Sometimes it's hard to find someone nice enough to help out their fellow man. For these people, they were able to live the rare moments of getting help from someone they'd never seen once in their life. These stories definitely restored our faith in humanity.
(Content has been edited for clarity.)
He Was Offering Free Rides To The Helpless
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“When I was a kid, we were tight on money. My mom married early and was in her mid-20s at that time. I remember just walking down the street at night. I can’t remember if we were lost or what we were doing there. While we were walking, a bus pulled up on the road and opened its door. The kind bus driver urged us to go inside and ride for free (it was freezing cold) and took us to our destination. My mom rejected first but the bus driver insisted. I don’t remember much after that, but I could feel my mom’s relief and gratitude to the guy.”
This Is How You Save A Life
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“I lost my job in 2005. My friend convinced me to break my lease at my apartment and co-sign a new one with him. I agreed, and he further convinced me to put new apartment bills in my name. Three months later, I still couldn’t find a job. The friend called me from his work telling me he was going to whip my butt in Madden when he got home. Midway through the conversation, the power turns off and I hear chains at the back door. It was the power company cutting off the power. Come to find out, my friend hadn’t paid the power bill since we moved in the three months we lived there. The same goes for the rent and other utilities. The friend comes home to me sitting in a dark living room. He says what’s up, then goes to his room, packs his bags, and moves in with his girlfriend.
Three weeks later, an eviction notice is placed on the door of the apartment. I’m suicidal at this point, decided to take a bus and walk around downtown ONE LAST TIME. I ran into a guy close to my age. We start talking about life experiences, sports, and current events. We talked for about a good hour outside. Time for us to part ways. My heart started to beat hard because I knew what I was about to do. Before he left he asked me, ‘Where you going?’ I told him ‘I don’t know. My license is revoked, no insurance, and I’m sure I’m going to be homeless tomorrow.’ The dude’s face turned red. He told me he was a co-owner of a mortgage firm and a multi-millionaire. He handed me a key and an address and told me to move my stuff into this house and stay there until I could get back on my feet. I started crying in public, thanked him with tear soaked hands and moved all my stuff to the house.
A month later, I still couldn’t find a job. He stopped by to see how I was going. The power still off, it was $500 to get it cut back on. I had no food. He told me to come into his office the next day and he was going to show me how to close loans as a mortgage originator. Stupid Me. The next morning I jumped in my illegal uninsured vehicle with a dress shirt and tie. Halfway to the office, I was pulled over and arrested for driving while having my license revoked and operating an uninsured vehicle. I was sitting in a holding cell when I looked up and the millionaire was talking to the magistrate and pointing at me. I’m not sure what he said to them but they let me out. I started crying again in his car as he drove me to his office. He told me to calm down and to not worry about it. We got loans to close. Within four weeks, I closed my first loan earning about $5,000. That one key from Dan gave a complete stranger (me) in 2005 made the difference in me being dead that day, to now owning a house and in school studying to become an engineer.”
This Kind Paramedic Saved Her Life In More Ways Than One
“About a year and a half ago, I overdosed on smack in my then-boyfriend’s apartment.
He called 911, and the paramedics urged me to go to the hospital to get checked out because A. the Narcan they gave me could wear off and I could slip into unconsciousness again, and B. my boyfriend had spent a good 10 minutes doing chest compressions that may have damaged my sternum/ribcage.
In my confused and scared state I told them no, I didn’t want to, I didn’t have insurance and I couldn’t afford it. Eventually, they convinced me to go along with them. I didn’t have it in me to keep protesting, and I was sure my world was going to be falling apart right then anyway. What’s an ambulance bill on top of everything else?
The paramedic who sat with me and my boyfriend in the back of the ambulance, though, was someone I’ll never forget. He was so incredibly, surprisingly kind. I told him that I didn’t know how I’d afford the bill for the ambulance, so he told me he wouldn’t list an address for me. He explained that usually, in those cases where the patient had no address, they just wouldn’t bother with a bill.
He took out a package of Narcan from his supplies and gave it to my boyfriend, explaining how to use it in case something should happen again. And he spoke the whole time without a hint of judgment in his voice. Even during the messed up situation that was happening, I recognized how lucky I was to be treated by a paramedic like that, for something I had essentially done to myself.
