[HN Gopher] What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done fo...
___________________________________________________________________
What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?
Author : speckx
Score : 259 points
Date : 2025-12-11 19:28 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (louplummer.lol)
(TXT) w3m dump (louplummer.lol)
| k310 wrote:
| I am running through my memory bank, and can't really think of
| one outside friends and family.
|
| OTOH, I seem to be "that stranger" whenever possible. And that's
| mighty satisfying. People I've studied under or assisted with
| computer support have a habit of getting Nobel Physics Prizes. I
| have aggressively looked for and found, owners of lost cell
| phones and ipods.
|
| Sorry to disappoint!
|
| BTW, a friend is an M.D. While I was visiting his home, his cat
| scratched me, and I asked if he had any betadine. He didn't. So,
| you never know. Having been in the Coast Guard "Semper Paratus"
| always ready, I tend to bring small tools and first aid with me
| when I drive, but the only application so far was someone whose
| battery died in the SFO cell phone lot around midnight, and I had
| the jumper cable handy. The more serious one was when I was
| coming home and saw a light flickering in the neighbor's detached
| garage. Well, he wasn't welding. It was an electrical fire, and I
| made sure they knew about it post haste (they were watching TV in
| the front room). And that's about it.
| tetris11 wrote:
| Kinda a similar story, I slipped off my bike at the end of a wet
| turn and scraped up my leg.
|
| A woman passing by saw the whole thing, and said she lived nearby
| and would happily run me a bath.
|
| I took her up on the offer, and, um, I was a few hours late to
| work that day :-)
| mbg721 wrote:
| Wow, "Dear Penthouse,"
| rconti wrote:
| Are you Val Kilmer? :)
| pengaru wrote:
| And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
| CommenterPerson wrote:
| We had driven to a small remote village on Vancouver Island BC,
| to catch an early morning ferry. We had reserved a room at the
| only motel in town. We got there around 9PM. The a*h** owner
| ignored the doorbell and did not let us in (we could see him
| moving around in his attached residence). We went to a restaurant
| that was just about closing, told our story, and asked the owners
| if there were any options. Their friend, who was hanging around
| there overheard us .. he invited us to come over to his house and
| spend the night. The next day he insisted on buying us a
| wonderful breakfast.
|
| When we got back home after the long trip, we sent him a nice
| sweatshirt with "New Jersey" on it.
| brokencipher wrote:
| Took a few months off of work and decided to bicycle through the
| Philippines. One day was a very hard mountain stage, driving from
| Bacolod to San Carlos, on Negros island. Arrived at the top
| completely exhausted, layed on the roadside in an attempt to
| recover. Suddenly a car stopped and a young couple of locals
| handed me a sandwich and wished me luck. I'll never forget them
| lostlogin wrote:
| If a hill climb has you lying down at the top, that's got to be
| a good hill.
| add-sub-mul-div wrote:
| I lost my phone while I was out once. A stranger found it and
| started calling people in the contacts with my last name (I don't
| have any lock method) figuring they'd know a secondary way to
| reach me. That worked and I got in touch with him, and then he
| came by and delivered it back to me at my house.
| silisili wrote:
| I like this. I hope this thread fills with many more comments.
|
| I think it's important to remember especially in traffic and such
| that cars aren't cars, they are people. I have no idea the real
| ratios, but imagine 20% are genuinely good people, 60% are just
| going about their lives, and 20% are miserable for some reason
| and drive like miserable people. It's easy to think everyone else
| is an idiot and become aggressive, but remember it's a small
| percentage who actually agitate you.
|
| Now to answer the question. I guess it's when I was a kid, I'd
| completely torn my ACL but they wouldn't operate until I was done
| growing. I don't know how old, 12 maybe? I was in Washington DC
| running across a busy street when my knee slid out of place and I
| fell in the road. A Mercedes stopped, purposely blocking both
| lanes of traffic, and a husky middle aged black lady in scrubs
| got out and dragged me out of the road onto the sidewalk. She
| asked if I was ok, and I was as it happened here and there, and
| off she went. It was such a kind gesture in a city that seemed so
| cold and always on the go.
| neilv wrote:
| > _I have no idea the real ratios, but imagine 20% are
| genuinely good people, 60% are just going about their lives,
| and 20% are miserable for some reason and drive like miserable
| people._
|
| Lately, this is my experience in general, not only cars. Though
| I want to say both that 20% and 60% are genuinely good, and
| that first 20% are readily above-and-beyond.
|
| In the big-name college town where I live, which still pretends
| to be warm-fuzzy (the remaining hippies are silver-haired),
| eventually you pick up on a pervasive undercurrent of
| selfishness.
|
| A lot of people only get into the prestigious places because
| they look out for their own interests, and being here is only
| temporary and transactional.
|
| And a lot of people are strained by the high cost of living for
| lousy conditions, and are just trying to get by.
|
| Still, I've seen, for example, delirious (opioids?) street
| people slump off a bench on the gritty main drag, and quickly
| be surrounded concerned and helpful passersby who looked like
| yuppies. (And the only phones out were multiple people calling
| 911, no social media content creation, just genuinely helping
| and then disappearing.)
| Bendy wrote:
| Invited me to his house to cut and shorten some shelves for me,
| after the hardware store refused because I hadn't bought them
| there.
| nephihaha wrote:
| I was in a city in a foreign country once and completely lost. A
| local showed me the way to my hotel and walked at least a mile
| with me. This was a long time ago but I still remember her
| kindness.
| DamonHD wrote:
| I went to Tokyo a couple of times for different reasons, and
| was frequently amazed by the people in the street or behind the
| counter in a restaurant, etc, who would stop and take the time
| to help me, often in perfect English, do whatever it was that I
| was failing with!
| nephihaha wrote:
| Yes, this happened to me at the time. Most people had bad
| English and I had bad Japanese when I went but some of them
| were very kind.
| grvbck wrote:
| Yes! I have stories like that from every Japanese city or
| town I've been to. Easily the most hospitable, kindest locals
| I've ever encountered while traveling.
|
| Although, I am often surprised by how kind/helpful/generally
| nice people are when I travel. Even in places like Paris or
| Glasgow, that have a reputation of being a bit rude or at
| least reserved toward outsiders.
| chistev wrote:
| Sent me 260 dollars.
| pettertb wrote:
| I had finished my hamburger, zoning out. I had my guitar with me,
| having had a belowpar band practice, while waiting for my
| therapist appointment. Life was heading downwards in a slow, but
| steady, fashion.
|
| This wonderful woman came over and asked if I wanted a hug. It
| warmed me to my bones. She said that "people should do that
| more", or something along those lines, and disappeared.
|
| I don't remember her face, I just remember the warm feeling in my
| chest.
| stavros wrote:
| Oh man, I just love a good hug. So comforting.
| tetris11 wrote:
| Another one just came to me, as I witnessed it yesterday on the
| train. A homeless man was walking down the train aisle, shaking a
| handful of coins and asking people for change in a long drawn out
| plead.
|
| Everyone stared deeper into their phones until he went away, but
| when he came back a woman with a child handed him some change and
| he walked on without thanking her.
|
| The kid asked "why did you give him money mummy?" and her
| response was simply "you see homeless, you give money" and that
| was the end of it. I just liked the implicit matter-of-fact
| decency in which she lived her life.
| leobg wrote:
| It was snowing. I scraped the windshield of my car. When I was
| done, I turned the key - and the battery was dead. I shrugged,
| gathered my belongings and was about to go back into my apartment
| building. But a woman who has just arrived in her car came up to
| me. And she asked, "Is your car not starting? You can use mine if
| you like." I had needed seen here before. I took it. I returned
| it with a full tank in the evening. I've since had two other
| random strangers lend me their car, both in Germany and in the
| US. It's something I wouldn't have believed people would do. And
| it's something I wouldn't have accepted out of fear. But I had
| learned: Being kind and accepting kindness are two sides of the
| same coin. The one cannot exists without the other.
| poolnoodle wrote:
| I honestly would be scared shitless lending a stranger my car.
| apparent wrote:
| I wouldn't be comfortable borrowing someone's car, especially
| in the snow. If I were GP, I'd have driven it up next to my
| car, used the battery to jump mine, and thanked the stranger.
| rogerrogerr wrote:
| I'd do it in a heartbeat in a situation like this, except
| that I have no idea what the insurance implications are.
|
| Actually, maybe someone here knows: How much would I expose
| myself lending my ~$20k car with full coverage to a random
| idiot? For the sake of argument, say I'm reasonably assured
| they are legal to drive.
| apparent wrote:
| I looked into my policy once, and it said that if I let
| someone else drive my car, the coverage from my policy
| would revert to the state minimum, around $15k.
|
| If the driver has insurance, that would probably get tapped
| first, but if they don't have enough it could end up
| hitting your policy.
| irishcoffee wrote:
| We got a new fridge a few years ago, throw the old one up
| online for free. It worked just fine, but it was one of those
| freezer-on-the-left and fridge-on-the-right, split down the
| middle. Tolerated it for years, and finally saved up enough
| for a new one.
|
| So, someone comes to pick it up. Well, 3 someone's. A older
| woman, a younger woman, and a younger man. The man was
| missing a decent amount of teeth and had a decent amount of
| prison ink.
|
| The car they came in to pick up this enormous full size
| fridge was probably only slightly bigger than the fridge. It
| wasn't even close to being possible to fit.
|
| I looked over at my 25 year old truck (I love that truck more
| than any other vehicle I've had) and made a decision.
|
| "Hey look man, I love this truck. You can borrow it to lug
| the fridge. Please bring it back. I'll even level with you,
| if you don't bring it back odds are I'm not even going to
| report it stolen, I'm just going to be bummed. I get notes on
| my windshield all the time asking if I'll sell it."
