Awesome moments with strangers

In My Humble Opinion
61

Quite a sad story, but it fits the thread all the same. I was in Venice on a vaporetta next to a woman who was clearly having a big argument with her ex on her mobile. At first, everyone was guiltily enjoying the voyeurism. Then, as the argument got worse and she started shouting, the other passengers started to feel awkard. The whole thing escalated into where the woman was totally losing it - there was a child involved whom the ex wouldn’t let her speak to and she was clearly at the end of her tether and was becoming hysterical.

At this point two total strangers, a man and woman, stepped in. The men gently took the phone off her, explained to the person on the other end that the lady was too upset to speak and hung up. The woman hugged the and comforted the lady, who just fell into her arms crying.

Needless to say this story isn’t uplifting in the sense of most of the previous ones. However, the courage and humanity with which these two people intervened and helped this stranger was truly one of those things that restore your faith in humanity. It also made me feel ashamed - I was standing right next to this lady and all I had done was gawk.

62

When I was 19 years old I got an idea that I should hitch-hike around in England (my first holiday on my own). On my first day I managed to get a couple of rides but when the evening came there was no room to be had so I slept in a little forest plantation on a bed of fern with more fern on to of me (and I have hated cooing pigeons ever since).

The next day I got another couple of rides, the last one by a kind middle-aged man who let me freshen up in his bathroom and gave me some lunch. After that he said that I would never make it through Sheffield on my own, so he drove me through town and let me off on the other side.

Another ride took me to the little town of Stocksbridge, among other things home to Bassett’s Confectionary, where I stood with my thumb out for a couple of hours until I got tired and started trying to get some lodging for the night. I asked a man who suggested I go down to the town hall, which I did and explained that I was a Swedish student in dire need of a bed for the night. The kind receptionist took a brief thought and said “I know. Mrs Lawrie!”. He called her up and I was so welcome.

When I arrived at the Lawries’ I was shown into what I assumed was their daughters’ room (I wouldn’t have minded sharing it with them :D) and after a brief nap I I joined the rest of the household. In the evening mum, dad, the older daughter and I went to the pub together with her boyfriend and his dog, all stuffed into his minuscule car.

Next day I swore that I would never again make a hitch-hiking holiday, took a bus back to Sheffield, train to Liverpool and the night ferry to the Isle of Man where I spent two weeks in a B&B until it was time to get back to the ferry home again.

Thanks very much all of you after all these years!

63

I’m another one whose lousy day was made by a compliment from a stranger - so, I am not another one of those people who say “love your dress!” on the street.

I’ve had flats twice: both times I was helped by people whose job was to help me, but who went above and beyond. The first time it was my own car (the other one was a rental): I knew how to change the tyre, in theory, but after seeing that there was no way I could loosen the nuts I had to call the highway’s emergency service. Half an hour later, their towcar shows up. The mechanic was a pretty large guy, but he was barely able to loosen the bolts using a 2-meter-long tube as a lever - hearing him curse people who overtighten those (“they’re not supposed to tighten them as much as possible, damnit, this is way over recommended values!”) made me feel a little less like an utter wimp. When it came time to charge me, it turned out that there wasn’t anything in his list of “possible problems” which matched mine. We drove to the nearest exit, where he called the office and got them to approve using the code which carried the lowest cost and adding a handwritten note that the actual problem was “flat, bolts way too tight”. He and the cashier were going on about other codes which would need to be added; I suggested having an “others” as well.

64

I’m having trouble parsing this. You’ve been complimented by strangers which made you feel good…so you don’t compliment others? I’m not saying you should necessarily compliment people but I don’t understand why you mentioned that it’s made you feel good in the past…

65

I’m guessing it was a typo and “not” should have been “now”.

66

Got it–sorry, a little slow today, Nava.