I’m clean now, and I went into treatment about a month and a bit after that had happened. But I wish so badly I could somehow thank him for what he did. I know he comforted me, and I like to think he comforted my ex in what was undoubtedly the worst night of either of our lives. I’m going into a nursing program in the fall, and I want more than anything to pay it forward, and make sure all my patients feel as genuinely cared for as that paramedic helped me feel.”
One Small Note Of Kindness Brought Them To Tears
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“I knew a guy that for one quarter was both in my class and on my bus home. I didn’t think I made an impression on his memory, even though we were in view of each other every other day.
This one time in class, we got put into groups to discuss the stigma of intimate assault. All these things really got to me, because I had just gone through a traumatic experience that took a toll on me mentally. Things like ‘be careful what you wear/drink/say’ were passed around, and I just got to thinking, ‘I never for once let my guard down, and it still happened.’ So I started getting a panic attack in the middle of class and had to excuse myself. When I got back, the guy asked me if I was okay. I dismissed it off with yes, though I remember still shaking and feeling my chest constrict painfully. Tried my best to just get through the rest of the day.
Cut to when we were heading home. He’s on my bus, I see him scribbling furiously into a notepad. When he got off on his stop, he dropped it in my lap. It was the most thoughtful letter I have ever received. He told me about how he was interested in social work, and that if I ever needed anything his number was scrawled at the bottom of the note. And then I broke down again on the bus. I always go out of my way to help strangers because I like doing it, so it was nice to be on the receiving end. I texted him that night and thanked him profusely, and we talked for a couple weeks.
We don’t talk anymore, maybe a clash of interests, but I do hope he’s doing well. I stuck the note in my diary, in the spread I titled ‘magic exists.'”
One Small Act Saved Their Bleeding Nose That Day
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“I had been having a lot of vicious nose bleeds and was frustrated with it. I was on the bus, on my way to a lab for the university, when one started out of the blue. Unfortunately, I was unprepared and had no tissue or napkins to stop the blood from pouring everywhere. So I blocked off my nostril with my hand to the best of my ability and got off at the next stop. In a panic, I rushed to the nearest garbage can and held my head over it, allowing the blood to fall into the garbage can. I stood there, bleeding and embarrassed for a few minutes in the busy street as people walked by and looked at me.
Then came my savior, a man with some napkins in his hand. He walked over to me and extended his hand. I took the napkins gratefully and began to thank him. He only nodded his head and then made his way back to from where he came.
These napkins allowed me to make it to a coffee shop, where they let me use their washroom to recover and clean up my bloodied hands, face, and jacket. I purchased a coffee to thank them for their hospitality and resumed my commute to my lab, but the act of my heroic smoking black man was not forgotten.”
“I’d Love To Be Able To Change Someone’s Life The Way These Strangers Changed Ours”
“My son has Cerebral Palsy and is wheelchair bound.
For a year I was lifting him in and out of a car I borrowed from my brother. My son weighed around 45 kilograms and was unable to assist in the lifting process at all. Also had to lift his 40-kilogram wheelchair in and out. I have scoliosis and a bad knee. It wasn’t fun.
Last September I received a call from a lady who knew one of my son’s teachers. Her sister (who had MS) had passed away. She asked if we would like her sister’s vehicle which was fitted to transport a person in a wheelchair. I’ve never been more grateful to anyone.
I don’t have a lot but if I ever have an opportunity to help someone I do it. I’d love to be able to change someone’s life the way these strangers changed ours.”
Each Stranger They Ran Into Was More Than Willing To Lend A Helping Hand
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“Three different strangers took care of me when I was helpless and ill.
I got wasted in college before I knew I was allergic to drinking. It didn’t take much, maybe three drinks total, and just after sobering up the vomiting started and wouldn’t end. A friend was staying over and I don’t want to disturb them so I took my garbage pail out into the hallway, and promptly locked myself out of my dorm room.
A couple hours went by and two other girls came down the hall and saw me, by now I’m pale and dehydrated and the girls asked me if I was ok. I lied and said I was fine, but they didn’t buy it and asked if I needed water. Of course, I said yes. The girls left and came back with two big bottles for me – water and Gatorade. Whoever they are, I am still amazed by their kindness to this day.
About an hour after that the cleaning lady came by to clean the bathrooms. She saw me and my garbage pail and took pity. Not speaking any English, she gently took my garbage from me and brought it into a bathroom. She cleaned it out, put a bag in it and returned it to me along with a stack of napkins. Such a kind woman, even as sick as I was I marveled at how selfless she and the others had been.
