The kindness of strangers

stickywicket

Radio 4 has a short slot on this on Saturday mornings and I rather like the idea. Clearly, lives are sometimes changed as a result.

I'll kick off with one that has never left me. We were students, hitching in the middle of nowhere and an almighty downpour in the Lake District. It was one of only two occasions in my life when I've been literally soaked to the skin despite jacket, sweater, blouse and underwear. (On the other occasion I was in the Yorkshire Dales in a wheelchair so sitting in a puddle by the time we reached the pub )

A man pulled up in a brand new, shiny car. The seats were still covered in protective vinyl but, as we pointed out, our soaking, muddy boots would drip onto the lovely carpet as would we. He just told us to hop in, took us the couple of miles to the isolated farmhouse where we were staying and seemed to think it was a very ordinary thing to do. I didn't. I still don't.

Slosh

I know the feature you mean and often mean to call in.
I have two both of which happened several years ago when my daughter was much younger. About 6-8 years old.

The first happened on a hot summer's day. I had promised my daughter I would take her to the Science museum, but on the way back the tube was very hot and I began to feel very faint. We were just coming into Whitechapel station so I decided tbe best thing woukd be to get off. The next thing I remember is coming round on the platform, a young woman leaning over me, but no sign of my daughter. You can imagine my panic and I tried to get up as I screamed for her. The young woman told me not to panic. She was a nurse and she and a friend who was a physio had been on the same train. They had noticed that I was unwell and so had got off with me and my daughter. She had looked after me while her friend looked after my daughter. They had also let station staff know and an ambulance had been called. You can imagine how thankful I was to both of them.

The other is quite moving. It was in the days when The Big Issue cost less than a pound. Again I was out with my daughter and we saw a seller. I bought a copy, and as I always did told him to keep the change. He insisted on giving it to my daughter to buy some sweets with. It was really humbling and I have often wondered if he had a daughter he had lost contact with. It reminded me of one of my Mum's sayings, that sometimes it is more gracious to recieve than to give. It was definitely the case this time.

Looking forward to hearing some more of these tales. Great idea for a thread Sticky.

hileena111

Hi
It does renew your faith in human nature when something like that happens
Love
Hileena

frogmorton

What a lovely thread Stickywicket:)

People can be lovely can't they?

Slosh is right 'sometimes it is more gracious to receive than to give'

This is a thread I will enjoy popping in on I think.

(At the moment everyone is wonderful to myself :oops: so I better not contribute )

love

Toni xxx

LignumVitae

I was at the Grand National the year that the IRA made a hoax bomb threat. We were turned out of the course, where our car was parked, and a police helicopter was used to keep shepherding us away. We were stuck. A lovely man with a Mercedes stopped, he was a local and on realising what was happening he decided to get in the car and see if he could help anybody. Not only did he drive us to the station but he took us to the station that would mean we could simply get a direct train back home. It always struck me as such a lovely thing, he could have sat at home and watched it unfold on the TV.

barbara12

There are some lovely people out there, when I am using crutches I get doors opened chairs pulled out ..all this before hubby can get round to it... but last week I was struggling to get into the car..when a very well dressed man asked could he help, hubby was putting the shopping in the boot..so he took the crutches off me ...then passed them back and closed the door for me..little things go a long way

stickywicket

These are all lovely examples of kindness given freely and with no thought whatsoever of reward.

Isn't it lovely? Don't we all need good news? I'm reminded again of the old cherokee wisdom:

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all.
One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance,
self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness,
benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:
"Which wolf wins?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

villier

My brother and I were at High School 17 miles from my village when we were all sent home due to snow getting heavier. Our bus got us half way there and got stuck and there was nothing else for it but to walk.

Soaking and freezing by this time hardly able to walk, about five miles from home we heard a voice calling us towards a lighted doorway, a man and his wife took us in got our clothes dried off, fed us hot soup and sandwiches and gave us more warm clothes to put on over our own.

As not many people had telephones in those days the couple new my mum would be at her wits end so the chap wrapped himself up warmly and took us by the hand and walked us the five miles home. The look of relief on my mums face I can recall to this day. My mum offered the gent a bed for the night but declined wanting to get back home to his wife and family, so, after getting his clothes dried(luckily we had a coal fire) and some steaming hot tea he made his way back. The snow was so severe that winter we were snowed in for a week, mum was anxious to find out if the gent had got home all right which he did thank goodness. Kindness is not the word, saint, springs to mind xx

barbara12

stickywicket wrote:

These are all lovely examples of kindness given freely and with no thought whatsoever of reward.

Isn't it lovely? Don't we all need good news? I'm reminded again of the old cherokee wisdom:

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all.
One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance,
self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness,
benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:
"Which wolf wins?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

How true.. and I love Marie's story...its lifts your spirits..

Slosh

Had one of those I'm making a fuss about nothing mornings so decided to walk to my GP's to pick up my repeat prescription forgetting it takesme much longer than the 10 minutes it used to take!
On the way back a woman stopped me to ask if I was ok as she could see I was struggling. We had a quick chat, which meant I had a rest and then she asked what perfume I was wearing as I smelt so nice.
That cheered me up a lot and it was so lovely for her to check if I was ok.

stickywicket

Slosh wrote:

she asked what perfume I was wearing as I smelt so nice.
That cheered me up a lot.

It doesn't take much to either make or mar anyone's day. That was doubly kind of her.

dreamdaisy

As some of you may recall we moved just before Christmas and this year has seen us making some changes and improvements to No.10. For the past two weeks a lovely chap has been working on removing old bathing kit and replacing them with showers; today is his last day with me. Due to an unexpected delay caused by the flooring people he found himself with an empty hour; in the course of general conversation with yours truly (as we leaned over the edge of the skip, perusing its contents) he discovered what was next on my list of priorities, and although it was nothing to do with bathrooms he went ahead and carried it out for me. He removed the integrated Hotpoint washing machine and replaced it with my Bosch (which has been languishing in the garage).

It is now gliding its way through its first wash (I ran a cleaner through it just to test) and I am a contented Daisy. It is smarter, quieter and more economical than the other - and also considerably less mouldy. (The mould was inherited, in case you're wondering.) DD

Slosh

How kind of him and how great he did not just sit twiddling his thimbs for an hour. Must be a reward for all those cups of tea you were making. Enjoy your new machine