A stranger did something really nice for me today

A similar thing happened to me in M&S in Dorchester. I was telling my husband how much I liked a certain handbag but complaining it was way above my budget. I could not believe it when the lady stocking the shelves offered me her staff discount card! I thought she was joking but not a bit of it; she accompanied me to the till and handed over her card! This was three years ago, and I’ve never forgotten her kindness.

Jane10, thank you x
I read a long time ago that it is up to us to be the change we wish to see in the world. I try to live by that advice. Wouldn't it be lovely if we all seized every opportunity to do something kind for a stranger, and that inspired those strangers to do something kind, and so on...the best kind of epidemic!!

A few years ago I helped a very elderly lady off the bus with her shopping. She said ‘I don’t care what people say, I think today’s young people are very kind’ I was 58. Made my day ?

This is such a nice thread; I’m in the ‘pay forward’ mode and believe what goes around comes around. My big sister said I had the ability to look pathetic, hence people frequently offering to carry my suitcase etc, like the man who carried my case upstairs at a bus station and in the other hand had the front end of his child’s buggy. And this was when I was 19. On my way to uni a couple of months later, my suitcase was taken to the halls of residence by 2 blokes in a NW water van when they took pity on me lugging it up the street. I don’t think it matters where you are, you will always find thoughtful people

Sorry to hear that GrannyMosh. What bad luck. Hope you feel better soon. The first day of a cold is so miserable.

Thank you for all these lovely stories, you have cheered me up no end! Been awake half the night hatching yet another cold - swollen glands, temperature, the lot - and wondering if I'll be able to have my Herceptin injection tomorrow. I get the injections every three weeks, and the infections with roughly the same frequency. You have all done a lot to raise my spirits, and I am very grateful

When I see anyone in London looking around and studying their maps, I always approach them gently with a warm smile and offer my help. You'd be surprised at the number of times I get a cold look and they turn away quickly, in case I stab or pickpocket them. Yet we hear of unfriendly Londoners more.

Occasionally I receive discount tickets for friends and family from M & S. I too have offered a ticket to a stranger to get the substantial discount. Better a discounted sale for the store than none at all.

Southerner here. We parked next to the swimming pool to take grandson swimming and my husband was about to put money in the meter when a builder from the site next door who operated a huge crane offered him the ticket he had paid for all day, as he said it was too windy to operate the crane. Another one - I was in M & S and went to the 2nd floor to have a quick lunch and had my shopping trolley with me. Then I found the lifts were out of order. A young girl assistant offered to carry my trolley down all the way to the ground floor. She told me she was at university and M & S was a part-time job.

About 20 years ago my son was attacked, we got a cab to take us to him it was 10pm, when we got out of the cab the driver wouldn't except any money. He just wished us good luck and hoped they caught the people who attacked my son. This was in London.

giulia Yes those loos at Victoria definitely need updating and made more accessible! I was helped by a man who looked after my cases whilst I used the loo and I returned the favour by giving him the 30p he didn't have to get through the turnstile. My SIL was horrified but it was siege mentality during Storm Miguel!

Husband and I had just arrived in Prague. Snowing hard and no one would help (they thought we were gypsies as we spoke English ). We managed to get on a tram. Then the tram and many in front got bogged down in the snow
We were told to get off and catch a train
We walked across the road (I am almost in tears so tired and cold ) and looked at two very long sets of stairs to get down to the train station .
My husband and I were trying to work out how we could get down
This lovely brawny young man dressed in a suit picked up my cases and beckoned me and I followed him down.
My husband a good few steps behind me. The young man put my bags down at the bottom and then went back to help my husband
He didn't speak English and just smiled and walked off
He will never know how much we appreciated that rescue

Jayne10 your story jogged my memory of a similar incident with a puncture. I'd injured my foot quite badly, causing me to limp. I'd paid £25 for a charity lunch and decided to go anyway. At the end I limped to my car and flopped into the driver's seat when there was a tap at the window to hear that I had flat tyre. It was pouring down so I went back to reception to wait for the emergency repair man.

The girl asked if I'd like a coffee and she came with a lovely tray with coffee. a jug of hot milk and three chocolates.

The repair man arrived and lo and behold it was my usual garage. He changed the tyre and I asked if he would dispose of it and source me a new one. He said, It'll be Tuesday and get that foot seen to.

Tuesday morning I thought I've got to get to that garage. I can't go anywhere without a spare tyre. A short time later there was a ring on the doorbell. I opened the door and it was the mechanic. Imagine my surprise when he said I've come to fit your new tyre and put the spare back in the boot as there's no way you should be driving with that foot. As he drove off he called 'Don't forget, get to the hobble-in centre'.

I’m actually in the process of writing down all the nice things people have done for me over the years, as well as little acts of kindness I have heard about. It’s really cheering! I’m calling it “The kindness of strangers” from “A streetcar named Desire.” Taxi drivers seem, with a few exceptions, to be extremely kind. In Paris recently a taxi driver drove me to a bistro he recommended for lunch, then told me earnestly to be careful of pickpockets in Gare du Nord, and suggested I put my coat on over my bag. And another taxi driver told me that he had driven, after midnight at the end of his shift, right across the city to return a bag with a purse and mobile phone a customer had left in his car “because she would be worried.”