Not long after this my friend woke up and came outside, saw me, and called an ambulance. That friend stayed with me while I got fluids and potassium at the hospital despite being unspeakably afraid of hospitals.
The kindness of so many people that night, three of them complete strangers, was humbling, to say the least.”
This Mysterious Clerk Helped Them In Their Hour Of Need
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“Two summers ago, I was traveling through southeast Asia alone and my last stop was Tokyo. I had booked an AirBnB a few days prior but was unable to find the place. I searched for hours through Shibuya, asking locals to help me. The host didn’t respond to any of my messages. No one was able to locate the address. At this point, it was 1 a.m. and I was resigned. I found my way to a 7-11 convenience store and sat at a table inside. I noticed a sign that said the area closed at midnight and shortly after, an attendant was there asking me to leave. I moved my backpack over against a wall while trying to figure out what to do.
After 15 minutes, the man came back and I tried explaining what had happened despite his obviously minimal command of English. When he realized I had been wandering the streets and had nowhere to stay, he quickly apologized and invited me back to this table. This alone was a sigh of relief for me, but he then returned with several items he had taken off the shelf. A ramen soup bowl, a donut, and a water. Such a small gesture changed my evening. I ate the gifts and fell asleep. I woke up in the morning to catch my flight out and went to thank him, but he was nowhere to be found and a new attendant was manning the register.”
She Was Going To Make Sure They Got Home Safe And Sound
“Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to be on the receiving end of some amazing acts of kindness.
In July of last year, my mother was told that her rare eye cancer had returned, and had metastasized to her liver. It is one of those cancers that no one survives, and it is a quick death sentence. My mom and I are close, and we took a few weeks to process the news together, and then she decided to tell the rest of our close-knit family in person all at once. My mom asked me to plan a family reunion of sorts in our hometown in northern Maine. I was the support system for my mom on this trip and I resolved to be strong, make all the arrangements, be a shoulder for her to cry on and the person to take care of all of the details so she could just focus on saying goodbye.
There is this saying in Maine that when someone asks you for directions, the response is usually ‘you can’t get there from here,’ because northern Maine is isolated. I live in Illinois and my mom in the Carolinas, so we both hopped planes and met in Boston, then took a six-seater puddle jumper. The plan was to arrive in Augusta, pick up the rental car we had reserved, and then drive several hours north, sometimes over dirt roads, to get home.
When we arrived at this tiny airport in Augusta, the guy who worked at the one rental car agency there had closed up shop for the day and left early. He didn’t leave a car for us. There are no other rental car companies open within an hour’s drive. No cabs to take us four hours north. We were the last flight and the airport was closed. My sick mom and I found ourselves standing outside the airport stranded four hours from family.
And I just lost it. Started sobbing. Lost all my ability to handle logistics, figure out a solution, even get us a hotel. Just sat on the curb, wrapped my arms around my knees, and fell apart while my mom put her hand on my should and tried to be my comfort. Such a crappy feeling.
And then this magical lady who worked at the airport saw us. She was off work for the day and pulling out of the parking lot. And without even knowing the situation, she pulled over, got out of the car, and took charge. She used my phone to call a family member and arranged to meet them halfway to pick us up. And then this kind stranger, after a long day at work, went two hours out of her way just to get us to our destination. She gave me a moment to breathe, to not be in charge, and to just be a grieving daughter.”
She Took Pity On This Poor Woman With Her Overpacked Suitcase
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“While I was moving from Canada to Australia, I was traveling with 30 pounds of overweight luggage. No problem, I knew I would have to pay fees. Luckily, West Jet waived the fees on the first flight and since I was just connecting in Vancouver to move on to Honolulu, I didn’t have to pay fees on the second flight because I didn’t have to recheck my bags. Lucky me!
So I had a 12-hour layover in Honolulu, and at 5 a.m., I was first in line to check in for my flight with Jetstar from Honolulu to Sydney. The man weighed my bags and advised me I was overweight. That’s fine, how much is the fee? $20 PER POUND. So the fee was $600 plus tax. I began to panic. I simply did not have that money, he wasn’t willing to help. So here I am on the floor at the Honolulu airport, emptying out my bag because I didn’t even have any American cash to use the pay phone and call Jetstar to add more weight to my booking. I had emptied close to half of my bag – personal items, gifts, clothes – and I was still 12 pounds over. I began to cry, panties were strewn for all to see, overwhelmed with the move and the situation, traveling alone and hadn’t seen my partner in six weeks.