|
| Guy kind of looks at me. The other two people glance at each
| other, and the whole thing felt very strange. So we load the
| fridge and off they go.
|
| I looked at my wife and said "I'm never going to see that
| truck again, huh?"
|
| After about 4 hours I gave up. They stole it. I was strangely
| ok with it. I made the decision, knowing the risks, and had
| accepted them.
|
| 3 hours after that, they brought my truck back. The guy gets
| out and kind of started sobbing. The older woman (I assume
| the mom) was crying. Guy gave me a huge hug. Everyone was
| incredibly emotional.
|
| I didn't ask, but can only assume they considered stealing
| it. I also assume they used it all day long based on the
| mileage.
| theragra wrote:
| I had many cases of help from strangers in my life. One was not
| from a total stranger, but still.
|
| I was couchsurfing with a bicycle, and was not able to find a
| place to stay on the last day. So, instead of trying I asked a
| guy where I stayed the first day if I can return. Not only he
| agreed, but also helped to get to the airport with my packaged
| bike.
|
| Another case was when I stayed in Jordan, and the guy who I
| rented apt from helped us so much for free. He helped us to get
| to the dead sea (with two bikes, no less!), fought for the price
| with street traders so we could get an honest price and so on.
|
| And the final and best story is about a people who found us
| trying to put up a tent during the huge storm in iceland.
|
| They invited us to spend a night in their camping cabin and
| shared their dinner with us. This happened after we were going 12
| hours through the storm with a heavily packed bikes. IT felt like
| an angels touch. I almost cried due to happiness (I hardly ever
| cried back then).
| erelong wrote:
| They made some open source software for me ;^)
| deflator wrote:
| When I was about 3 years old, a man in a car tried to abduct me
| right in my front yard by offering me candy to lure me closer. An
| old woman we did not know witnessed this from down the street,
| recognized what was off about the situation, and rushed over
| yelling, scaring off the man. Not sure if I would be here today
| if not for her. My parents never were able to find out who she
| was.
| rogerrogerr wrote:
| The old lady stole your candy!
| Paul_Clayton wrote:
| When returning to Washington University in St. Louis, I was
| walking a few miles with some luggage. Someone offered to carry
| one piece with me to the dorm. It was only after reaching the
| dorm that I realized she was barefoot!
| phito wrote:
| I can't really think of anything unfortunately, except courtesy
| stuff like holding a door. People don't really interact with
| strangers where I live.
| sbassi wrote:
| where do you live?
| standardly wrote:
| I ordered the wrong thing on doordash yesterday and the store
| manager called me to ask if i was sure i wanted a pizza with no
| toppings. good on her for not delivering me a plain crust nothing
| pizza. she even had it in the oven already just in case. s tier
| human being
| gala8y wrote:
| 1. on A9 near nurnberg we caught a ride with a musician from
| munich (he played trumpet and showed us his music when i asked if
| he had any recordings in the car). it was heavily raining and it
| was late in the night. as we were approaching munich, he got off
| the highway and i was worried how we were supposed to get back on
| the highway in the middle of a effing night, but he just drove
| home and we stayed overnight. we ate breakfast together with the
| whole family (wife, kids) and he drove us off to the nearest
| autobahn entry on his way to the conservatory (he used to teach
| there) - we were going south, to italy. that's first top of my
| head, surely there is more. good times. we connected, big time.
| k310 wrote:
| Oh, you jogged my memory. Coastie here again. Soon after moving
| to the west coast, 1980-ish, I lost my wallet around Easter, on
| or about University Ave in Palo Alto, and a kind stranger found
| it and dropped it off with police, IIRC. He wouldn't take any
| more than a lunch or dinner at the Good Earth. This was B.C.
| Before cellphones.
|
| On the other side of the coin, I was leaving a thrift store in
| San Leandro and saw some black thing on the road. I was stopped
| at an intersection and picked it up. It was a wallet with $500 in
| it and a woman's out of state personal and business ID., but no
| local address or phone number. I took a real chance and left it
| with the thrift store staff, hoping they could find her. Perhaps
| she was just there? Well, they said later that they found her
| through her bank, and returned it to her. I forgot if it was
| before or after, but I did purchase two Klipsch Heresy Speakers
| there for $50 total.
| manuel_w wrote:
| Me, Austrian and two Austrian friends were doing a road trip
| through western Canada. We had a rental car with a remote key
| fob, and forgot the key fob on the cars roof when driving off for
| a multi-hundred kms trip. It obviously got lost and when stopping
| the engine at some random town along the way, we couldn't start
| the car anymore. (Luckily we had the trunk open when realizing
| that.)
|
| An elderly lady we met at the parking lot offered us, three
| random strangers in their 30s stay at her place for the night.
| Her nephew even drove to the camping area where we headed off and
| probably lost the key. It was heart-warming.
|
| After returning home we sent her a huge Christmas packet with
| typical specialties from Austria. (Pumpkin seed oil and others.
| :-) )
|
| I'll write her a letter this Christmas.
| em-bee wrote:
| ah, pumkinseed oil. the one thing i miss from austria. but what
| happened with your car? did you find the key?
| Sawpaw19 wrote:
| My best friend, his girlfriend, brother, sister and I piled into
| a minivan in July of 2018 and drove from Boston to SF. Best
| friend and I both took jobs there out of school and decided to
| make a trip of the life move.
|
| We painted BOS > SF on the back window. At a gas station in
| Memphis a random guy walked up to us and said "Make sure you go
| to Graceland. Can't miss it."
|
| We sort of smile and nod politely and then walk into the gas
| station to use the bathroom, reload on snacks etc.
|
| 10 mins later we come back outside and the same guy comes over "I
| bought you all tickets to Graceland, who can I text them to?"
|
| Truly such a sick moment. Graceland was a highlight of the trip
| and to have someone just do such a random kind thing made it that
| much better. Long live Elvis, long live the King. Thanks again to
| whoever you are that did that. Respect.
| delichon wrote:
| Was he an older guy with a curl in his upper lip?
| croisillon wrote:
| he was definitely alive
| neilv wrote:
| Was he a soulful bearded guy?
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgRafRp-P-o
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac-00KY_XGM
| bitwize wrote:
| Saw the ghost of Elvis on Union Avenue,
|
| Followed him up to the gates of Graceland, and I watched him
| pass right through.
| Vaslo wrote:
| Someone gave me the quarter I needed to unlock an Aldis Grocery
| Cart
| byyoung3 wrote:
| My rc drone lost signal and flew out of range several miles away.
| Being from a small town, the person who found it eventually found
| out it was mine, and he returned it.
| chasebank wrote:
| Did he find it with a helicopter?
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffEYqGGYXRk
| ErroneousBosh wrote:
| That was a plane ;-) I knew it was going to be that video
| before I even saw the jumble of letters at the end of the
| URL, it's one of my favourites :-D
| parpfish wrote:
| I love going out of my way to help people, but hate when people
| help me or give me gifts. I don't know how to experience "pure"
| gratitude that isn't overwhelmed by guilt.
|
| I should probably talk to somebody about that...
| charlangas wrote:
| My therapist told me you can't really give if you can't also
| receive. I'm in the same boat you are. Trying to get better at
| it.
| rhubarbtree wrote:
| Allowing people to give to you is a way of giving to them.
| mikestew wrote:
| _I should probably talk to somebody about that..._
|
| Couldn't hurt, because you're robbing others of the opportunity
| to help. And, frankly, you're not alone, I constantly run into
| folks that feel the need to reciprocate or otherwise make it
| transactional.
| stavros wrote:
| Giving a gift out of gratitude for a good deed isn't making
| it transactional.
| lubujackson wrote:
| 5th grade, my best friend at the time was in a basketball team,
| just a small town league for kids. I never really played
| basketball, so I was planning to watch the game then we'd hang
| out. It was the first game of the season and my friend was
| getting his uniform from a table when a dad running things asked
| me what team I was playing on and I said no, I'm just here to
| hang out with my friend.
|
| He shook his head and said, "No, that won't do. You're on his
| team, too" and handed me a jersey. Then he went ahead and paid my
| registration fee.
|
| More than the money, it was the proactive nature of it that
| struck me at the time. The thing is, if I had asked my parents
| they probably would have signed me up. But it was one of those
| things where it would have never crossed my mind to ask. I ws as
| one of those kids that needed a push every now and then and
| rarely got one.
|
| I never got very good at basketball but I never missed a game and
| had a great time with my friend. So not a tragic or desperate
| story, but still meaningful to me all these years later.
| mertd wrote:
| There is a million ways where that interaction goes sideways
| and becomes a drama between the parents nowadays.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| It's the kids that seem to appreciate it more than the
| parents, funnily enough.
| dollar wrote:
| A stranger risked his life to save me from drowning in Costa
| Rica.
| amelius wrote:
| I'm wondering if altruism is in decline, in this selfish age of
| social media.
|
| I sometimes even get the feeling that altruism is seen as a
| weakness these days.
| mrweasel wrote:
| I don't think so, but people are so distracted, by their
| phones, that they don't notice that other might need help.
|
| There's also two or three generations of people now who are
| absolutely terrified of talking to others, so you have to
| exhibit so level of distress for them to act.
|
| Generally though, I feel like people want to help strangers,
| and social media makes that easier to do. We have a local
| organisation that helps those less fortunate, and last year
| they wrote on Facebook a few days before Christmas that they
| had five familie (I think if was five), who hadn't been able to
| get help elsewhere and if people had food, or money they could
| spare. Took them just a few hours to ensure a nice Christmas
| for those families. Without social media, we wouldn't have
| known, and it basically only Facebook that can reach so many
| generous people in such a short time.