67

Many many years ago (nearly 30), I was living in one town, alone, with a cat, while Typo Knig was living 3 hours away in grad school. We alternated weekends. So late one Friday night, I was driving to spend the weekend with him, with my cat in the car. I had to stop (don’t recall why) at a small store just before getting to their place, and the cat BOLTED from the car. A frantic random HELP from my lips as I dashed to try to catch the cat - and a couple spent a half hour helping me try to catch her.

We finally gave up.

Happy ending though: I went back an hour later, called - and the cat came trotting up to me. I think she realized she was Somewhere Unfamiliar, and got frightened, and was very glad to see me. I was a hell of a lot more careful when travelling with her after that. And I still remember that couple.

A year or so back I had a flat, and a nice man stopped as I was struggling to change the tire (AAA was going to be a while).

I was the stranger on one oddball occasion. My office building was part of a complex that connected, via ground-level passages, to a shopping / lunch area. A bus apparently stopped just outside one of the doors. Coming back from picking up lunch, there was an older woman who was clearly disoriented, trying to figure out what bus to take. She kept mumbling about needing to go to Kaiser Permanente. I was worried about leaving her there to attempt to get the bus, so I got my car and drove her there. Karmic payback for times people have helped me, I think.

68

I have a couple:

Many years ago, before suitcases had wheels, I was going on a trip straight from work. I had taken the local commuter train, with my enormous suitcase, into Chicago and was trying to lug it the seven city blocks to my office. A nice man stopped me and insisted on carrying it all the way, even though he was going in the opposite direction. I swear that suitcase weighed at least 60 pounds. And he refused a tip.

I should preface the second story with the fact that I rarely, if ever, talk to strangers while commuting to work. Most people don’t want to be bothered and nor do I. One night on the way home from work, I freakishly struck up a conversation with the guy sitting next to me. I can’t even remember what started it but we had a great chat with lots of laughing. Two weeks later, I was taking the last train home on a Friday night after an evening of drinking with friends. I fell asleep and missed my stop and woke up about four stops past mine. It was 1:30 am and there was no one at home to come and get me, no pay phone at teh stop to call a taxi and I didn’t have a cell phone at the time. I was panic stricken because there wasn’t even a station at the stop to hang out in until the morning. Then I hear a voice say “Surly?” It was the guy I had talked to two weeks previously. The stop was his, he had a car and drove me 30 minutes home in the middle of the night. I never saw him again but remain extremely grateful.

Despite being surly, I always try and help strangers in need to return the kindness shown me.

69

Sorry, wrong thread… :frowning:

70

Oooh - another strangers-helping-us story.

Last summer, we drove from Kanab UT to Page AZ, to take a half-day smoothwater rafting trip from the Glen Canyon Dam. At the end of the day, we got to our motel, and Typo and I really wanted to try swimming in the lake. We got instructions for going to a beach not too far away (had to backtrack to Utah). The kids had zero interest in doing this, so we left them at the motel and went off.

I think it was Lone Rock… and we had no idea there was no pavement.

Yep, we got stuck in the sand (http://www.nps.gov/glca/planyourvisit/upload/lone%20rock%20map.pdf). I hopped out and pushed while Typo Knig tried to steer the car to get it out of the sandy area, and we were making essentially no headway.

A group of teenagers happened along, and with 3 of them + me pushing, Typo got the car moving. I yelled at him “don’t stop, I’ll catch up” and he went bouncing along to a more firmly-packed sandy area where there were other cars parked… as I walked as fast as I could in my Birkenstock sandals (which are NOT good for sandy surfaces).

Otherwise, we’d still be there, I think!

We thought about whether swimming was worth it… then decided that we’d gone through a LOT to try to get there and dammit we were going to swim! So we hiked down to the water;s edge, dumped our stuff, paddled around for a half hour, grabbed our stuff, and headed back to the car.

Fortunately, the electronic key fob - which Typo had left in his swimsuit pocket - still worked after its dunking :eek::smack:.

