[1] When the supermarket clerk tallied up my groceries, I was $12 over what I had on me. I began to remove items from the bags, when another shopper handed me a $20 bill. “Please don’t put yourself out,” I told him. “Let me tell you a story,” he said. “My mother is in the hospital with cancer. I visit her every day and bring her flowers. I went this morning, and she got mad at me for spending my money on more flowers. She demanded that I do something else with that money. So, here, please accept this. It is my mother’s flowers.” – Leslie Wagner, Peel, Arkansas.
Source: rd.com
https://www.rd.com/article/kindness-strangers
[2] I forgot about the rules on liquids in carry-on luggage, so when I hit security at the airport, I had to give up all my painting supplies. When I returned a week later, an attendant was at the baggage area with my paints. Not only had he kept them for me, but he’d looked up my return date and time in order to meet me. – Marilyn Kinsella, Canmore, Canada.
Source: rd.com
https://www.rd.com/article/kindness-strangers
[3] Leaving a store, I returned to my car only to find that I’d locked my keys and cell phone inside. A teenager riding his bike saw me kick a tire and say a few choice words. “What’s wrong?” he asked. I explained my situation. “But even if I could call my wife,” I said, “she can’t bring me her car key, since this is our only car.” He handed me his cell phone. “Call your wife and tell her I’m coming to get her key.” “That’s seven miles round trip.” “Don’t worry about it.” An hour later, he returned with the key. I offered him some money, but he refused. “Let’s just say I needed the exercise,” he said. Then, like a cowboy in the movies, he rode off into the sunset. – Clarence W. Stephens, Nicholasville, Kentucky.
Source: rd.com
https://www.rd.com/article/kindness-strangers
[4] I was balancing caring for a toddler and working a full-time job, all while my Navy husband was on extended duty overseas. One evening, the doorbell rang. It was my neighbor, a retired chief petty officer, holding a breadboard loaded with a freshly cooked chicken and vegetable stew. “I’ve noticed you’re getting a little skinny,” he said. It was the best meal I’d had in months. – Patricia Fordney, Corvallis, Oregon.
Source: rd.com
https://www.rd.com/article/kindness-strangers
[5] I saw a dress in a consignment shop that I knew my granddaughter would love. But money was tight, so I asked the store owner if she could hold it for me. “May I buy the dress for you?” asked another customer. “Thank you, but I can’t accept such a gracious gift,” I said. Then she told me why it was so important for her to help me. She’d been homeless for three years, she said, and had it not been for the kindness of strangers, she would not have been able to survive. “I’m no longer homeless, and my situation has improved,” she said. “I promised myself that I would repay the kindness so many had shown me.” She paid for the dress, and the only payment she would accept in return was a heartfelt hug. – Stacy Lee, Columbia, Maryland.
Source: rd.com
https://www.rd.com/article/kindness-strangers
[6] As I walked through the parking lot, all I could think about was the dire diagnosis I had handed my patient Jimmy: pancreatic cancer. Just then, I noticed an elderly gentleman handing tools to someone working under his stalled car. That someone was Jimmy. “Jimmy, what are you doing?” I yelled out. Jimmy dusted off his pants. “My cancer didn’t tell me not to help others, Doc,” he said, before waving at the old man to start the car. The engine roared to life. The old man thanked Jimmy and drove off. Then Jimmy got into his car and took off as well. Take-home message: Kindness has no limits and no restrictions. –Mohammed Basha, Gainesville, Florida.
Source: rd.com
https://www.rd.com/article/kindness-strangers
[7] It was one of my first missions on a gunship during the Vietnam War. I was scanning for enemy fire when I spotted a bright object that looked as if it were coming straight at us. “Missile! Missile!” I shouted into my interphone. The pilot jerked the airplane as hard as he could, dumping guys from one side of the craft to the next. Well, turns out the “missile” was a flare we had just dropped. Suffice it to say, the guys weren’t pleased. Back at the base, my commander put an arm around my shoulder. “Sergeant Hunter,” he said, “you keep calling them like you see them. Better safe than sorry.” That kind act gave me the confidence to be one of the top gunners in my squadron. – Douglas Hunter, Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
Source: rd.com
https://www.rd.com/article/kindness-strangers
[8] I was driving cross-country to start a new job. What began as a fun adventure turned into a nightmare when I realized I had run through most of my money and still had a ways to go. I pulled over and let the tears flow. That’s when I noticed the unopened farewell card my neighbor had shoved in my hand as I left. I pulled the card out of the envelope, and $100 dropped out—just enough to get me through the remainder of my trip. Later, I asked my neighbor why she had enclosed the money. She said, “I had a feeling it would help.” – Nadine Chandler, Winthrop, Massachusetts.
