one boss was so supportive .... time off for hospital appointments..... he came to visit my dad at home and without my knowledge at that time assured my dad he would keep an eye on me (ok so i was 44 but i suppose if you are a parent you never stop worrying about your kids!!)

about 2 months before dad died he sent instructions to his solicitor to change his will ( i had given up work to look after him and to ensure that he could stay at home and also that he could die at home surrounded by his horses, dogs and other animals) to make sure that i was "looked after" unfortunately the solicitor thought he knew best and kept trying to persuade dad not to make the changes..... insisted that dad told my sister and mum ....... even though dad did his best to chase him unfortunately the nasty tumour took him before the solicitor had carried out the instructions......

my boss knew dads wishes and talked to me about a possible negligence claim...... came with me to a solicitor who agreed to do the basic work for £1000 to the stage they would decide if there was enough evidence to make a claim..... because i had given up work i had very little money and certainly not a spare £1000. the next time i went into work my boss came into my office and gave me £1000 - i was reduced to tears and told him i could not accept it... he said that in the grand scale of things £1000 was nothing ... but if i won the case against the solicitor i could pay him back.... if not i was to accept it as a gift from him to me and my dad as he knew what dad had wanted.

how lovely was that....

Sally_A

A boss in a million.:T:T

Peanuckle

12 years ago I was married with 3 young children, my husband had severe mental health problems and a mean streak that pre-dated them a long way. I'd tried to leave him in the early days but had, after 10 years, accepted that I didn't deserve any better. One night, after a particularly bad day resulting in a few broken ribs and two black eyes, I was talking to some new internet friends about how scared I was because it'd become more apparent that I wouldn't be leaving the situation unless it was in a box

That little group of 5, without telling me, talked to each other and clubbed together to pay for petrol for one of them to drive 400 odd miles from Scotland to pick me and the children up and get us to safety. Two days later I was met outside my eldest son's school (I was only allowed out to take them to school and get food shopping), my knight took me to shop and discussed my options as well as letting me use his phone so I could speak to the other members of the group. Long story short we left the next day and he drove through the night to bring me up to Scotland and our new life. Thanks to them my children were given a chance of a normal life. I went on to fall in love with my knight and we've now been married for 10 years :T

I've tried over the years to help others when I can, from helping a battered wife get her belongings out and move to a hostel while her partner was at work, paying the extra bit for a mum at the till who hasn't quite got enough to cover her shopping, right through to taking in a young lassie for 9 months when she had to leave home for her own safety (if anyone remembers that thread she's now in her own council flat, working 40 hours a week at nursing homes whilst attending college and the stepfather was convicted and doing 7 years. One tough little lady :T)

If everyone did one nice thing a day and passed it on then the world would be a nicer place.

PS Please be careful meeting people off the internet, I was lucky but then again at the time an axe murderer would have been an improvement

wants.to.be.debt.free

I had just come out of hospital after being in a coma and after being intubated i was left with breathing problems.
I was that breathless i couldn't walk even 5 minutes along the road. I went to stay with my parents so that they could help me lok after my little boy and one afternoon when my mum,dad & son were out, i started gasping for breath, i staggered outside with no shoes on to get to the doctors which was 5 minutes away.
I couldn't walk in a staight line and collapsed behind parked cars, thinking this was it, noone is going to find me.
Then along came a gentleman and propped my head up with his coat and rang an ambulance. My airway had collapsed to 2mm.
I will always be grateful to the kind stranger.

amyloofoo

Judi wrote: »

After our daughter died, and on a return visit to find the results of the hospital post mortem, one of the doctors who regularly treated our baby at the Childrens hospital handed my ex a set of keys and a peice of paper with an address on and told him it was his holiday home in Wales and to take as much time as we needed there. We did and the cottage was beautiful.


Such loving kindness. We could have been just anyone! I'll never forget it.

actual tears for this story, how caring of a doctor to not let this tragic situation become 'routine' and continue to offer support :grouphug:

lemonpopsicle

We had a nightmare flight to New York in 2005, it was so bad that someone had a heart attack and the Captain actually asked if there were any medically qualified doctors on board. We ended up being diverted to Syracuse then diverted to Washington after several aborted landings at JFK, people were praying,crying etc. it was awful I seriously thought we were going to die. When we eventually landed in Washington I was trying desperately to phone my Aunt who was waiting for us at JFK, but I couldn't get the plane phone to work. Suddenly a Muslim cleric appeared and out of his robes produced his mobile phone for me to use, I was so grateful, he spoke no English but we just smiled at each other.

meece

This is just a simple act but has ensured Brussels has a place in my heart. We had been to a beer festival (!) in Brussels, and were a tad relaxed, but not drunk. We had tried to walk back to the hotel, but had got hopelessly lost. Using my best school french I went up to the nearest person and said that we were lost and could he help us? He drove us to our hotel and also gave us a guided tour! He refused to take any money as well. It was such a kind and valued gesture.

ani_26

I suppose you could say the simple acts of kindness which have been offered to me on mse, have meant so much to me, be them plants, btb, or now activities, virtual cups of tea, cake, or even hugs, although i've never accepted any real " gifts " so far, as i have the ethos of never accepting anything from anyone. Maybe that's stupid.

But a heartfelt thankyou to so many people, including those who have conversed with me, along my journey. That's a very simple act of kindness, isn't it?

Nh xx

SmallL

I'm not sure if this is a tactic of our then psychology teacher, but he often tells stories of his life etc (even though hes only like 30!). but he mentioned he wanted an xbox 260 so our class of about 10 people banded together and bought him the brand new console and 5 games :P

He almost cried bless him

TimBear

What lovely stories everyone has...really makes me smile!

The thing that sticks out in my mind from my own experiences was around ten years ago my dad was seriously ill in a coma for a few months.

The hospital was hundreds of miles away from where we lived. My Aunty lived fairly locally to the hospital he was in though and she visited him every day, talking to him, playing him music, reading to him, and massaging his feet.

During the time my dad was in hospital my mum also fell ill and was in hospital herself (although much closer to home). At the time, my three siblings and I were in our early teenage years and my whole family was so amazing and generous to help us all.

One of my cousins took the four of us in despite having two much younger children himself at the time, plus a full time job etc. We stayed with them for around a week, until my Uncle who lived hundreds of miles away dropped everything to come and stay with us so we could all go home and have some 'normality' in what was a horrific time for us all.

Another Uncle came to help us do some DIY around the house almost every day (which incidentally was the cause of my mum's stay in hospital!), and my best friend's mum came to do my mum's garden as a treat for when she was back.

My dad's best friend also came to help out when mum was back home (but before dad was), as she was incapacitated and couldn't do anything to help us.

These are only some of the very many things our wonderful friends and family did at such a horrible time, and I will always be so so grateful to them for doing that for us.