71

Fun thread. :slight_smile:

(I should note that I’m a rather shy and anxious introvert – and I was worse back then – and find it very hard to ask for help, or even accept help).

Over 10 years back when I was working on a client’s site in Vancouver, BC, and living in that lovely city for several months I decided to attend the BC Highland Games. I got dressed up in my kilt and highland gear, and not having my own transport I caught a bus out to the area it was being held.

By the time the bus arrived it was drizzling (which seemed rather appropriate for the theme) and I’d realized that it was some distance from the bus-depot to the event-grounds.

Walking by the road a car pulled up and a complete stranger offered me a lift to the games venue. (The kilt was a bit of a give away as to my destination). :slight_smile:

At the games themselves I managed to fall in with a group of reenactors, the 78th Fraser Highlanders, who were very friendly and gave me freshly cooked haggis (cooked in a tripod cauldron), and finally got given a ride all the way back into town by a lovely young woman with the incredible name of Nereid Lake. :cool:

It was a fantastic day out, and I really appreciated the unsolicited kindness of strangers.

72

A few weeks ago I was waiting for the train with a couple of acquaintances. We were having an intellectual conversation about Kesha (the pop star). I was quoting lyrics to “We R Who We R” and discussing the concert she’d be performing in Chicago a couple weeks later. Somebody overheard the conversation and joined in. He explained that his friend or cousin or whatever actually knows Kesha. He then looked up her Wikipedia page on his smart phone and gave us some tidbits about her (most of which I already knew), like the fact that she got 1500 out of 1600 on the SATs.

Alas, a number of circumstances prevented me from being able to attend the concert. :frowning:

73

Grandfather told me this story…

Money was tight back when my grandfather was just out of the military. My grandmother got sick but they didn’t have the money for all the medicine they needed. So as a last resort my grandfather went to a guy he knew was a loan shark. After negotiating the loan and what time my grandfather would pay it back the guy asked what the money was for and my grandfather told him it was for medicine for my grandmother. Guy reached in his pocket, handed over the cash and said, “Don’t worry about it. Tell her to get well.”

74

Yes, sorry. Sometimes my brain and my fingers stop talking to each other…

75

I like smiling at passerby’s and I guess I am a little bit of a flirt. The smile this Hispanic woman gave me the other day at the supermarket could have warmed up Mr.Freeze. It wasn’t even a flirty/sexual thing, just the nicest, warmest smile I’ve ever received. She has a gift.

76

I had the best cab ride ever last night. Since my cats eat very specific prescription food that isn’t available everywhere I go to a little pet store close to my office to pick it up on my way home. Yesterday I learned that they will deliver to me at work and in my newfound joy I ordered waaay too much. I got 2 bags of their dry food and a full case of their wet food and only after hauling it downstairs did I realize this probably wasn’t going to be easy to maneuver on the train. :smack: I hailed a cab and gave him my address and on the way he started asking me questions about how I meet new people and make friends in the city. I gave him a few tips for making new friends in the area and he turned around and said, “I like you. You’re nice. I’m going to take a special route to your place.” He then pulled onto a road that goes from the south entrance of Central Park to the north entrance (which I didn’t even know existed) so that I would have a fast, scenic ride home. It was beautiful and it took about 15 minutes off of the trip!

77

pbbth, that’s fantastic to hear.

Several years ago, I flew to San Jose for a job interview but was way too early. My cabbie took me to his home base where his mother was cooking up lunch for all the drivers. I got to eat delicious Indian food for lunch and then the driver took me to the interview. The moment I saw my potential boss, we both knew not to waste our time with the interview; we were not a good fit. So, I called the cab company again.

Another one of their drivers was happy to take me to my hotel and invited me out to a baseball game with the gang that evening. He assured me that Mom would be there and all the drivers would be on their best behavior. So I went. There were about 14 of us and I had a terrific time. The next morning, I was on the early flight back home. What a cool adventure that turned out to be!