| rconti wrote:
| People seem to be more helpful to strangers in smaller
| communities, where there are fewer other people who could
| render aid, and where the consequences are perhaps more dire.
|
| In a big city, meh, there's always someone else who could do
| it.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| What is everyone's responsibility is no-one's responsibility.
| There are psychology experiements that back that up. Google
| 'the smoky room experiment' and 'bystander effect'.
| officehero wrote:
| On the institutional level there's grounds to believe it
| unfortunately (less welfare support, more military etc) Was
| thinking about the term "suicidal empathy" that some
| politicians have been bringing up lately (wrt migration
| policy). It's like a new derogatory jargon.
| dragonwriter wrote:
| > I'm wondering if altruism is in decline
|
| Altruism and empathy, _by name_ , are targets of derogation by
| a major political movement in the US, at least. So, yeah,
| absolutely.
|
| > I sometimes even get the feeling that altruism is seen as a
| weakness these days.
|
| This is fairly explicitly the case, yes.
| hexbin010 wrote:
| IMO it that it's harder to notice opportunities to help when
| you're glued to your phone 24/7
| donatj wrote:
| I live in Minnesota and do not own a snowblower. Probably my
| mistake, but I always joke that I get most of my exercise in the
| winter. Snow is really heavy for those without context.
|
| A couple years ago we had a particularly bad snowfall. The plow
| has a nasty hate filled habit of dumping all its snow in my
| driveway. I had a drift at the end of my driveway about 4 feet
| high and 6 feet deep. Literally up to my chest. I had spent a
| solid hour just chipping away at it trying to get my car out and
| had made very little progress.
|
| Right as I was about to give up in frustration, a man in a bobcat
| drove by. Moments later he turned around, came back, and asked
| "would you like me to clear that for you?" I told him that would
| be amazing. Took him a couple minutes and then he waved and drove
| off before I got a chance to offer him any money or even thank
| him.
|
| I think about this guy pretty often, it's absolutely the random
| act of kindness in my life I have appreciated most.
|
| A recent lesser snowfall for context:
|
| https://imgur.com/a/1un20s7
| Pikamander2 wrote:
| Plot twist: He just wanted an excuse to try out his new
| snowblower.
| bombcar wrote:
| There's more of this than you might expect. First time I got
| to turn on my new Toro I went the entire way around the
| block.
| brewtide wrote:
| The other side of the equation is my now dead toro had me
| covered in gas, frozen fingers, and plenty of swearing,
| with an itching desire to light it ablaze in the middle of
| the yard.
|
| Tis the cycle of snow blower ownership.
| phil21 wrote:
| That's just an excuse to upgrade to the new hotness!
| agos wrote:
| can you blame him? guy has a Bobcat!
| phyzome wrote:
| Plausible. When I got a new trailer for my bike that could
| haul 300 lbs I just wanted to find someone who needed a sofa
| moved for free.
| phil21 wrote:
| Yep this is me. I get super pumped whenever we get a snowfall
| large enough to justify pulling out my ridiculously overkill
| snowblower.
|
| The entire block on both sides plus the alley gets done those
| days. Neighbors here at first were skeptical since I guess
| it's not normal (it is in Minnesota - every block there has a
| hero) for the big city, but now I get treats from various
| houses that catch me doing it.
|
| I honestly do it for the pure joy of using awesome equipment
| I could otherwise nowhere remotely justify purchasing. Plus
| knowing I'm helping out my community in a small way is a nice
| bonus. Also helps me meet people and be social as an
| introvert.
| lloydatkinson wrote:
| I wish I could see the photo but I live in the UK...
| LadyCailin wrote:
| Don't worry, both you and especially your children are safe
| from seeing the picture of the snowdrift.
| Narciss wrote:
| LOL
| JadedBlueEyes wrote:
| https://rimgo.vern.cc/a/1un20s7
| lloydatkinson wrote:
| Thanks
| fsckboy wrote:
| > _Snow is really heavy_
|
| after a nar nar day in pow pow cuttin freshies up to your nippy
| nips, you'll change that assessment!
|
| (my email address was once inadvertently put on a mailing list
| for the planning of a bachelor party ski weekend, people I did
| not know or have any connection to, and that's the way they
| talked. i enjoyed it so much i didn't confess till they
| demanded to know why i hadn't RSVPed yet)
| Neywiny wrote:
| Just be wary as you get older. The number of old men who die
| from heart attacks while shoveling snow is nonzero
| workfromspace wrote:
| Isn't "number of old men who die from heart attacks while
| doing anything is non zero"?
| macintux wrote:
| Shoveling snow is a well-established high risk factor for
| older adults.
| njarboe wrote:
| For fat people, getting over heated when doing things is
| generally the limiting factor on how strenuous one can
| push the body. In the cold you can exercise a lot harder
| before you get too hot, so the person can stress the body
| more than they usually would.
| phil21 wrote:
| It's the going from zero to 100 that gets folks it seems.
|
| Deep, heavy, wet snow is called heart attack snow for a
| reason. It sneaks up on you - a driveway you just cleared
| for years with normal snowfalls is all of a sudden a 10x
| workout from usual, and your brain doesn't completely
| process this. Anything else at that level of intensity
| would likely trigger you to take breaks.
|
| That said - I think inactivity is far worse. But I still
| make a point to go shovel my elderly neighbors walks here
| in Chicago before they have a chance to do it when we get
| particularly deep snowfalls.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| The number of old men who die from doing no exercize is also
| quite high.
| thunderfork wrote:
| My grandfather was a farmer and scarcely went a day without
| hours of exercise in his life. He passed away after a heart
| attack while shoveling his paraplegic neighbor's driveway.
|
| You don't have to be unfit to get done in by shoveling
| snow.
| bjt wrote:
| My ninth grade English teacher never made it back from
| Christmas break because of this.
| rogerrogerr wrote:
| I'm convinced bobcats (used generically) are the single most
| versatile and useful platform ever created. They're fun to
| drive and you can solve most problems with them. Not optimally
| for any specific task, but if something needs to be pushed or
| lifted or moved or pulled or flattened or piled, you can find a
| way.
|
| An 863 with hi-flow 2 speed and a pivoting plow was the most
| ideal snowplow I've ever played with.
| joecool1029 wrote:
| I was sent to collections for a rabies vaccine (well the
| immunoglobulin post-exposure part was the real expensive one)
| that was supposed to be reimbursed under a pharma/CDC program.
| Something like $17k.
|
| I begged the guy that helped me fill out the paperwork for that
| program to give me something proving the hospital was paid. He
| broke the law and gave me the whole month's reimbursed list of
| everyone in that program. Hospital made the situation go away in
| less than a day once they saw I had it.
|
| I will never forget his name since he put his ass on the line
| doing that and I never met him in person, just a few phone calls.
| le-mark wrote:
| I saw my mom do something as a child that really stuck with me.
| This was back in the 70s cause I'm old. It was summer in the
| Midwest we were in the car in a store parking lot gettin ready to
| leave. An African-American lady pulled into a spot beside our
| car. In front of her was a pickup truck with two men and a
| pregnant woman. They started accosting the lady telling her she
| had bumped their vehicle and now the pregnant woman was in pain.
| This was the 70s so everyone's windows were down so we heard the
| whole thing. The gist was these people were clearly trying to
| extort money from this lady. My mom got out and dressed them down
| because she had been watching and the ladies car didn't touch
| their truck. They sulked and drove away. The lady was very afraid
| and very grateful. This was a time and place where not a lot of
| African Americans lived. That really stuck with me over the
| years.
| stavros wrote:
| Your mom was especially courageous to do this as a child!
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| LoL
| VonTum wrote:
| Just now, I'm travelling through India, and today was
| particularily rough. (I'm trying to go from Delhi Airport to
| Agra). Multiple Ubers turned out bad (scams, no-show, or fucking
| with pickup point). I spent several hours in this limbo getting
| nowhere. I end up taking a train without ticket on advice of
| multiple people around me, since the counter refused to sell me
| one.
|
| Turns out, wrong train, going slightly the wrong way. But a guy
| walks up to me in the train, asks me where I'm going, and starts
| to help me get to where I need to go. He arranged a bunk for me,
| talked to the conductor for me, bought(!) another train to Agra
| for me, called hostels in Agra, etc etc. I've had multiple such
| encounters here in India, of people going so far out of their way
| to help me here, something you would honestly never see in my
| country Germany. It's like a strange incongruence, with one
| fraction of the population hell-bent on fleecing you for all
| you've got, and another that will go way further out of their way
| for you than you could ever imagine.
| akshitgaur2005 wrote:
| If you find the sheer number of people too much, do visit
| either Himachal Pradesh or Uttarakhand! You will find THE
| kindest people there. Though be careful of leopard and bear
| attacks in Uttarakhand right now!!
| VonTum wrote:
| Oh, I just came back from Shimla actually. I stayed in
| Narkanda for 2 days to do some hiking, and Shimla one day,
| though I didn't interact with many people there. My next stop
| is Kochi, hopefully things are also a little quieter there.
| user_7832 wrote:
| Kochi is also a very nice city, but if you're coming from
| Shimla or even Delhi you're going to find it sweltering hot
| probably. It's about 260C (800F) right now... (I'm close to
| Kochi and honestly in these temperatures it doesn't even
| feel like Christmas)
|
| Ps, Kochi can be quite bustling. The more remote and rural
| towns (like Munnar) are a relatively safer bet.
| threethirtytwo wrote:
| This correlates with tourism. Low touristy places you standout
| and people treat you nicer than normal.
|
| In touristy places you are just a target. It's just different
| places have different strategies for fleecing you. For example
| in Japan you probably wouldn't even know you got ripped off but
| India they are likely so obvious about it you never get
| fleeced.
