The 'Kindness of Strangers' thread

Two old friends travelled up to see us in Scotland, staying in their motor home because of my immunosuppression.

We got to talking about the kindness of complete strangers. It was an amazingly enjoyable hour or so and I thought later that one benefit of arthritis is that we are on the receiving end of so much.

My regular RAKs (Random Acts of Kindness) tend to happen in ladies’ loos. In the absence of a disabled one (or sometimes even with one) I often can’t manage locks. I have now become used to looking for a kind face which doesn’t look hurried and asking if they’d mind guarding the door for a minute. I’ve never been refused.

Our grocery delivery people are always willing to carry our week’s groceries up the six steps and onto the dining room table just inside the door. When Mr SW was in hospital they also, unbidden, emptied the crates for me.

Years ago, when Mr SW and I were lost on a ‘wheelchair walk’ and he was shoving the empty chair while I staggered alongside up a steep, stony hill, a bemused farmer stopped his tractor and asked if he could fetch his 4 x 4 for us.

In a restaurant, pre-covid, I was on my coffee when the bartender came up to me and quietly asked if I’d cope more easily with a mug.

And, of course, there are the simple, little, things – the willing, steadying arm, the holding open of doors, the fetching and carrying, the buttering of bread / cutting up of meat when in hospital.

The media is full of doom and gloom but, in my experience, most people are always ready to lend a helping hand when either they see a need or are asked.