78

This isn’t a story about me, directly, but about my parents.

When my dad first got out of the army, he was trying to make it as a photographer. Money was tight and things were hard, but he and his best friend/roommate were trying hard, by God. My dad shot the pictures (many, many, many weddings) and his best friend would develop them in the “darkroom” (for which read: bathroom (no, the landlord did not like it, and no, they did not get their security deposit back)). The final straw came one week when my dad shot a wedding and came home exhausted, and through a series of unfortunate events, the photos and negatives from some poor couple’s wedding were lost. Completely. The couple was devastated, and my dad and his roommate decided that that was the final straw. That was the end of the professional photography business. My dad felt (and still feels) awful about losing some poor couple’s wedding photos.

Fast forward almost thirty years. I’m on vacation with my parents up North in Michigan, and we took a day trip over to Mackinac Island. My dad is still an excellent photography, and he was having a good time playing with the new digital camera. He also still has a soft spot for shooting weddings–all of our family photo albums are sprinkled with wedding photos of random couples. For some reason, wherever we were on vacation, there would invariably be some couple taking their wedding photos there. So we have photos of couples in gowns and tuxes from all over the Midwest. Anyway, we’re on Mackinac Island, and my parents are walking around while I went for a bike ride.

There’s a couple taking some informal wedding photos in front of Arch Rock, which offers a beautiful view. Just the couple and the photographer, several tourists around who are watching and "aww"ing as the couple is clearly having a ball. My dad introduces himself, gives his credentials as an ex-photographer, then asks if he can take a couple pictures of them. So my dad is clicking away, the couple are posing and mugging and generally looking wonderfully happy. My dad gets their names and emails, and we go on our merry way.

The following week when we get home, my dad sits down to email the photos to the couple, and includes the name and phone number. Not an hour later, my mom answers a tearful phone call from the new bride. But she wasn’t upset–she was sobbing with joy.

You see, the photographer had somehow lost or wrecked all the photos from this couple’s wedding day. The ten or twelve semi-professional photos my dad had taken were all this couple had. No one had been taking photos at the church besides the photographer, and all the reception photos were of really awful quality. The bride was absolutely delighted that they had a few lovely photos that they could frame, and offered to send my dad a check, which he wouldn’t hear of. They got a lovely thank-you note from the couple, and my dad felt like his karmic debt was finally paid out in full.

79

Not very impressive, but it meant something to me and happened just now.

A little backstory, I work in the dorms for my university, and I’m basically a receptionist for the entire building. I normally work in 2 all female dorms, but since they close over breaks (and we’re currently on one), I often sub for a different building. In this building I know no one, where I’m normally accustomed to knowing every face that walks in the door. The resident advisors here are snobby, and I generally don’t like being here at all and dread coming, but it helps pay the bills.

So just now one of the residents who has previously on another day introduced herself just came by, completed the check in procedure to verify she is a resident, and started walking to the doors leading to the rooms. She gets almost to the doors and turns around and asks me, “Are you hungry?” I’m a little baffled and just answer, “I’m sorry?” She says, “You’ve been here all day, are you hungry? I could go get you something.” I tell her that I’d only been here for four hours, and I was not hungry, but I sincerely appreciated her asking. She then said, “Well if you ever need anything just let me know, it’s no problem at all!” And with that she turned around and bounced off.

I’ve met this girl, including just now, only two times that I can recall, and she was honestly concerned if I needed anything. Compared to just how awful the rest of the staff here treats me, and the rudeness of the residents here, she was such a breath of fresh air! It really brightened my spirits about working in this place! :slight_smile:

80

Cops don’t often get good attention from anyone. One night, working patrol, my partners and I were at a restaurant getting our dinner. When time came to pay, our waitress told us that someone had already paid for our meals, and told her to thank us for doing our job. There were four of us there. No idea who did it, but it was pretty awesome.