We’ve been the recipient of various “random acts of kindness” over the years and try to pass it forward. One of the best was on a camping holiday with 4 children in France and Northern Italy in 2003 - year of the big heatwave. Having driven into Italy in searing heat in minivan with no air conditioning, we stopped for lunch at a pizza place. We’d no idea where we were going to camp that night but on an impulse, decided to ask advice from another customer. She told us she lived in a village not far away and we could camp in her garden! At first we thought it would be a bit cheeky to accept, but then decided we might as well, as offer seemed genuine.

We found our way there, and were welcomed by the rest of her family, and the neighbours, given the use of their bathroom and were lucky enough to be there on the night of the village festival, with music, food and dancing. When we left next day, with a good suggestion of where to go next, they gave us home-grown tomatoes and some other produce. We’ve never forgotten their generosity.

Going back to the comments about speaking to people, everyone used to know each other in our village and always spoke when meeting in the street. There are more new people now, but I make a point of passing the time of day with them - and with random passing cyclists and horse riders.

I don't know if it cheers them up, but it certainly makes me feel better!

We live almost opposite the hospital where my husband was to have a hernia operation and had to be there by 7,30 am. It is so close we decided to walk, even though he is hampered by two leg operations (he nearly lost it )due to cancer. There we were, two old things with his overnight bag, trundling along when I couldn’t resist an empty taxi passing. I hailed it, rather shamefacedly indicated the hospital almost opposite, apologising to the driver for the shortness of the fare. He helped us, did a U turn, deposited us on the forecourt of the hospital and resolutely refused my proffered fiver and wished us good luck. Such kindness

The Zimbawean carer who was with us for a month or so, had lived in London for about 20 years - this was the only place in Britain that she knew. When she came to stay with us there were things that she was pleasantly surprised by.

She was amazed that people wandering down the lane would stop and pass the time of day with her, wave to her, smile at her etc. And one day the bus picked her up and took her to town - in spite of the fact that she had had no plans to go to town! - the driver thought she was looking for the bus stop! She waited at the terminus for 10 minutes then got the next bus back! But every time afterwards that she went to town the driver would drop her off outside our house so she did not have to walk up the hill. She was blown away by all this.

Rossano Brazzi? :faint:

These are such nice stories. Where I live in Scotland it's pretty friendly and people speak all the time. I find London, where my son lives, quite lonely as few people pass the time of day with you there.

Chewbacca what a lovely thread, so cheering on a gloomy day.
Thank you to those that have said Londoners can be nice you've made my day, it's very hurtful to constantly read how unfriendly Londoners are. I think people forget that London is populated with people from all over the country and indeed the world, some open and friendly, some not. I think the map reading thing often gets offered help. I know we'd barely exited Gare du Nord in Paris, opened the map and peered at it, when we were approached by a lady with fabulous English offering assistance. Given that my French is closer to non existent that was very welcome! I like to "pay it forward" too Chewbacca.

Maggiemaybe Yes, Londoners can be great. I arrived at Victoria Station with a heavy case and needed the public loo.

I couldn't manage to get it either throught the turnstile or through the gap between the turnstile and the wall.

A young man ran over and sorted my problem and, once on the other side of the turnstile, three different ladies all rushed forward offering to carry it down the steep ramps of stairs for me. The lady who did it looked like a highly businessswoman too.

They both brushed off my thanks with a shrug.

Maybe I was looking extra delicate that day!

Years back I got a flat tyre on a provincial road outside Rome. Nobody in sight. I got out and started flapping around aimlessly.

A car stopped. Inside was Rossano Brazzi: his mechanic was accompanying home and it was outside his house that I'd got the flat tyre.

He got his mechanic to fix it. We got chatting and exchanged phone numbers.

A while later, I was able to return his kindness when he called me asking to recommend somebody to mend his boiler!

That's lovely chew - it helps to reinstate your faith in the human race doesn't it? Enjoy your new boots, I hope they're comfy and provide many happy years of wear.

I agree Maggiemaybe. I've never forgotten coming out of a suburban railway station in London and being completely lost. I was turning my map around when a nice man (not creepy at all) came up and offered to help. He then asked a passing lollipop lady for her help and she said, 'jump in,' to me and drove me to the door of my destination in her mini.
DH was appalled that I'd spoken to a strange man and got in a stranger's car but it was patently obvious that they were just nice people.

Chewy.....it was your famous good looks and the fishnet stockings that helped. The assistants in my M&S ( all women) aren’t pleasant to customers at all, never mind going the extra mile.
I always ask tall men ( if my own tall man isn’t available)?to reach things for me in supermarkets, after the initial shock if being addressed by a stranger ( and a woman!) has worn off, they are usually very eager to help and go off afterwards in a saintly glow.So, really it’s a service to allow them to be useful.
? ( waits for the couple of men on GN to wade in with indignant posts.)

Most people are helpful if asked, but it’s the ones who help without having to be asked that are really kind.