Strangers’ Small Acts That Changed Lives Forever: Stories That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity
It was the first time someone has complimented me. Ever.
Was waiting at the airport for my flight, it had been delayed 2 hours. It was a full flight so almost all the seats near the gate were taken. There was one last empty seat next to me, so this older woman (Mary) asked if she could sit there. She was very friendly and we ended up talking about life and our relationships for almost the entire 2 hours.
My mother had been a very cold and toxic person. Mary’s daughter had passed away from cancer years earlier. It was a very cathartic 2 hours for both of us. She shared stories and life lessons she hadn’t had the chance to tell her daughter before she died. I told her about things I could never have told my own mother, and she gave me very honest, compassionate advice.
Wish I’d gotten her number or an email, but I was afraid of overstepping at the time.
I pulled into the mall parking lot and heard something snap in my car, but couldn’t figure out what it was. Did my shopping and came back. The car would start, but I couldn’t shift out of park. A man and his daughter pulled up and saw me craning under the steering wheel, and came over to ask what was wrong. The guy took a look at it. Turned out a wire had wrapped around the drive train and snapped when I turned the wheel, and for safety reasons the car would not drive again until it was fixed.
I was pretty much in despair. I was a broke college student with no money to have the car fixed, let alone towed and then fixed.
But this dude was not just a dad. Oh no. He was a SuperDad™. Not only did he have the know-how to fix my car, he had all the tools in his truck.
There were complications. Twice he and his daughter took me to AutoZone to get parts I needed. He worked for a few hours, finished as it was getting dark, and once they were sure my car worked, he and his daughter left without having set foot in the mall.
This was a couple of years back and I don’t remember their names, but I’ll always remember what those two did for me.
One time i was going through costco just doing my normal s**t. There was an old Street Fighter 2 arcade game on sale right in the middle of the store. There was some guy around my age (30) just looking at it.
So i walked over stood next to him for like 10 seconds, we looked at each other and smiled and stepped up like a movie. We played for what felt like hours but in reality was only like 30 minutes until his wife came and collected him. He said, “nice to meet you man, that was fun”. We shook hands and he walked away.
I’ll never forget the look on his face when he looked back as he was walking away with his wife.. his face might have said “Don’t get married.” But i took it as “don’t get married to someone who won’t stop and play Street Fighter in Costco with you”.
I hate flying. I’m terrified of it. Back in 1995, I was flying home from grad school, short flight. We are landing so I’m thinking YAY, I’m still alive when suddenly s**t starts bouncing around. I know we didn’t fall super far but it felt like we were falling pretty significantly. My seatmate’s drink spilled, an overhead compartment opened and stuff fell out, people were gasping and there were some yells. Outside the window is sort of greenish grey. At some point, I calmly took my seatmate’s hand–total stranger, older white guy. I said how scared I was and he immediately started telling me that he flies every week and trying to explain about turbulence.
We went back up in the air and got rerouted to another city about three hours away from where we were supposed to be. Dude is super nice, trying to distract me by showing me pictures of his kids, talking about his job and family, asking me things. We land after being told we have the option of taking another flight back home. No way in hell am I getting on another plane. Dude says he is going to rent a car and can drop me off since he lives near where I was living with my mom.
48-year-old me would be telling myself OMG THIS GUY COULD BE CRAZY, KIDNAP YOU, K**L YOU but 23-year-old me was like, “Sure!” Dude drives us back shows me his CAR PHONE like holy cow what sorcery is this?! Calls his wife, I meet her over the phone, everything was awesome. I tried to pay him for gas but he wouldn’t hear of it.
It’s kind of sad to say how thrilled I am that nothing untoward or pervy or anything weird happened other than that a very nice man gave me a ride home. I had his business card and sent him a thank you note to his office. I will never, ever forget that extreme act of kindness.
A Native American from a local tribe gave me a homemade leather pouch with a natural remedy inside and said, “For the anxiety”.
I was on break, at my first job. It was so thoughtful.
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