Source: rd.com
https://www.rd.com/article/kindness-strangers
[9] I was four months pregnant with our first child when our baby’s heart stopped beating. I was devastated. As the days went on, I was nervous about returning to work. I’m a middle school teacher and didn’t know how I could face kids. This past May, after four weeks of recovering, I walked into my empty classroom and turned on the lights. Glued to the wall were a hundred colored paper butterflies, each with a handwritten message on it from current and past students. All of them had encouraging messages: “Keep moving forward,” “Don’t give up on God,” and “Know that we love you.” It was exactly what I needed. – 20Jennifer Garcia-Esquivel, San Benito, Texas.
Source: rd.com
https://www.rd.com/article/kindness-strangers
[10] Meet two of the best friends in the world: Reddy Weldon and Jax Rosebush. These two pint-sized pre-schoolers wanted to trick their teacher, but not in a rude way. They simply wanted their teacher to not be able to tell them apart. There was just one minor technicality that neither of them realized: Reddy is black, but Jax is white. These two BFFs see way past each other’s exterior color, though. Jax just wanted the same haircut as his pal, Reddy, so they would look the same. It’s breath-taking to hear such an adorable demonstration of how colour-blind children can be, especially when we are usually faced with devastating stories of racism.
Image:
Source: rd.com
https://www.rd.com/list/heartwarming-true-stories
[11] Jim Koch, an Iowa man whose 54-year-old wife, Lora, was diagnosed with breast cancer, made sure their cancer story had a beautiful twist. One week after Lora underwent a bilateral mastectomy, Jim re-proposed to his wife. They had already been married for 26 years. The loving husband told abcnews.go.com, “I’ve known Lora as the most selfless person, and as she was going through this rough patch, I really wanted to give a sign and a reminder of love and commitment.” The youngest daughter of the couple happily took photos of her father’s moving gesture. Jim reminds us all that true love does exist and will carry you through, in sickness and in health.
Source: rd.com
https://www.rd.com/list/heartwarming-true-stories
[12] Can you imagine living in a place where everyone but you spoke the same language? Such was life for Muaharrem, a deaf man in Istanbul who uses sign language to communicate. Muaharrem spent every day communicating with people in his town the best he could. He may have gotten by, but was never able to truly live. Until one day, when a Samsung ad created a new world for him that he never thought possible. As Muaharrem’s sister, Ozlem, walked him through his neighborhood, he suddenly realized that everyone he encountered not only understood his language but was able to use it with him. Samsung had contracted the locals to learn sign language as a promotion for its new technology for the hard of hearing but ended up giving Muaharrem the best gift he could have gotten: the gift of communication.
Source: rd.com
https://www.rd.com/list/heartwarming-true-stories
[13] When you lose a loved one, it can seem like everything about that person is gone from your world. One woman realized how far from the truth that is after she lost her husband to cancer. Debora Taylor had started her own battle with cancer four years prior to her husband Hank’s diagnosis, but she fought against it, feeling as though there was some reason God wanted her to stick around. When her husband was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, Debra knew her purpose was to help him through his own battle. Sadly, Hank lost his battle only a month later. Debora was still recovering from her own treatments and was now emotionally scarred after her husband’s sudden death. But one day, Debora found a voicemail from her husband that she had never deleted. The voicemail was of Hank, somewhat agitated on his way home from work but showing his silly side that Debora loved. She treasured the voicemail until the day she had to switch phone carriers and lost her husband’s message. Through a rant on Facebook, her previous phone carrier found out her story and was able to walk Debora through the process of retrieving the voicemail so she could once again have a piece of her husband back in her life.
Source: rd.com
https://www.rd.com/list/heartwarming-true-stories
[14] Would you donate an organ to someone you barely knew who desperately needed it? One young babysitter did, without a second thought, to save the life of a toddler she had known for only three weeks. Kiersten Miles began babysitting Talia over the summer of 2016 when she learned that the baby would need a liver transplant. Kiersten wanted to be her donor, no questions asked. After going through rounds of tests to make sure she was a match, Kiersten learned she could be a donor for Talia. In January 2017, both girls underwent surgery and are expected to make full recoveries. Talia’s parents believe Kiersten was placed in their lives at the perfect time to save their little girl, and have since told Kiersten, “I could tell you thank you for the rest of my life every single day, and it wouldn’t be enough.”