Then a woman sauntered over. Her mannerism made me believe she was a supervisor of sorts for Jetstar, and she asked me what was happening. I told her my bags were overweight and I couldn’t contact Jetstar to add more weight. She looked at me and all my belongings on the floor and said, ‘That’s ok, we’ll just check you in under a group booking. Pack your stuff back up.’
I was in shock! I could not believe what was happening. So I hastily stuffed all my things back in my bag, shoes hanging out of my backpack. She tagged my bag, put it on the belt and I hightailed it through security without having to pay a cent in overweight fees.”
Even Though He Had Nothing, This Homeless Man Did Anything To Make Her Smile
“I was in Mexico City, a city larger than New York. I’d left my boyfriend’s house to go to a 7/11. There had been a huge fight, and I wanted to clear my head. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the 7/11. Or my way back. The streets were dark, and the buildings were tall and indistinguishable from each other. The roads in that part of town were not in a block/square formation, so I just got more and more lost. I didn’t have a phone or a wallet with me, and I must have dropped the 20 pesos I had in my pocket. I didn’t know what to do. I was lost in a strange city. I found myself in a bad part of town. It was 4 a.m. I was a little wasted, and I’d been crying. I was outside a metro (subway) station, smoking my last smoke when an old homeless man came up to me. He had a walking stick, and I could see his cataracts had made one eye blind.
He asked me for a smoke, and when I shook my head, he must have seen the tears in my eyes. I offered him the remains of that final Camel I had burning. It was his turn to shake his head. He said something about waiting and something about God. My Spanish wasn’t good. Then, he smiled and limped off around the corner. As I sat there, head in my hands, people started gathering outside the metro station for it to open. In this neighborhood, many people must have worked jobs that required 5 a.m. trains. In the 15 minutes or so before the metro opened, I tried to beg. Nobody replied to me, let me use their phones or metro-cards, or even made eye contact with me. Until the one-eyed old pirate man returned.
He proudly looked me in the eye, put his hand on my shoulder, and pulled two crumpled smokes out from his jacket pocket. His hands were stained black, and those white smokes shone like diamonds to my weary mind. I pulled out my lighter and lit one. As I took a few large hauls, I smiled for the first time since the day before. He stood there, taking pleasure in my happiness, and reached again into his jacket. Out came a bottle. He took a swig, then, using ha gestures, he swapped it for the smoke. And so it went for a few minutes. We sat together, sharing the smokes and drink between ourselves, and watching the people ignore us and they hurried to work. Nobody would put money in my hat, but at least now I wasn’t crying. I wasn’t alone.
If I’ve learned anything in my life, it’s that loneliness kills. It drains you. I wished that I had something, anything I could offer this man for making me feel like a person again and not a ghost. Nobody but him had talked to me in around 6 hours. He pressed a coin into my hand, enough for the train, and a phone call, and wished me luck (I think), and left. I got home a few hours later, but I never saw him again.”
This Kind Stranger Could Tell He Needed His Morning Fix
“I was on my way to work, the first day of a new job. First job in my new field. I was a little nervous. Walking to the bus stop, and I decided to pop into a little coffee shop to get my morning fix of liquid goodness. I’m there, standing in line and working behind the counter is the slowest trainee I have ever come across. Nice, friendly girl, but it’s her first day and she just doesn’t have the practice.
I look at the line, and at my watch. If I wait to get a coffee, there’s no way I’m going to make it to work on time. Watch, line, watch, line…nope. Gotta go. I bolt out of the coffee shop and just make it to the bus stop on time.
A short while down the road, the bus pulls into the depot to pick up additional passengers. As the masses are coming and going, some guy walks onto my bus, walks right up to me and hands me a coffee.
‘I hope you like a double-double.’
He walked away as I muttered out some kind of gratitude. You have to understand, this guy would have had to have been in the shop, seen my impatience, noticed that I sacrificed coffee in order to make it to work on time, saw the bus I got on, known that it was going to go to the depot (and that I would still be on it when it did), bought the coffee, and made it in time to give it to me before the bus left again.”