A friend’s three year old son was murdered by his father. She had no insurance and no way to pay the hospital and funeral bills. We started a fund for her, and checks poured in from all over, including some very famous people. Even people who couldn’t send money sent cards and their well wishes.
The funeral director she used had grown up with a very famous person. He contacted said person, told him the story, and famous person told him to send him the bill. When the funeral director got the check from famous person, he took out the money for the casket and gave the rest to the woman.
This is something that happened to my husband. About a year ago, he went to use the ATM, and forgot his card in the machine after he got his cash. He didn’t realize he’d lost the card until the next day when he reached for it in his wallet and it wasn’t there. He remembered that the last time he’d used it was at this ATM, so he called the bank on the (exteme) outside chance that someone had found the card and turned it in.
Well, miracle of miracles, someone had done just that. When MrWhatsit went to pick up his card, the teller informed him of what had happened. Apparently, right after he’d left the ATM, some kids had come along and taken a few hundred dollars out of his account, along with the ATM card. A passerby saw this happen, and according to the bank teller, “roughed up the kids a little bit”, reclaimed the cash AND the card, and returned both to the bank.
Can you believe that? This guy didn’t just return the card, he beat up the kids who tried to steal my husband’s money, got the money back, and returned all of it. I am still just overwhelmed that someone would do that.
The only thing I can think of that I’ve personally done was tip a waitress 30 bucks for no reason. We were eating at an Applebee’s somewhere on vacation, and this waitress was like 8 months pregnant. All I could think was how bad it must suck to be 8 months pregnant and on your feet all day, so I tipped her all the cash I had in my wallet.
I flew to Germany on a business trip. I arrived at around 8:00 AM and immediately rented a car to drive from the airport to my destination (about 150+ miles away). This was the first time I had ever actually driven in a different country than my home country. After getting turned around once or twice, I finally made it to my destination town. However, I could not for the life of me find the hotel that I was supposed to be staying at. I drove around for about an hour or so with no luck. Finally, I decided to head to the company I was supposed to be at the next day which I had driven by several times in my quest to find the hotel.
Unfortunately it was a German holiday and nobody was in the office. Luckily, though, just as I was approaching the building a German gentleman in a nearby office saw that I was in distress. Now, I don’t really speak German and he didn’t really speak English. We used my German phrasebook and somehow I communicated my dilemma to him. He started drawing the directions out for me but they were a bit complicated so instead he offerred to drive with me to the hotel. I thanked him profusely.
In hindsight, I suppose I could have just stayed in a different hotel. I guess I was just overwhelmed by the lack of sleep ( I flew overnight in coach ) and the disorientation of driving in an unfamiliar country.