| criddell wrote:
| They hired me. That was in 1996 and I still work for them today.
| abraxas wrote:
| Someone held a door open for me so I had to pick up the pace.
|
| I'm ugly so strangers aren't nice to me.
| apparent wrote:
| In all seriousness, people probably do more favors for
| attractive strangers. And HN is probably populated with
| average-looking people, at best. In some ways, this means that
| the stories posted here will be of true altruism.
|
| On the other hand, if you asked a bunch of great-looking people
| what strangers had done for them, you'd get a bunch of stories
| about people who were very kind (but perhaps not entirely
| altruistic in their intent).
| hermitcrab wrote:
| >at best
|
| Ouch.
| apparent wrote:
| I'm open to the possibility this is wrong. But I'm pretty
| sure that HN is mostly male (85%?), and that men are more
| likely to do good deeds for attractive women strangers than
| women are likely to do good deeds for attractive men
| strangers.
|
| For one thing, women (especially smaller women) would be
| wary of offering a ride to a man or letting him into her
| home.
| amarant wrote:
| When I was very little, like 4 or 5, a new family moved in on the
| street. I was curious, so I took my little pedal-racecar down the
| street to where they were moving in to say hi and welcome to the
| neighborhood. The dad of the family caught me staring wide eyed
| at his enormous collection of CDs and vinyls, and asked me what
| my favourite song was. I thought for a while and then told him
| track 3 from Nevermind by Nirvana. He told me to listen to the
| local radio station the next day at 3pm.
|
| Turns out he had his own show on the radio, and he played my
| song! Well, Nirvana's song, but the one I picked. He even
| dedicated it to me and everything! I thought I was bonafide
| rockstar for years after that!
|
| I guess I should qualify the story by saying, he was a stranger
| at the time, but not for long. His son was 2 years younger than
| me and we became best friends, and he was like a second dad for
| me too. But that came later.
|
| Bobo is not with us anymore, but here's to his memory.
| sim04ful wrote:
| Not a stranger but strangers I was returning home from an event
| early evening. Being absorbed in my thoughts. I got both my front
| tires free spinning without traction in a ditch.
|
| Although this was in Nigeria, we have this certain camaraderie
| through hardship, it was still extremely surprising seeing a
| group of 6 men come out of nowhere, having nothing to do with
| each other aside being passerbys join hands, exerting sweaty
| effort to get my car out a ditch by 8pm.
|
| Left me quite an impression
| bombcar wrote:
| I high-centered my car on a drift coming out of the Taco Bell
| drive thru - not a minute passed before ten or so people
| appeared out of nowhere and pushed me over and out.
|
| Literally, the moment before there hadn't been anything around
| but me and that Taco Bell.
| layla5alive wrote:
| We had a blizzard that dumped 3 feet of snow in a weekend, my
| car got stuck, and about 6 people came out of their warm cozy
| houses to help push it. On a separate occasion, years later
| someone driving by stopped their car to help when they saw me
| stuck on the side of the road.
|
| We grew up very poor, and I can't count the number of times
| someone helped us through a difficult situation - there are
| plenty of times we were on our own and there wasn't any help,
| but also times when someone noticed and helped. The help was
| always so appreciated- it lessened the suffering considerably
| compared to the times when we were on our own with whatever
| problem.
| mikestew wrote:
| Reminds me of when my wife would drop her loaded-for-touring
| motorcycle in a parking lot. People would crawl out of the
| woodwork to run over and help her pick it up.
|
| I've dropped mine on rare occasions, and nary a soul even
| looked my direction. :-) (But thankfully I'm a grown boy who
| can pick it up myself.)
| sizzzzlerz wrote:
| My chain had slipped off the rear sprocket, wedged itself between
| the gear and the frame. I forgot my toolkit and I was unable to
| free it. I was miles out of town so a walk back was going to take
| hours. A guy on a motorcycle rode by, looked at me and turned
| around. He got off his bike, got his tools, and freed the chain
| in seconds. I was profoundly grateful. Years later, I happened
| across a cyclist in a similar situation. I helped him and I told
| him I was simply paying back the first guy who had helped me. It
| felt really good.
| rconti wrote:
| I'm something of a cyclist and I drive on a lot of roads where
| there are cyclists all the time. I keep meaning to make sure my
| car is stocked with some helpful bike tools or a spare tube or
| something. I need to get on that.
| lostlogin wrote:
| A few tubes, CO2 or a pump and some tyre levers.
|
| You'll be a super hero.
| ErroneousBosh wrote:
| Same. I'm tempted to throw in a couple of spare tubes in the
| little pocket things between the interior trim and tail
| lights, where just now I keep a spare fanbelt, too.
|
| I usually have stick-on patches and a bike pump as well as
| the normal Landrover-fixing tools, because you can have a
| toolbox without having an old Landrover but you can't have an
| old Landrover without having a toolbox.
| stavros wrote:
| Aren't there many different kinds of tubes? Or are they
| fairly standard?
| IneffablePigeon wrote:
| Road bikes are reasonably standard. Tubes will generally
| fit some range of tyre sizes so in practice a single size
| will fit most road bikes.
| stavros wrote:
| Interesting, thanks!
| lostlogin wrote:
| I find that cyclists often help cyclists. 'Help the next guy'
| being a phrase I've heard a few times.
|
| A $5 tube is so small a cost. Not having one can make a minor
| inconvenience into an utter shambles if you have to call home
| go a lift from 50km away at 6am.
| phyzome wrote:
| You know what else is a nice thing to carry? A wad of paper
| towels to get the grease off. Even if someone can repair
| their own bike, they often don't have a plan for the grease.
|
| I've handed out paper towels to 4-5 people this year and they
| were all delighted.
| HexPhantom wrote:
| "Paying it back" instead of "paying it forward" feels
| especially right here
| CrzyLngPwd wrote:
| Some years ago, I left my wallet at home and had filled my car
| with petrol at the petrol station, and the lady behind me paid
| for it and refused to give me her details so I could return the
| money.
|
| I was blown away and so grateful.
|
| I have paid it forward many times over.
| ok123456 wrote:
| Stopped in the dark on a December night on the shoulder of an
| interstate junction to change a tire after I had a blowout while
| driving. Under normal circumstances, I probably could have
| handled it myself, but I was getting about four hours of sleep a
| night because of tinnitus.
|
| I was very nervous when a random guy stopped. My initial thought
| was, "Am I about to be robbed?" But it turned out that he was
| just a local aerospace engineer, and it was his hobby to help
| stranded motorists.
| sbassi wrote:
| I was at an antique shop in Alameda about to buy a pulp sci-fi
| book. It was just a couple of bucks, nothing expensive. But the
| card reader wasn't accepting my Apple Pay. Another guy shopping
| there offered to pay for me. I told him I could Venmo or PayPal
| him the money, but he wouldn't take it. It wasn't a big deal in
| terms of money, but he didn't have to do that
| michaelbryzek wrote:
| 3-day bike trip, NYC to Provincetown. On day two, our group split
| up and I was riding with a close friend. 15 miles into the
| 100-mile day, we got our 3rd flat. We had only carried 2 spare
| tubes.
|
| We had barely pulled our bikes onto the sidewalk when a woman in
| a sedan slowed down to ask if we needed help. We said yes and she
| quickly pulled over. We piled our bikes into her car, trunk open,
| and she drove us to the nearest bike shop.
|
| Turns out her family member ran the shop.
|
| Truly saved our day. We made it to Provincetown and 15 years
| later still remember her so fondly and are so thankful!
| nchmy wrote:
| Carry a patch kit now?
| dannyfritz07 wrote:
| Didn't expel me from university for an insensitive prank I
| accidentally sent to the administration instead of my friends. I
| discovered the university's email server was unsecured and
| thought it would be funny to send fake emergency alerts to my
| friends from the official university email. I mixed up the "from"
| and "to" fields though... oops.
| ferociouskite56 wrote:
| Warn me antipsychotics cause diabetes
| sandruso wrote:
| I missed last train due to delays and there was a group of in the
| same situation. One nice person offered me to that I can sleep on
| their couch. And they were so nice to give me a ride to the
| station the next day.
|
| I was so angry at first when I found out that this was my last
| train and I missed it but it turned out to be great story I can
| tell :)
|
| Thank you strangers, I'll repay it back to somebody in the future
| afandian wrote:
| Was busking on Oxford with an accordion. An American tourist gave
| me a bottle of wine.
|
| Less exotic than some stories here but I remember it 20 years
| later.
| proee wrote:
| Eating at nice restaurant with my entire family. When we finished
| the meal the waiter came out with a dessert and said that someone
| across the restaurant paid for our entire meal. I was shocked, I
| looked around and I think I might know who it was, but they were
| already gone. That was probably a $150-$200 dollar check. I'm
| still shocked to this day.
| cmckn wrote:
| A few years ago, I was in the drive through of a Starbucks on
| the east side of Seattle. A very shiny Porsche 911 was in front
| of me, and I was kind of rolling my eyes. Who needs to drive a
| Porsche to Starbucks? Douchebag.
|
| Whoever it was paid for my order. Kind of a record-scratch
| moment, just completely changed my mood and was a good reminder
| to not be negative for no reason.
| mikestew wrote:
| _Who needs to drive a Porsche to Starbucks?_
|
| On Seattle's Eastside? Someone whose Land Rover is in the
| shop.
|
| Jokes aside, what are they supposed to do? Keep a Camry in
| the garage for those Starbucks trips? :-)
| halapro wrote:
| I missed an unprotected international connection out of New York
| due to a weather 6-hour delay.
|
| Another passenger saw me crying on the phone with my father when
| I had to ask him to help me buy a new ticket back home. He (and
| another elderly passenger) cheered me up and offered me to stay
| with him until the next flight out the next afternoon.
