Acts of kindness

mavvymoo

Last year I was driving down a very isolated lane about 2 miles from my house when an elderly lady was franticly waving at me.
So I stopped and asked her what was the problem and it turned out she had got out to pick some flowers and locked her keys in the car.With her handbag and everything in the car.
She said she had been there for about an hour and the few cars that had passed hadn't stopped for her !
She wanted me to call her garage on my mobile as she had no phone but couldn't remember the name.As she was panicking and her mind had gone blank.
Had a brainwave and asked if she had a spare key anywhere and turned out she had one at home and her husband was in.So I phoned him explained the situation and said I would come and collect the key.They lived about 10 miles away.
She wouldn't come with me as she didn't want to leave her bag.So I left her there and drove to a very upmarket block of flats and got the key off her husband who tried to give me £50 :eek: Which I refused and drove back to her with the key and got her into the car.She was very distressed at this point so decided to get her to follow me back to her flat as I am not sure she would have made it.Got back to hers and took her in. Found out she was 84 and he was 92 :eek: They were so grateful offered me money again I said no and I would hope someone would do the same for my mum.

Then drove to work and was 1.5 hours late and got moaned at But at least I knew she was safe. :T

maccymum

lovely story mavvymooo what a lovely person you are

xx

mumonashoestring

We've experienced an amazing, 'only happens to other people' act of kindness by DH's employer recently. We had our first baby in February and I was due to go back to work in London by January at the latest. As time went on I realised I couldn't bear the thought of leaving him in childcare for 12 hours a day, and we worked out that I'd be paying my entire take-home wage in childcare just for the privilege of never seeing my little'un. After a lot of budget-wrangling and soul-searching we decided we could just about manage on one wage if we were extremely careful, hopefully until little'un is old enough to start nursery. However, my contract with my employer meant that I would have to either return to work for at least 3 months, or repay all of the additional maternity pay I had received from them, well over £2000.

DH went to his HR Director and told her that our plan was for him to take the 3 month unpaid portion of parental leave while I returned for my required 3 months to see out my contract. I'd be miserable for 3 months but at least I'd know little'un was with his dad, and at the end of the three months I could leave without owing my employer anything, and without having run up either a loan or a huge credit card bill. HR Director came back to DH the next day and said that she and her father, the MD, had had 'another idea'.

They gave him the £2000+ we needed for me to give up my job without returning - no strings, no repayments necessary, no required service period. They did it because theirs is a family business and they value his contributions to the company.

It's left us both a bit :huh: but very, very :j

Spirit_2

lovely story and a great user name.

Aesop

mumonashoestring wrote: »

They gave him the £2000+ we needed for me to give up my job without returning - no strings, no repayments necessary, no required service period. They did it because theirs is a family business and they value his contributions to the company.

It's left us both a bit :huh: but very, very :j

now that made me cry! what a lovely, lovely business. :T:T And you obviously will pay it forward in whatever way you can when the time is right.

beanielou

Excellent mumonashoestring :j :j

mumonashoestring

Aesop wrote: »

And you obviously will pay it forward in whatever way you can when the time is right.

Oh heck yes! We're both the kind of soppy so-and-so's who buy people lunch when they look hungry, carry suitcases at stations, give crying teenagers money for bus fares etc. I just hope that one day we're in a position to help someone on this kind of scale!

Another lovely one I've just remembered - I was at work last summer and went to the bank to pay some money in. While I was in there a man came in holding a huge wodge of cash - must have been £300 or so. He said he had been in the queue behind two foreign girls who had taken their card, but put the money on a windowledge above the cashpoint and then forgotten to take it. He'd grabbed it but couldn't catch up with them, so he insisted that the branch manager come and take the money, and instructed him very insistently to go and work out whose account it was and how to get the money back to them immediately because he couldn't bear the thought that his teenage daughter could do something like this while abroad and then be stuck without train fare/money for food etc...

Edited to add: DH has just reminded me that karma might be remembering a couple of years ago, when one of his American friends ran into serious financial trouble. He and his wife were flat broke, expecting a baby, and then found out that they were actually expecting twins. Two of everything to be bought. I started knitting some little jumpers and blankets, and we put together a parcel of baby clothes from Primark - nothing fancy, just enough to help out. We posted the parcel and wished we could do more.

Then DH got a letter from the Inland Revenue, with a cheque. It was a tax rebate for the previous year when he'd done quite a bit of temping and ended up on the wrong tax code.

It was money we weren't expecting, we hadn't budgeted for it, and they needed it more than us at the time, so DH got his friend's paypal details and sent the money over to them. We told them to pay it forward when they had the chance

savingmummy

My husband came home from work one evening saying he had seen a homeless man walking along the forest looking really cold and weak.As soon as i heard him telling me i knew we could help him.
SO while DH got washed and changed i started preparing a packed lunch and some tins from the cupboard.
I found some baby cot blankets and some clothing hubby didint need/use and packed them up in a bag.
We set off down the road in the car and spotted him sitting by the kerb and we slowly pulled over.
He was very scared so i opened the window and explained it was fine i just wanted to talk and he got up and came over.
He told me his name and spoke in general, he had been on the street for several years after hitchhiking down here from up north, his parents had passed and he had 1 brother who was in prison. He came here to start a new life which had failed terribly causing him to be homeless and jobless.
.

Aesop

savingmummy wrote: »

He came here to start a new life which had failed terribly causing him to be homeless and jobless.
.

sadly probably a more common story than we realise.

Well done for caring and taking time out to go back and help.

Aesop

mumonashoestring wrote: »

It was money we weren't expecting, we hadn't budgeted for it, and they needed it more than us at the time, so DH got his friend's paypal details and sent the money over to them. We told them to pay it forward when they had the chance

sounds like karma to me allright Enjoy your time with your little one. They grow up so quickly! Enjoy every minute!