Acts of kindness

fh2901

regret70 wrote: »

a few years ago i found another phone at a festival, I managed to ring their mom and get the address to return it, i posted it to them it cost me about a fiver in postage but I never received any thanks.

If it's any consolation, I found a phone on the beach in Cornwall last year. Did the same: called "Mum" on the mobile, and arranged to send it to her. A couple of days later I got a thank you card with a tenner in it for my trouble - a really sweet gesture! So there are still good people out there, fear not :-)

SpiralingDown

I've done a few things to help others in need, there are a few people I still have contact with or recognise me when I pass them.
The first one I remember is an ealderly homeless man who I used to meet every day as I was going to work in Belfast city centre, I used to give him my lunch and tell him to come round to the shop at about 10am to get some tea. Our staff clubed together to buy him a flask so he could take the tea with him, I would always see him going round to a young fella to make sure he had some of the tea and food. The flask would be filled every evening for him and any of our stock going out of date was given to him also, he was so grateful that if we needed something heavy lifted he would offer to help. Oldschool fella, thought it wasn't the done thing for all us women to be lifting heavy stuff. We all loved him so much, got to him very well, one of the older ladies used to bring him a new change of clothes everyso often and take the ones he had home to wash and mend them, the rest of us made sure he ate well and stayed warm. I still meet him once in while eventhough I haven't worked in the city centre for 12 years and if I know I'm going in I make sure I have something for him. He's like a surrogate granddad.

I have had help from another elderly gent and teenage girl, I worked a few miles from Belfast (Carryduff) and was 8 months pregnant riding a scooter to work (my last day using it) went round a roundabout to work and the back wheel skidded and I ended up under it. The man and girl ran over to help, picked both me and the scooter up, they checked I was OK then the man seen my condition, he refused to let me push the scooter the few yards to my work so helped me up as well as pushing it. I thought he'd went home when I got in but when my husband rushed in to see how i was the man saw the state he was in and told him he'd take us both to the hospital to make sure baby was OK. We couldn't thank him enough, he also waited at the hospital to take us home and totally refused to take anything from us. I was back at work a week later when I saw him again, asked one of the staff if they knew him and was told he was her Uncle, found out he liked whiskey and Guinness so he was bought the biggest of each I could find. My son was born a month later and the first one at work to see him was the guy, without his help I don't know what I'd have done. The girl had disappeared and no one knew who she was but I'd like to say thank you to her too!

Butti

Well someone was nice to me yesterday. Dropped my phone in Staples but didn't realise. Got a telephone call at 8pm from my dad who said they had rang him to tell him they had one of his kids phones. Went and picked it up this morning.


The one that really amazes and upsets me a bit is the one that happened on my way home about 7 years ago in platform heels. From the bruising I gather I must have gone over on my ankle and then fallen on to my knees and hit my head. I can't remember anything. Somebody in the Boro must have seen this, rang for an ambulance and stayed with me until it arrived. All I can remember is standing at a bus stop and then coming to on a hospital trolley four hours later with my keys, my purse, my mobile and my cards still on me. Someone was really lovely to me........if that was you or you know the person thank you.

B

minniepoos_2

When I was 17 I was driving home from college in the pouring rain. It had been raining heavily for a couple of days, so I should have driven the long way home, but I was running late for my babysitting job (and the £4 I was due to get was pretty crucial to me at the time), so I came the quick way through the country lanes. And yes, I got to the bridge and went through the enormous puddle that I KNEW would be there, and my poor little ancient fiesta stalled. I sat there - with a little water coming in under the doors, without a clue what to do. Quite a lot of people passed me - obviously with more driving experience they could get through. One family stopped next to me, and opened their window. I wound mine down - so happy that someone had some advice, and all they said was "don't worry love, I'm sure someone will stop and help you soon", and then they drove off!

I sat there, in tears, contemplating what to do. I thought about walking home to get my dad to pull me out, but it was a 2 mile walk. After another couple of minutes a van pulled up behind me, and a man got out. He just waded through, and yelled through the window for me to pop the bonnet. I have no idea to this day what he did (sneaky suspicion it may have involved WD40), but after only a minute or so he shut the bonnet and told me to start her up, and take it slow. I tried to get his details so I could give him something to thank him, but he just said no - he was happy to help.


Another time, when I was 18 I was working in a cafe. I'd had a terrible day (row with BF, car trouble, etc - nothing actually serious, but to an 18 year old.....). I'd kept a smile on my face all day though, but one of the customers obviously saw through it. He was an elderly gentleman - must have been in his 80s. He left, then about 10 minutes later he came back with a bunch of flowers. He said "Here you go love, these are from your uncle Frank". He totally made my day - and even now, 16 years later, I think about him and what a difference he made to my day.