|
| Took me (male, 21) to his room, took care of me until my flight
| and told me to pay it forward.
|
| It was one of my first intentional trips and it had all gone to
| shit even before this event. I flew back home with like 30 euros
| on my account.
| 999900000999 wrote:
| When I was very green, a nice startup CEO gave me a job I wasn't
| really qualified directly.
|
| Within 3 years I went from a college dropout with nothing going
| on to making 6 figures.
|
| That was a long time ago and I've been comfortable ever since.
|
| 2 evictions before I turned 19 and I haven't been evicted since.
|
| Life is good.
| jimt1234 wrote:
| Not sure if this qualifies as a "stranger", but a nurse at the
| UCLA Cancer Center in Santa Monica helped my family and I when my
| sister was on her last days, dying of cancer. It was a bunch of
| little things: she got us into a single-bed room; she cleared out
| a maintenance closet for the family to meet privately with
| doctors; she did some sort of meditation with my sister that
| helped calm her; she "translated" what the doctors were telling
| us; she told the other nurses (and the security staff) to leave
| us alone (visiting hours). Mostly, she was a human to us, not
| just someone doing their job. I'll never forget the horrible
| experience of watching my sister dying, but Nurse Suzanna made it
| so much better. She's an amazing person, and I'll be forever
| grateful to her.
|
| BTW, here she is: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-travis-rn-
| ocn-reiki-cert...
| gastonmorixe wrote:
| I met a Tesla engineer on Reddit a few years ago. We got talking,
| he referred me to Tesla, and I ended up getting an offer for what
| was basically my dream role.
|
| He was a complete stranger and incredibly kind, supportive, and
| helpful throughout the process. Still grateful for that. Small
| acts like that restore a bit of faith in humanity.
|
| It also reminded me of a Steve Jobs quote:
|
| "Most people never pick up the phone. Most people never ask. And
| that's what separates, sometimes, the people who do things from
| the people who just dream about them. You have to act, and you
| have to be willing to fail. If you're afraid of failing, you
| won't get very far." - SJ
| pengaru wrote:
| A surprising number of people are even afraid of succeeding
| bunnybomb2 wrote:
| So true. I had this 100% and starting my first startup helped
| me loads with it.
| ElasticBottle wrote:
| I actually struggle with this quite a bit, took me a while to
| realised, but wonder if you have any advice to get over it?
| (Aside from just succeed more)
| capncleaver wrote:
| This is my earliest memory. When I was two, and did not yet know
| how to swim, I was visiting with family who had a place right on
| the river Thames near Henley. I was running around with my seven
| cousins, but I was the youngest and at some point found myself
| alone. I wandered out onto the towpath beside the river, where
| they had a small jetty.
|
| Earlier an older cousin had been out in the canoe and it looked
| easy enough. I put one foot in and realised my error immediately,
| toppling into the water. I remember clearly the water bubbles
| going by and thinking 'Oh dear, my mum is going to be so angry
| about this.' I came back up and saw a couple now running up along
| the path -- they had seen me go in.
|
| I don't remember anything else. I'm told the man fished me out
| and then there was a great kerfuffle as I was hung upside-down
| and coughed a bit. My cousins got a massive earful from my
| mother, who was furious with the eldest in particular for losing
| track of me. My father taught me to swim.
|
| The man was thanked profusely, but we don't know his name. I hope
| he had a wonderful life and I'm grateful for mine.
| yesthisiswes wrote:
| I live in a neighborhood where every street has a cul-de-sac.
| Outside our neighborhood is a busy road. About 6 months ago our
| 100lb Great Dane escaped out the front door while we were
| bringing in groceries. My wife and I chased her around the
| neighborhood trying to get her back. We lost sight of her and she
| eventually ended up in the middle of that busy road. A young
| college aged kid saw her in the road stopped his car and chased
| her back into our neighborhood. We cornered her and I grabbed her
| collar. The guy headed back to his car after the dog was caught.
| I should have got the guys name. I was so angry at the dog I
| didn't really know what to say to the him but I am still so
| thankful. It could have been a very sad day for our family
| without his help.
| tibra wrote:
| I was backpacking in Australia in 2008. I talked to a girl when I
| was driving up the east coast und she gave me her brother's
| numbers and said to call him when I was visiting Perth (west
| coast). I did, he invited me to live at his house for six weeks
| for free. After that, I was invited by a German to live at her
| house in Melbourne for another two month. I was so short with my
| money and that both were incredibly kind to me.
| TheAceOfHearts wrote:
| I'm continuously delighted by the whole open source software
| ecosystem. I'm using nixOS with KDE and this setup has made me
| feel incredibly powerful and excited about computers once again.
| I'm very grateful to the thousands of open source contributors
| that have made this possible.
| arjie wrote:
| In general, I've found that people, even strangers, kind of look
| out for you. I've only had occasion to need this in America, but
| every time strangers have helped. What I found fascinating was
| that even late in the night, on a dark highway, a young woman
| would stop to assist. What a safe society.
|
| Two of those occasions are when I crashed on my skateboard, and
| when I crashed my car. Both times, a young woman stopped to help
| me[0]. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to say when people haven't
| been kind to me. A girl on a train gave me the book she finished
| reading. A homeless guy helped me push a car[2]. I left my car
| open once with everything inside and a passing woman closed it
| for me and left a note.
|
| But also the society built here assists competently when
| individuals cannot. After a motorcycle accident in the city, the
| ambulance was there to pick me up apparently (I wouldn't know, I
| have amnesia) within minutes.
|
| We've always stopped to help when we can and have many times (a
| few in SF here[2]) but it is gratifying that others are also like
| that. The other thing I like is that people don't mind asking for
| help. I was at the Safeway up in Diamond Heights, all in my
| motorcycle gear (which some can find intimidating) and this old
| lady asked for help with her car boot. Why on Earth would I know?
| But it turned out to be a quick fix and while I sorted the latch
| out, this other elderly couple talked to me about the husband's
| Ducati which he used to have.
|
| In fact, I have come to think about this non-kin pro-sociality as
| being some sort of sociocultural superpower among the societies
| that can practice it. It seems to me that the most successful
| societies practised this. Even in the age of empire, it seems
| some societies were more capable of pro-social outcomes. British
| imperialism was a brutal thing in many places and especially
| earlier in its time, but compared to intra-tribal violence among
| indigenous peoples it seems almost civilized. The bare minimum
| rise to civilization seems to have been to replace terminal fatal
| violence with non-terminal subjugation (which seems to have been
| a hard thing to achieve). The Maori left only a hundred or so
| Moriori alive, and ate and killed the rest. By comparison, the
| British had the Maori in parliament.
|
| Similarly, the father of the Charlie Kirk shooter encouraged him
| to give himself up: placing his kin at the mercy of his non-kin
| society. I think this kind of non-kin pro-sociality is where the
| magic is in a successful society. But producing that is hard. As
| an example, no matter how much a young woman would want to help a
| man waving her down on the side of the road, she should not do so
| in Somalia. American society (and many others) has solved, for
| the most part, the problem of stranger trust. That enables this
| kind of cooperation, which enables large-scale coordination,
| which helps a society prosper.
|
| This reminds me of what _A Splendid Exchange_ says about the Qu
| 'ran having rules on commerce and law: thereby allowing the
| Islamic world to prosper because any Muslim of the time could
| meet another Muslim of the time and know they lived by the same
| law (enforced by God, one presumes). This allowed stranger-trust
| across the seas.
|
| Overall, quite fascinating. These societal innovations are
| devices that last for some period of time and provide a massive
| boost to those societies. Certainly whatever Dutch system existed
| to enforce joint-stock capital, a secondary market, and
| derivatives allowed them to coordinate to be the power they were
| at the time[3]. I wonder what the next such device will be.
|
| The default of humanity seems to be to cooperate[4], so the hard
| part here is finding the device that fights exploitation of pro-
| sociality.
|
| 0:
| https://wiki.roshangeorge.dev/w/Blog/2024-08-14/Fearless_Ame...
|
| 1: https://wiki.roshangeorge.dev/w/Motorcycle_Accident
|
| 2:
| https://wiki.roshangeorge.dev/w/Blog/2025-02-20/Car_Breakdow...
|
| 3: Though the flip side is the zielverkopers - people who turned
| labor into a tradable commodity but using what is in practice
| debt bondage
|
| 4: In some sense, all living beings are formed from cooperation
| neilv wrote:
| I could write all day about the times people helped me that I
| know about, and there's others I suspect, and surely others I
| never suspected.
|
| One that comes to mind was when I was on my own as a teen, and
| fortunately had a community college co-op student internship. My
| coworkers looked out for me in various ways, both professionally
| and personally, as if it was just ordinary for them.
|
| I also found some similar above-and-beyond goodness by people at
| Brown University.
|
| So that's what I knew in adulthood, until later disillusionment.
|
| I still try to promote the way that I know exists, and I
| recognize a lot of other people who live that, or are ready to
| switch to it.
| John7878781 wrote:
| Reading all the other comments really puts a smile to my face (as
| cliche as that sounds).
| KineticLensman wrote:
| They broke my ribs when I had a cardiac arrest, doing vigorous
| CPR. Would not be posting this now if it wasn't for them. I was
| basically alive when the air ambulance landed, but wouldn't have
| been otherwise
| ljlolel wrote:
| If it doesn't break ribs then it's not proper CPR
| ErroneousBosh wrote:
| Oh yeah, it's got to feel like punching a bag of stale
| crackers or you're not doing it right.
| cmckn wrote:
| Not _the_ nicest thing, but when I was grocery shopping for
| Thanksgiving a few weeks ago, a stranger shared their "secret"
| for picking out good sweet potatoes (she was making sweet potato
| pie). She picked out a few for me. Just one of those warm fuzzy
| moments that we never get enough of.