Source: rd.com
https://www.rd.com/list/heartwarming-true-stories
[15] In 2015, nine-year-old Marlee Pack was informed that she was suffering from alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of soft tissue cancer. Marlee was forced to miss a lot of school due to her treatment, which involved weeks of gruelling chemotherapy. When the time came for Marlee to return to class at Meridian Elementary School in Broomfield, Colorado, she felt worried about being the only one with a shaved head. That’s when her friend Cameron McLaughlin decided to shave her head in solidarity with her close pal. 80 students and some teachers from the school followed suit, all shaving their heads in support of Marlee at a school event called “Be Bold, Be Brave, Go Bald”. The event raised more than $25,000 (£19,000] for St Baldrick’s Foundation, a childhood cancer research organisation. “I didn’t think that many people would shave their heads, but I feel good about going back to school and not being the only bald one,” Marlee told Today.com.
Source: independent.co.uk
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/random-acts-kindness-day-viral-inspiring-free-haircuts-homeless-veteran-funeral-a9339256.html
[16] Ever since launching the #DoSomethingForNothing initiative in 2015, British hairdresser Josh Coombes has been helping homeless people regain their sense of identity by giving them free haircuts. He’s also collaborated with veterinarian Jade Statt, who runs a service named Street Vet, to provide the canine companions of the homeless people that he meets with support as well. “I didn’t want it to just be about me and cutting hair. So, I came up with the hashtag and I always wanted other people to get involved,” he told Barcroft TV. Coombes wants to break the taboo surrounding homeless people, demonstrating the ease with which anyone can interact with people who are sleeping rough and show them kindness.
Source: independent.co.uk
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/random-acts-kindness-day-viral-inspiring-free-haircuts-homeless-veteran-funeral-a9339256.html
[17] It’s every runner’s worst nightmare – you’re taking part in one of the most important races of your career, only to take a tumble and eliminate your chances of winning a medal. However, it wasn’t the tangle between New Zealand’s Nikki Hamblin and America’s Abbey D’Agostino at the 2016 Rio Olympics that made headlines, but the way in which the women rallied together to help each other across the finish line. Hamblin and D’Agostino were lauded for capturing the “Olympic spirit” when competing in the qualifying heat for the 5,000-metre race. With less than half of the distance left to go, Hamblin fell over, accidentally tripping D’Agostino in the process. The fall caused D’Agostino to sustain a foot injury, so Hamblin helped her competitor complete the race with the pair embracing at the finish line. Hamblin and D’Agostino were both given awards for their acts of “selflessness and exemplary sportsmanship”.
Source: independent.co.uk
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/random-acts-kindness-day-viral-inspiring-free-haircuts-homeless-veteran-funeral-a9339256.html
[18] In 2014, a man at Stirling Station in Perth, Australia accidentally tripped, becoming trapped in between a train and the platform. As the man struggled to free himself, CCTV footage captured the phenomenal moment that fellow commuters teamed up to push the train to one side, eventually helping the man to free his leg. The man was seen by paramedics following the incident, but fortunately didn’t sustain any serious injuries.
Source: independent.co.uk
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/random-acts-kindness-day-viral-inspiring-free-haircuts-homeless-veteran-funeral-a9339256.html
[19] “Many years ago, an incident had happened I had completely forgotten about until I had to rush to the hospital to see one of my daughters. Whilst visiting her, the receptionist called out my name and then a nurse came over to me and said “thank you”. I thought: what for? She then said I’ve been wanting to say what a difference you made to my daughter’s life. I was gobsmacked as she relayed an incident my daughter could remember but I couldn’t for a few moments. Years ago, when walking with my daughter we saw a young high school girl sitting on the foot path very distressed, crying even a bit disorientated. Apparently, she had been bullied by kids who had been throwing food and objects at her. She also had other emotional issues which I didn’t know anything about, so I just picked her up – asked her where she lived, had a little heart-to-heart talk with her in the car, took her home and gave her my name and number. I thought nothing more of it. The nurse told me it had made a big difference to her life, that somebody cared enough to help her. She is fine now and happily married with a couple of kids, and that nurse looked after my daughter. Karma? I don’t know but I felt great.”
Source: theguardian.com
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/10/small-things-can-mean-a-lot-11-random-acts-of-kindness
[20] “When I was working at Hobby Lobby during the Christmas season, I was sick and had almost lost my voice, but kept my attitude very upbeat. It was almost at the end of the night when this elderly couple came through my line. We started joking about them going to Cracker Barrel and the man asked me what I wanted. I joked about meatloaf and green beans with a sweet tea. About 20 minutes later, the elderly couple came back into the store with a bag from Cracker Barrel with my exact order, down to the sweet tea. The lady whispered, ‘Merry Christmas’ to me and I literally cried right there in the store.”
Source: buzzfeed.com
https://www.buzzfeed.com/alivelez/26-stories-about-random-acts-of-kindness-that-will