I try to do my bit where I can. I was in the city on a night out with what is now the XOH, when a girl came up asking if we had any money for food. I didn't - I only had my debit card. Much to the EXs disgust, I popped into a nearby Tesco and bought a cheese sarnie, and gave it to her. She was so grateful - I'm so glad I didn't just ignore her.

joolesw1972

My partner is the kindest person I know, her recent acts of kindness include;
two girls using the vending machine on the train platform were debating what to do as they didn't have quite enough money, my partner gave them £1 and got big smiles and thank you's.

last year driving home from work she saw an elderly man struggling to stand and clinging on to a wall, she stopped the car and helped him back to his house with a bit of difficulty as she's only 5ft and he was over 6ft! she helped him to ring his son who lived a couple of hours drive away, she made him a drink made sure he was safe and settled and his son was on the way, left her phone number, address etc so if he needed help she would go back, she rang later to check on him and spoke to the son the next day who was very thankful. A couple of months later she got a letter from the son saying that the old man had passed but thank you again.

Another thing that she does on a regular basis is offer to take photos of couples or families together when they're taking pictures on days out - the thanks and smiles she gets for doing this are heart warming.
I am very proud to be with a lovely caring person.

kathleen499

My son was desperately trying to get home on christmas eve from Glasgow to Inverness. He had a christmas job in PC world,and had been told by the shift manager if he started half hour early, he could get off a half hour early so he could get the last bus back to Inverness.
He managed to get a taxi as soon as he finished to get him to the bus station, but it rapidly became clear he wasnt going to have enough money to pay. He told his taxi driver his dilemma and, once the meter had reached the amount my son had in his pocket, the driver turned the meter off. If it wasnt for that taxi driver, my son wouldve been stuck on his own for christmas, I still feel so gratefull to him for his random act of kindness :T
Kathleen

sm99_3

I'd lost my parents in 06 and then 3 years ago my brother committed suicide, needless to say I hit rock bottom (I was actually suicidal myself) I was really stuggling with work, with money (had no idea how I was going to pay for the funeral). I took a week off to try and get my head around things only to come back to find out that everyone in the entire buliding, even people who I have no contact with, who didn't know and never worked with, had clubbed together and raised over £1000 to help pay for everything.


As I mentioned, I was suicidal so eventually I got some help. I'd ended up with absolutely everything, a house full of my families belonging's and really didn't know where to start with sorting through it all. My therapist actually came round to help clear out the garage which is something that is definatly not in their job description.


Not to mention all the emotional support I've had from family and friends.

Dizzy_Ditzy

What a truly lovely thread :-)

i've had a couple of RAOK's- a few years back I was a delivery driver, it was christmas, the weather was proper miserable and someone had cut me up just as i was about to make my next stop. I was grumpy, horrible so-and-so. I popped in for my pick up, and the lovely ladies in there had a box of chocolates for me as a christmas gift. Absolutely made my day :-)

next one is when i was a bus driver, my ticket machine wasnt working so everyone had to have free travel. Suited me, I like doing little things like that. I had a full bus- i think word had got round that it was free on this one!! Unfortunatley I had a ding on the way into town, had to stop for details exchange blah blah blah, i got back on, apologised to everyone for being late and carried on.

I dont know which passenger it was, but when everyone had got off, someone had left £2 in my tray with a note saying that the day could only get better from here :-D)

I have given RAOK's as well- i was recently at Birmingham New Street station and an elderly lady and her daughter were struggling down the stairs with 2 very large and heavy cases. The daughter made the mother wait at the top while she went down with one.

Despite having a case and 2 bags myself, i carried the other one down the rest of the stairs for them and waited while the daughter went back up to escort her mother down.

I like being able to put a smile on peoples faces. Its what makes me smile :-)

987654

pmlindyloo wrote: »

When my son was little we had to attend Great Ormond Street hospital on a regular basis.

We lost count of the number of times the black cab drivers refused to take any fare from us.

How lovely! Brings a tear to a glass eye!

Clive_Woody

I remember many years ago waiting at a bus-stop in Cardiff when a large luxury coach pulled up and asked directions to the ice-rink as he had to pick up an ice-hockey team (I guess they were playing the Cardiff Devils). I started giving him directions but it was a good few miles with lots of turns to remember.

I suggested he give me a lift into town as I was meeting friends in a pub not far from the ice-rink. He happily agreed as he was clearly very lost. Defintely a win win situation.

My mates were very impressed when this great big coach with blacked out windows stopped outside the pub and I climbed out.


I also remember one day while wandering home from lectures finding a guy who had fallen out of his wheelchair in his front garden. I helped him back into his chair and back into his house. From then onwards he always used to say hello as I wandered past. A positive step for building relations between students and locals which sometimes got a bit strained.