| bunnybomb2 wrote:
| This is nice
| tjwebbnorfolk wrote:
| I've got a weird one from a bank.
|
| I was driving from South Carolina to Virginia, I was completely
| broke, and had exactly $20 in cash, and only a couple dollars in
| my checking account. I did my math wrong, and didn't have enough
| money for enough gas to make it home. I was trying to draft
| behind semi trucks and drive slow to conserve fuel, but it wasn't
| enough.
|
| I called my bank at the gas station with my needle on empty and
| asked what would happen if I overdrew my account by $50, and the
| guy on the phone asked me to explain the situation. Afterwards he
| said I was good to go.
|
| I asked, what does that mean? He said there's now $50 in your
| account. You can use it to fill up your car on your debit card.
|
| I filled up my car and made it home. When I checked my account
| later, expecting to see an overdraft fee, there was a deposit of
| $50 from some account I didn't recognize. The guy had just
| transferred me $50 from his own account. I never figured out who
| this was, so ~18 years later, I'll take this opportunity to say:
| thank you sir.
|
| I don't know that this is THE nicest thing anyone has ever done,
| but it was a small thing that made a huge difference in that
| moment.
| HexPhantom wrote:
| Kindness doesn't have to be dramatic to be life-saving in the
| moment
| tjwebbnorfolk wrote:
| Indeed.
| lukan wrote:
| Ah yes, I kind of grew up with the expectations bank people are
| supposed to always rip you of, so they cannot really be kind,
| only pretend nice to get money from you. So when I was a poor
| backpacker in australia wanting to cash in the small check from
| fruit picking work, I was suprised to find out, that there were
| normaly quite some fees involved to get the cash, but the bank
| person just smiled and said, it is ok in my case and I got all
| the cash with no fees.
| tjwebbnorfolk wrote:
| It's really striking the number times people have downvoted my
| story, considering it is 1) a true fact about my life, and 2)
| eminently relevant to the topic of the article.
|
| Even a thread about kindness can't stop the haters :)
| djmips wrote:
| Just recently I was going through my wallet downtown and I
| inadvertently dropped a $20 bill. A street denizen in a
| wheelchair picked it up and scurried to catch up with me and
| handed it to me. He would not take anything more than a thank-
| you.
| WalterBright wrote:
| On one of my many trips to Europe, I was wandering around the
| downtown area, and having walked a great deal sat down on a park
| bench to rest.
|
| Two very beautiful young ladies came up to me, and said you look
| like you need a hug. Instantly my spidey sense went on red alert,
| as I figured these two were pickpockets or scammers or ladies of
| the evening, since I was much too old to be of interest to them,
| and no woman has ever remarked that I was handsome. I asked them
| what they were doing, and they said they were just doing a
| project spreading kindness.
|
| So I said ok and one of them gave me a truly wonderful hug, and I
| said thank you and they went on their way.
|
| All I can say is "wow".
| socalgal2 wrote:
| Not the same, but I've seen hugging brigades in many large
| cities all over the world. People holding up signs, "Free
| Hugs". I always exchange hugs
| mox-1 wrote:
| A friend of mine and I (we are both Aussies) had been staying at
| my Grandma's house in a rural village in UK and were trying to
| make our way back to London on Boxing Day. The fact that it was
| Boxing Day meant that no buses were running, so we started
| sticking our thumbs out to try and hitch a lift to the nearest
| town's train station. As you would expect, picking up two 19 year
| old blokes in the middle of nowhere was not an attractive
| proposition to your average passerby.
|
| Eventually a guy comes along and picks us up. Tells us he hitched
| all the way across Europe back in the day so he empathized with
| us. Says he's on the way to pick up his son (our age) from work,
| a department store that happened to be on the way to the station.
|
| His son gets into the car, understandably pretty bemused as to
| why his dad has brought two random stragglers with him!
|
| We get to the station only to find that it's closed, because,
| yes, it's Boxing Day and trains weren't running either (we hadn't
| really thought this through). Guy says:
|
| "Don't worry lads, all the family are around ours for Christmas
| dinner. My brother lives in West London so he can give you a ride
| there at the end of the night."
|
| So we found ourselves, two foreign students, invited to a
| complete stranger's Christmas dinner party. We all had so much
| fun and drank so much that we completely abandoned the London
| idea and went back to my Grandma's at the end of the night.
|
| And the kid who was our age that got picked up from work? He
| ended up being my Best Man when I got married 15 years later.
| True story!
| jacquesm wrote:
| That's absolutely amazing.
| comprev wrote:
| Wonderful story!
|
| As a Brit, I feel Xmas meal is the one time when you might see
| new faces around the table as we make an effort to ensure
| nobody is eating alone.
|
| Growing up it was not unusual for members of the local
| community to join us if they faced Xmas alone.
| HexPhantom wrote:
| Wild how life sometimes compresses decades into a single
| afternoon
| em-bee wrote:
| does couchsurfing count? in poland trains are running on
| christmas, but i missed a connection and i was stuck in warsaw
| on chistmas eve. looked up hosts on couchsurfing which take
| guests without prior notice and found myself enjoying christmas
| dinner with a polish family.
| peterburkimsher wrote:
| After a concert in London, I missed the last train back to
| Lancaster. So I made a sign saying that I was on
| CouchSurfing, and some strangers invited me over!
|
| After CouchSurfing started charging a monthly fee, I've
| defected to BeWelcome.org which is a European, open-source
| alternative to CS.
| stephenlf wrote:
| I love the story. The road rash picture that shows up in the
| OpenGraph preview makes it awkward to share, lol
| gradascent wrote:
| Similar to the author's story, I crashed on my bike going pretty
| quickly on a busy road. No serious injuries but I ended up with
| scrapes and a softball-sized bruise which lasted over a month.
| But after I fell and got off the road a man sitting on his porch
| eating dinner asked me if I was ok. I told him what happened and
| he quickly grabbed some tools to fix my bike and alcohol and
| bandages for the wound. His roommate came home and assumed we
| knew each other but nope he was just my guardian angel. I hadn't
| thought about this in a while... now I'll be sure to remember it
| again.
| dundarious wrote:
| First thing that comes to mind is a young man in Tokyo taking me
| and my then-gf to our ryokan after we asked him for directions.
| He walked over 20 minutes with us, clearly using up his entire
| lunch-break at work, to get us right to the door, going
| completely out of his way. We were just asking for general
| directions, but he took us all the way. We couldn't believe how
| gracious he was, and luckily we were able to gift him some
| chocolates from our home countries. Not a good lunch, but I hope
| he enjoyed them.
| OneMorePerson wrote:
| I was at a waterpark as a young teen and ended up trying the wave
| pool, but even being tall for my age I was shorter than a typical
| adult. When I first went out the waves weren't turned on/going
| yet, but once the waves started everyone moved forward and the
| crowded pool compressed even more, plus I got pushed even deeper
| into the deep end, and basically I sank down because I couldn't
| really get any space to swim and everyone else was standing. It
| was so packed with people that eventually (without my realizing
| at the time) it became impossible to move arms and legs enough to
| stay up, kinda like a crowd surge but in the water.
|
| I must have been too shy to think of climbing onto the person
| next to me. My best guess is that I was "jumping" up off the
| bottom to get brief bits of air while hoping it wasn't in the
| middle of a wave. After doing this for a bit, could be just
| seconds, I started to panic (I really couldn't tell you how long,
| felt like forever). I heard a whistle and somehow this lifeguard
| was there through the crowd within seconds (they had been
| standing along the wall of the pool but I was more in the
| middle).
|
| The people all around me shoulder to shoulder hadn't even noticed
| what was going on, I still feel amazed the lifeguard could pick
| me out from thousands of heads and get to me.
|
| (I don't know if this can be considered "nice" cause it was their
| job, but it's something that has always stuck with me).
| wrs wrote:
| PSA for anyone near water: Drowning people can act the opposite
| of what one might expect. No flailing, no splashing, no
| yelling, just quietly disappearing. It's good to know the real
| signs to watch for. [0]
|
| [0] https://ndpa.org/drowningdoesntlooklikedrowning/
| onraglanroad wrote:
| That "bobbing in the water but not splashing or swimming"
| motion is what drowning looks like in real life.
|
| See if you can spot the person in trouble before the lifeguard
| does in this video: https://youtu.be/4sFuULOY5ik
| irishcoffee wrote:
| I was a lifeguard for about 8 years in high school and college.
| I pulled out close to 20 people. Never had to administer CPR:
| if you get there quick enough it's maybe a bit of coughing.
|
| I wonder if any of those people remember that.
|
| I also cannot sit by a body of water with people swimming
| without falling back into lifeguard mode. I've pulled out a few
| people as a civilian. Nothing serious, but it would have been.
| Little kids and beaches are a rough combo.
| socalgal2 wrote:
| There's a corelation between how nice people are in general and
| how well laws are enforced. More consistent enforcement means
| people trust that other's are not getting away with stuff and so
| they can settle into assuming the best most often, instead of
| having to worry.
|
| I feel like many places have forgotten that. Maybe law
| enforcement got too expensive or there were too many corrupt
| police but so much now is no longer enforced and so the selfish
| "it's okay if I can get away with it" types are winning.
| HexPhantom wrote:
| Stories like this always hit me harder than I expect. Not because
| they're dramatic, but because of how quietly competent the
| kindness is
| hermitcrab wrote:
| In the UK we used to have a nationalized rail system. People were
| always rude about the late trains, stale sandwiches etc. But I
| once managed to leave a bag Xmas present on a train. I only
| realized when I got another train. They were so helpful, they
| managed to find the bag and have it sent on to me. I think we
| lost a lot of that good will when the UK rail system was
| privatised. And the privatised trains were still late, but much
| more expensive.
