Kindness of strangers

This thread contains the main clue to how to cope with problems with families! You can make friends with complete strangers sometimes, and you discover you aren't the monster your family thinks you are!

Congratulations, kitlong and may the babies be healthy and strong. The capacity for kindness is one of the gifts it would be lovely to bestow on all our grandchildren.

Congratulations to you Kitlong and your Family. There are a whole lot of good things that go on out there that we do not hear about, so it is great to have this forum.
More please.?

Hi kitlong, it was good to meet you this lunchtime and to put a face to your post. We hear so many negative things about people so it is good to be reminded of the kindness of others. Good luck to your DS, his GF and the twins. We shall look forward to catching up with their progress both on Gransnet and in May. ?

"Sorry for the typo TriciaF "
De rien Karanlouise I don't take offence easily!
Going at a tangent, I find french people extremely kind and helpful if you have some kind of accident. eg a fall or a car accident. Several times with me someone puts themselves out to help, whereas otherwise they tend to be rather distant, keep themselves to themselves.
When I was in the UK it seemed that the feeling was there, but some were afraid to intervene, in case something goes wrong and they're blamed.

OP Wishing all the best to your family especially the twins.
Sadly our Hospice shop no longer accepts knitted items including baby clothes as they don't have fire labels. Health and Safety strikes again.

Congratulations and what a lovely heartwarming story, thank you for sharing it.

Congratulations Kitlong, I hope the lovely twins will be home in no time, and have a great life x

Congratulations kitlong and how lovely to receive all those gifts.
A baby we know arrived very prematurely and, of course, nothing fitted him! He is now thriving.

Here's a link I found to some patterns for premature babies if anyone is interested in knitting.
www.bliss.org.uk/knit-for-premature-babies

Lovely to see a positive post and to hear how kindness is still around ! ..ohm and congratulations on the twins !

I think people ARE kind and helpful. My son had a 16th birthday party with schoolfriends at home and my friends asked if I would have a house left afterwards. I trust my son so during the party I went out to do the weekly shop and when I came back, the party guests piled out of the house, unloaded the shopping and put it all away for me, then one made me a cup of tea while another made my dinner - then they cleared everything up before they left. It's just sad that news programmes have encouraged us to think everyone is out for what they can get or downright evil.
If you haven't read it already look out for Kate Adey's autobiography called "The Kindness of Strangers" - it's wonderful.

I was in a supermarket queue and the woman on the next till was having trouble with paying. The woman in front of me stepped across and said I'll pay (and it wasn't cheap). When she came back I commented on how kind she was and she replied "she is my mil", but there had been no interaction between them!

My mum, who was in her 70's at the time, once went to the local shop, as she didn't want to take her purse, she put 50p in her pocket for her newspaper. When she got there the money had disappeared. As she knew the shopkeeper she asked if she could pay the next day and he agreed. There was a young man watching as mum searched her pockets and he asked if he could pay for it. She said it was fine, but when she got home she found that he had slipped a £10 note into her pocket. She then found the 50p had gone through to the lining of the coat. She was touched at the thought of a stranger giving her money, but really embarrassed at being thought in need!

Then there was the lovely man who dug not his pockets and gave me £8 in coinage for a parking meter when I was trying to catch a train to London to take DH to a hospital appointment and didn't have the right change. He waved away offers of a note and just said others had helped him out in the past so I should think nothing if it.

My son was 12 weeks premature almost 29 years ago .His granny started knitting blankets and the tiniest hats when he was in special care and she's still doing it.She does them in all colours and begs wool from friends so it doesn't cost a lot.The SCBU is always grateful for them.I hope your little ones thrive ,its amazing how they come on,our wee one was a very poor eater after his tubes came out...but although he was always small he has always been healthy ,he's now the proud dad of a bright and beautiful 7 year old .Keep us up to date on their progress ,I'll keep them in my thoughts xx

congratulations on the babies kitlong hope they will be home soon.

my kindness didn't involve a stranger,but a lovely friend made through GN.Knowing my lovely OH and I have struggled financially recently had a small lottery win and sent it anonomously to us to treat ourselves to a valentines lunch.
A really lovely carrot cake appeared on my doorstep yesterday,courtesy of another friend...am blessed.

Congratulations on the new babies kitlong. Lovely to hear about the kindness of people for a change.

After a quick supermarket shop, i found I didn't have my purse but the lady behind paid it for me. I have passed it on twice since then.

There are far more nice people in the world than the other kind. We just don't hear about them. Lovely to hear this story and congratulations to the new family -including you Gran!

kitlong thank you for posting. I'm a knitter and ... there's love in every stitch.

Congratulations on the new additions to the family.

Yes and if you receive a kindness. . . . . Pass it on as soon as you can. If everyone gives a kindness then everyone is receiving too.

Sorry for the typo TriciaF

That's really lovely and heartwarming Kitlong, Morgana and*triciaf*. Its so nice to hear that kind people do these lovely things.

That's heartwarming, kitlong.
and Morgana I had a similar car experience, flat tyre and young children in the car. A group of Hell's Angels type motorcyclists stopped and changed the wheel for me.

Oh that's lovely. Restores our faith in humankind! I have had a couple of events where a total stranger has been really kind. Once I broke down in car with two small children. Knocked on someone's door to ask to use phone. Days before mobiles! She let me use phone then drove us home. Such a kind lady