Strangers / small things making a difference in your life

Years ago I worked on a crisis phone line. I was in one night on my own covering the evening shift. It had been dead and then the phone rang. There was a little old lady on the other end and she asked me if I'd heard about one of the clerical sex abuse reports that had just been released that day. It wasn't really in our remit to talk to these kinds of callers but it was late, I was bored and she needed to talk so I decided to go with it.

I told her I was familiar with the report and prepared myself for her to tell her story but all she said was 'my name is x, I'm in my eighties and I'm dying of cancer. I was raped by my parish priest when I was seven. I've never told anyone but I didn't want to go to my grave without someone knowing what happened to me. Thank you for listening. Goodbye'

She hung up the phone. I have never forgotten that woman and she serves as a constant reminder that we never know what other people may have endured. Its made me more patient. It's years ago so she's probably passed on and I often wonder if she ever told her family. I'm hugely humbled that I was the one she told and feel privileged that I was working that shift. I hope she died peacefully knowing her suffering was acknowledged.

whatismyname wrote: »

Also, not meaning to be super cheesy here or anything, but thinking about it, we are all mostly strangers here on Boards, yet we still have a big potential to make a really positive on strangers here, and I can think of at least a few cases where a stranger on here has impacted positively on my life without them really realising it.

On the other side of that, I was a member of a now defunct forum years ago where a member took their own life after detailing their intentions to do so on the forum. Despite the pleas from other members this person committed suicide. There aren't always happy endings but you do see positive things happen on boards.ie and it shouldn't be taken for granted.

I had not long lost my Dad, and I was feeling really low. Everything seemed to be going wrong, and to top it all I could not get the hang of opening the petrol cap on my car. Dad would have been the go to person for any problems like that. I was at the supermarket, and knew I'd have to go to the garage to get petrol. I dreaded pulling up at the pump, and making a fool of myself, not being able to open it, so I decided I'd have a go at it in the supermarket car park. A man, a bit younger than my Dad appeared at my side and asked was I OK. When I told him the problem, he talked me through it, and stood with me to watch me as I did it myself a few times as my Dad would have done. A small thing, not life changing, but I have never forgotten it

I always remember kindness, the woman who gave me two euros so my son could use a ride on toy, the man who ran a mile with me when I was really struggling during a half marathon, Tony from the Samaritans who took a call from me when I was in a bad place, the woman on the bus who told the young inexperienced mother I was with a screaming baby that i was doing a great job.

Stuff like that is priceless and the best thing is it costs us nothing to do but can make such a difference to how someone else feels. If everyone could be a little more kind the world would be a better place.

I was in a restaurant in London when I received the phone call telling my me eldest sister had died. The stranger next to me saw my expression, asked me was I OK. When I told him he just gave me a hug, told me to get going and he'd take care of my bill. I've never forgotten this and it meant so much at the time.

I have a few of these. People can be very kind.

I had a return ticket from Dublin to Navan, but they don't apply to the weekend service after midnight. I'd been out with my friends drinking and just had a wallet of change, so I couldn't afford a new ticket home, but I still had my return ticket. I ask the driver to let me on and he refuses, but a security/supervisor guy at Busaras was chatting to someone else working there and saw.

The coach drives off and the security/supervisor guy talks to me and I say what happened.
He says he's contacted the driver and told him to wait for me, he will give me a lift down to the next stop and I can get on the coach, that they should make exceptions in some cases, he says he wouldn't want his daughter to be stuck like that.

So he gives me a lift down to the next stop on O'Connell st, the coach is waiting, he speaks to the guy and I'm on my way home.

I count the change in my wallet the next day sober and realise I did have enough after all. But I was very impressed by the kindness he showed then, and I would have been stuck for the whole night otherwise.

I'm a novice at bicycles. I buy a new bicycle (now passed onto a second owner) and manage to have the chain come loose early on in my first cycle of it and I'm a bit stuck as I'm near a main road.
So I'm a doofus and stuck on the side of the road trying to fix it. A guy stops his car (on his way to see his girlfriend) and helps me put the chain back on (after some googling as neither of us knew how to do it haha). And I cycle on. He didn't need to do that at all and I found that very kind.

A lovely woman on my course who supported me throughout and helped me on the difficult assignments, even though she had her hands full with a young boy and her own coursework to do!

My housemates and colleagues who bought me presents and birthday cakes when I was on my own in the country for it.

The taxi driver who chatted to me about movies and recommended a great one to me (Arsenic and Old Lace) and wouldn't accept my tip!

The removal driver who gave me a great bargain price on a last-minute apartment/room move from Cork to Dublin, was very helpful, we left early in the morning and you could see the sunrise over the hills and chatted to me about my life on the way there.


A girl I worked with but didn't know very well, once we spent a day travelling around London, finding someone who worked in a particular pub etc, with not much information, to try and track down what happened to her cat she gave away a while before. He turned out to be alright.
The same girl making me a tea and watching Singing In The Rain and ordering a pizza in for us, when I was over at her house the next day after a work night out.

The guy I didn't know very well, but we used to do Karaoke in London every two weeks for a good part of the year, in this tiny bar until it closed down. Just karaoke, nothing else, didn't know much about him.

The colleagues who knew I was getting bullied in a job and the manager who let me transfer to his branch, no questions asked.

Any strangers or colleagues I've met who've gone out of their way to listen to me, or to help me, with nothing to gain from it.

ill be following this thread:)