| HexPhantom wrote:
| I think this really nails something people struggle to put into
| words: it wasn't that the system was perfect, it was that it
| felt human
| hermitcrab wrote:
| I think making system more efficient often squeezes the
| kindness (and resilience) out of them. I have spoken to NHS
| workers who said that they used to do various unpaid overtime
| but, now they had opppressive management, didn't any more.
| Obviously things need a level of effiency, but there is a
| point beyond which it becomes counterproductive.
| hexbin010 wrote:
| I agree. The railway now is mean, willing to prosecute,
| unhelpful and expensive
|
| I've read various accounts of people trying to reclaim lost
| baggage and it's a Kafkaesque process designed to be totally
| useless
|
| But the railway operators are 50% nationalised now. Northern,
| TransPennine, South West Railway, LNER, Greater Anglia, c2c,
| ScotRail, Southeastern, TfW are all government owned.
|
| And the forerunner in increasing fares the last couple of years
| has been...the government. They renationalised various
| operators during and after COVID and are now busy decreasing
| rail subsidies and increasing fares.
|
| (yes even with the freezing of some fares in April. It's only
| some fares. And prices had been going up multiple times a year
| in many places for a few years. There is a wider picture and
| other schemes happening pushing up prices)
|
| Maybe Great British Rail will slowly and surely return us to a
| less mean system. Time will tell
| hermitcrab wrote:
| The UK railways are expensive, and I have a car, so I very
| rarely go by train. But all those road trips cost everyone
| else, in terms of congestion, pollution etc. Maybe the
| railways should be regarded as critical infrastructure, run
| at a loss and subsidised accordingly.
| _puk wrote:
| You mean nationalised?
|
| You realise even the subsidies go to pay Canadian pension
| funds [0]
|
| 0: https://weownit.org.uk/who-owns-our/railways
| hermitcrab wrote:
| yes, nationalized and subsidised.
| _puk wrote:
| Brings back memories of a recent 16 year old stood in tears
| whilst they took her details to prosecute her because she was
| travelling on a child ticket "but my mum always bought me a
| ticket".
|
| No mercy. Fuck those guys.
|
| Same guy that stung me for not having a ticket when every
| other day they'd come round and let me buy a ticket on the
| train.. I even went to the window at the destination for a
| ticket, and then got referred for a penalty fare. Fuck that
| guy.
| froh wrote:
| thank you for this uplifting thread!
|
| ---
|
| I had some young family drama which kept me from studying for my
| first oral university exam. so I talked with the prof about it.
| he told me to bring a sick leave attestation from Dr such and
| such - or to come and give it shot. gave it a shot. "you can do
| much better that's obvious. I'll give you the weakest passing
| grade or I fail you and you redo the exam. your choice." wow.
| nntwozz wrote:
| My family lived in an apartment near a cemetery when I was 10,
| the complex stretched along the old cemetery wall made out of
| massive granite stones. Nearly all of the people living in the
| complex were elderly.
|
| When I came home from school I would sometimes kick ball against
| the wall and I could spot old people looking at me from the
| windows, they would stare at me for a long time.
|
| One summer an elderly woman came out on the balcony and invited
| me to come up for ice cream, my parents had warned me to beware
| of friendly strangers but my judgement at the time was that it
| was a neighbor so they must be friendly.
|
| I entered and to my surprise the woman wasn't alone, she lived
| with her husband who was sitting in an armchair and they both
| looked to be in their 80s. They seemed very happy to have me, we
| sat down on the balcony and I remember feeling a bit awkward as
| these two strangers looked and smiled at me as I was eating the
| ice cream.
|
| I don't think they ever had any children.
|
| This memory sometimes resurfaces, and now at 41 I realize how sad
| and wonderful this was at the same time.
|
| We moved away shortly after and I never saw them again.
| karolist wrote:
| My old BMW GS (motorcycle) engine jumped timing chain for
| whatever reason and completely gave up the ghost on a busy
| highway in Poland, a random motorcyclist on a streetbike saw the
| white smoke cloud and understood what happened to me as I coasted
| to the side of the road, he stopped, asked a few details and said
| "get on your bike, I'll push you to the nearest shop". I didn't
| speak Polish and his English was not great too, but we managed to
| understand each other. To this day I do not know how he managed,
| but he was able to control the gas on his bike, align himself to
| the back and off the side of my bike and kept giving me these
| push impulses so I could keep moving, and moving we were, we
| travelled ~6 miles to safety doing ~30mph, I thanked him and we
| went out separate ways. This experience feels surreal, I
| literally didn't spend any time in danger lingering on a busy
| road side or waiting for a trailer, which can take hours.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| I worked on a summer camp in the USA in the 1980s. We had a day
| off and went into the small local town (Kent, Connecticut IIRC).
| A small group of us British students went into the local bar for
| a beer before we went back to camp. The barman/owner was quite
| slow about giving us the bill for the beer. This is going to be
| expensive, we thought. But he just said 'It's on the house. Tell
| people Americans are nice when you get home'. It was a small
| kindness, but greatly appreciated by some poor students.
| 93po wrote:
| It is really interesting the very high percentage of comments are
| people who don't live in the US, or the story happened outside
| the US. I don't say this in a snarky "the US is full of assholes"
| way, just that's interesting and I'm not sure why that would be.
| jihadjihad wrote:
| It's cool that this isn't an Ask HN post yet there are still so
| many personal gems of stories in this thread. Good on ya, lads.
| marking-time wrote:
| About six months ago I was walking home from the grocery store in
| Sparks, NV and decided to stop by the local swap/meet. I had all
| my groceries in bags that I was carrying. During my time there I
| was jostled by the crowd and felt a little uncomfortable. When I
| got home I dumped out my groceries and found _two_ boxes of Girl
| Scout cookies that I didn't buy (I hadn't even seen any for
| sale). I had been reverse pickpocketed! I'm going to remember
| that for a long time :)
| uberman wrote:
| When I was young, my future wife and I went on vacation to
| Tahiti. We took a bus from our hotel to the Capital probably only
| 3 to 5 miles away bust still a good walk away. I thought it would
| be easy to get a bus back both because I knew a little French and
| because I assumed buses could either go clockwise or
| counterclockwise around the island. Long story short my
| assumptions were bad and we got lost.
|
| We stopped at a bus stop to regroup and there were two local men,
| construction workers as I recall, sitting at the stop. They got
| us back on track but more than that, they cracked open a 6 pack
| of beer and shared it with us. I dont know what those beers could
| have cost but it was not cheap. They were regular guys and we
| were lost rich tourists. In no world I would have imagined would
| they have shared those beers with us but there they were and they
| ensured we got to the hotel as well.
|
| I will always remember that kindness.
| uberman wrote:
| Just checking prices and labor rates. Those guys gave like an
| hour of their work to lost strangers. I guess it's not the
| biggest kindness but it still made a lasting impression on me.
|
| I would have loved to retire to Tahiti based on how wonderful
| the people there were to us but I gather lots of people have
| the same kind of experience with the hospitality and now it is
| too expensive to retire there :p
| w10-1 wrote:
| old guy gave all his money and energy to start a school to keep
| civilization from going bonkers. i never knew him and he never
| knew me but we still are related.
| apparent wrote:
| I planned to propose to my girlfriend at sunset on the coast. We
| walked along a path and I got out my camera, ostensibly so we
| could take photos of ourselves using a small tripod I brought. I
| was going to take a few photos using the camera remote, then
| propose and keep taking shots to capture the moment.
|
| As I was setting up the tripod on a bench, and man who was
| walking by offered to take a photo for us. I didn't want to
| explain what was going to happen, so I declined. But he insisted
| that he had the exact same camera, and would be happy to take
| some photos.
|
| I lowered my voice so my girlfriend wouldn't hear, and said "Ok
| don't react at all, but I am about to propose to my girlfriend."
| He nodded in understanding and calmly took the camera. He took a
| few posed shots and then gave me the signal. I got down on a knee
| and proposed (completely forgetting what the speech I had
| prepared, of course), with him taking photos all the while. I'm
| certain that the photos he took (in manual mode!) turned out much
| better than what I would have captured at sunset/dusk, via
| remote.
|
| A year or two later I mentioned to my then-wife that it would
| have been nice had we invited the man to our wedding. She laughed
| and said that she always assumed he was a photographer whom I had
| paid to be at the location at that time. It took quite some
| convincing before she understood that he was just a Nikon photog
| who was in the right place at the right time.
| alsetmusic wrote:
| It's a bit dark, but I'm doing much better now, so happy ending.
| No need to wish me well or anything, I'm the happiest I've ever
| been (thankfully).
|
| After reaching an age where bi-polar disorder goes full swing, I
| was unable to manage manic episodes; they'd spring up and I'd be
| awake for days and then crash horribly. I lost all hope that I'd
| be able to hold down a typical job ever again. I became a 24h/7d
| alcoholic with the goal of never being conscious and trying to
| sleep through life until it ended.
|
| I was at the local shop where I bought my booze buying a bunch of
| beer and vodka around 7-8am. A guy near me at the counter made a
| comment about what a great party must be coming. I looked at him,
| probably dead-eyed, and said, "I'm an alcoholic."
|
| He put his hand on my shoulder. He didn't say anything. It was
| just a moment of compassion. It was deeply kind. What was
| communicated was simply that someone cared and, to this day, I
| wish I had a way to thank him for that profound gesture.
| defraudbah wrote:
| a blowjob
| melvinroest wrote:
| I think if I'd go down memory lane I would come up with quite a
| lot. But one sticks out immediately.
|
| I was in Thailand on a bus, with only Thai people, it was a
| really local bus. The bus would stop around every 30 miles/50
| kilometers. I didn't know that. I needed to get off at a
| particular stop as it was close to the meditation retreat I was
| going to (Phitsanulok). I miss the stop. I figure it'd be fine. I
| didn't realize the 30 miles thing. So after half an hour of
| driving I ask the bus driver when it's going to stop. He said
| he'll stop in another 15 minutes.
|
| It was about to get dark. I asked him if he could please stop
| now. I was 25 miles away, it'd be rough but 8 hours of walking is
| doable. He stopped, now I was on the side of the road. It had
| gotten dark.
|
| I noticed houses next to the side of the highway. It was a
| strange sight to walk next to a highway and see houses next to
| it. In one case, I saw a father, mother and 2 children outside
| ready to go inside.
|
| I asked them for help. They didn't speak English but listened.
| With our hands and feet and a bit of Google Translate, I got to
| tell them my story. The father looks at me with understanding
| eyes and gestures for me to get on the back of the moped. I get
| on the back. He brings me to a police station. He says they'd
| take me to Phitsanulok.
|
| In the police station, no one was there. There was one light on
| and blinking. The room itself looked grey-ish white. I felt like
| I was in the beginning scene of a horror film. Before the father
| left, I asked him why there was no one here. He told me that the
| policemen were having dinner and they'd probably be done in an
| hour. I sat there for an hour.
|
| The policemen came out, they looked at me surprised. They spoke
| English, I told them my situation. They said "alright, get back
| in the car". And they just gave me a whole ride of 25 miles to
| where I _exactly_ needed to be.
|
| To say that I was grateful would be an understatement. I offered
| them money, because while I know that they are just working, I
| reckon that this type of stuff is not in the job description of a
| policeman. I was purely offering it out of gratitude. They said
| no. I offered 2 more times, they still said no. I did my best to
| show I was incredibly grateful and I think they got the message,
| haha.
|
| Thanks to those Thai policemen, and other acts of kindness I've
| experienced over the course of my life, I will pay it forward.
| Not because I feel I have to, mostly because I see how wonderful
| that attitude actually is.
| foobarbecue wrote:
| I went to surf at Lower Trestles and forgot my leash. Someone
| nearby had a spare, gave it to me, and told me to keep it.
| commandersaki wrote:
| Did a road trip in our teens from Melbourne to Sydney. On our way
| back we stopped at the petrol station at Pheasant's nest. We were
| nearly out of petrol, didn't have any money. My friend had some
| cigarettes, so we started awkwardly trying to sell a pack to
| people, just needed about $20 (back in those days petrol was a
| lot cheaper and obviously the dollar had better value). We
| approached a lady with her kids, told her our story of needing
| petrol to return home, and we had some cigarettes if she needed.
| She straight up gave us a $50 without asking anything in return.
|
| This has been burned in my memory going on for more than 25
| years. I have gone over and beyond for both people and strangers,
| but I have yet to be in a similar situation to pay it forward.
| mediascreen wrote:
| When I fainted on a crowded bus i Buenos Aires (as a tourist from
| Sweden) the bus driver stoped to check on me. When I wanted to
| get off and rest a while, two other passengers got off the bus
| with me to make sure I was okay.
|
| I'm sure there must be more instances, but that's the first one I
| can think of.
| cheese_van wrote:
| Back when my daughter was small, I was waiting in a line to get
| to the ticket window at the ballpark. A woman walked up to us,
| said my daughter was lovely, and gave us 2 tickets to the premium
| section of the park (the fancy bathroom section as my daughter
| called it). We saw Manny Ramirez hit his 500th! What a nice
| gesture. Whenever we went back, and when I was making a bit more
| money, I always bought one or two tickets after that to give
| away. Being unexpectedly nice in an unexpected way not only put a
| bit of joy in my life, it prompted me to do the same. That
| reminds me. I need to do something unexpected for a stranger.
| Thanks for the reminder!
| phil21 wrote:
| I was driving to my first "real" tech job about 500 miles away
| from home at the age of 18. All my assets in my beater of a car,
| and about $120 in my bank account at the time.
|
| My car broke down at a rest stop due to overheating and would not
| start again. I called a local shop on a Sunday afternoon and some
| guy in a tow truck pulled up and brought me to his place.
|
| He knew immediately it was some fuel control module that dies
| when overheated, and just so happened to have a car he was
| working on to resale with the same one. I truthfully told him I
| probably couldn't afford to pay him for it until I got my first
| paycheck and he asked how much I had. Told him about $120 to my
| name and he just charged me $100 and said I was good to go.
|
| I (barely) made it to my new spot at 4am or so going 35mph to
| keep from overheating again. Flashers on the whole way there.
| Used my change jar to pay for my final tank of gas.
|
| I didn't fully realize how much that repair should have cost -
| plus the tow - plus the same day off hours service.
|
| I think about that guy a lot and it's informed my charitable
| giving ever since. I like to think I'm still paying it forward to
| this day when situations arise for me to help out someone in need
| who isn't asking for a favor first.
|
| Given the response I got from family when I called them to ask
| for a $100 loan to pay for gas on that trip informed my
| relationships with them for life. A stranger went out of his way
| more than supposedly close family did during my most dire (at the
| time) emergency I had ever experienced.
| conorh wrote:
| Traveling around India I ate some food at a train station before
| boarding an overnight train and became extremely sick. I arrived
| early into Bikaner and as I started wandering around I became
| more and more delirious, to the point that I don't have clear
| memories of what happened after for a day or so. A (not well off)
| family however found me, brought me to their home, put me up in a
| rooftop sort of room, called a doctor, and then fed and took care
| of me for the next few days. They refused to accept any payment
| except for the rehydration packets they'd bought. I am forever
| grateful to them and I think of it and try to pay it forward
| whenever I can.
| bane wrote:
| During COVID, by father was dying in a hospice center (from
| something else, not COVID). Because of the circumstances and the
| condition of the medical system, it was impossible to get into
| where he was to see him, and the staff was too overworked and
| understaffed to find a way to connect us to him. He was alone,
| fragile, dying, and terrified.
|
| As my mother and I sat in the reception area fighting with the
| hospice administrator, a medical transport pulled up and unloaded
| another patient. After putting the new patient back in their room
| the driver walked up to us as we were sliding into a heated
| argument with the hospice administrator.
|
| She asked the administrator what the problem was and was told
| that policy was visitors can't be going into the patient area and
| it was very firm. They'd had issues with the local government
| about being slack about it. The driver turned to me and said
| something along the lines of "here's what we're going to do:
|
| Since I can apparently run around freely in this place, I'm going
| to find your father and put a star in his window so you can
| always find where he is.
|
| Number two, I'm going to give you a set of full hazard gear.
|
| Number three" and she turned to the administrator put her finger
| up into her face and very sternly said, "they are going to hire
| you as a part time employee, in maintenance, or IT support or
| whatever, and your hours of employment here are going to be
| whenever you need to visit your father."
|
| she turned back to me, "but this doesn't mean it's a free pass,
| you are going to wear all of this hazard gear whenever you come
| 'work' here, promise me that okay?"
|
| She then took the administrator off to a side room, had a
| conversation, and I had a piece of paper to sign about 30 minutes
| later making me an employee of the hospice.
|
| I made it into and out of the hospice without incident for the
| next week until we decided to bring my father home to die as he
| wasn't receiving almost any care there. I don't know what the
| ambulance driver and the administrator discussed, but I suspect
| it was the absolutely woeful state of the facility.
|
| The look on my father's face when a head-to-toe masked man
| entered his room the first time, and when I took my mask off to
| show him I was there for him, and how the terror just simply fell
| from his face, is something I will always remember as is the
| kindness of the driver who put herself out there for us.
|
| The period was incredibly hard, beyond the situation with my
| father, the medical system was in absolute shambles, and as my
| father's health was rapidly deteriorating, it was among the only
| kindness we received during that wretched journey.
| abetusk wrote:
| It was threatening to rain but I thought I could make it to my
| destination so I bolted out the door. Half way it started
| pouring. I stopped in the middle of the side walk, under a tree.
| I was watching a cat further down the sidewalk that was in the
| same situation so I didn't notice a lady pull up with her car.
|
| She just handed me an umbrella and drove off after I said thank
| you.
| 141205 wrote:
| I was driving from Sacramento to Reno, and there was a bad
| snowfall up in the mountains. I ended up getting struck in a
| small country town, and couldn't get up an iced hill. I thought I
| was going to be stuck there the entire day (at least), but a
| stranger pulled up in their pickup truck--with four wheel drive--
| and towed me up the hill and to safety. That's the most
| significant act of kindness I can remember--from a complete
| stranger.
| sejje wrote:
| One summer I got a ridiculous number of flat tires in my 300,000
| mile jeep.
|
| One of those happened in a heavy rainstorm. The ground was soft,
| and I don't know why exactly, but I couldn't get the jack to lift
| the jeep high enough to lift the tire.
|
| I was on a country highway near my home, with no cell service and
| maybe one car every ten minutes. I tried a few spots, even just
| halfway in the lane--I was afraid, though, because the rain
| limited visibility for other drivers.
|
| A man pulled up behind me in a Subaru. He wasn't local; he had
| come from Tennessee to paint a local scenic spot. He not only
| lent me his jack, but he got out in the pouring rain and helped
| until it was done. We both had raincoats, at least.
|
| He said that just the day before, he had a flat of his own, and
| someone stopped and helped him solve some problem he couldn't get
| around, too.
|
| I doubt that's the nicest thing a stranger ever did for me, but I
| sure appreciated it. Stopping and helping may be a small
| kindness, but it can feel like a miracle to the recipient.
| runjake wrote:
| Gave me CPR and saved my life.
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