Have You Ever Physically Needed the Help of a Stranger When You Were Out and About?

SeaBreeze

SeaBreeze

Endlessly Groovin'
Location
USA
I can't recall ever physically needing the help of a stranger in the past, but if the day comes when I fall or get into a bind, I hope someone nice is around to lend a hand. I've helped a couple of elderly people who have slipped and fell. One woman once couldn't open a heavy door at a store, so I'm glad I was able to rush over and do it for her.

My husband said a handicapped woman was left in a special van, while the driver was in a store shopping. He said he heard a thump and started to hear someone call for help. Luckily the door was unlocked and he was able to assist the woman who had fallen on the floor. There have been a few other incidences also.

Have you ever fallen or felt dizzy in public, where you needed help from a stranger? If so, was your experience a good one?
 

No, but once during shopping for a new recliner in a big furniture store before I had my hips replaced, I realized I could not take another step even using both my canes as I was then. My son picked me up like you would a baby and carried me out of the store and gently deposited me in the truck. We made quite a spectacle, and I sure was glad he was there. But for him, I'd have been at the mercy of strangers.

Needless to say, that was the last shopping trip without a wheelchair until I had had my hips replaced. Now I just zip around on my own two feet again. :eek:nthego:
 
I remember being in a tiny town just outside Verona Italy in the late 80's in the days before we ever used Sat Navs',. It was a real typical dusty Italian village where woman wore aprons and spent their time in the kitchen or at the local store and the only people you would see outside in the sun were the old men sitting outside every corner bar drinking strong coffee, smoking, and playing boards games or cards..It was the sort of place where strangers were viewed with suspicion and no-one was very friendly.
I was trying to find a destination and had driven around for ages in the mid-day heat with no luck and was beginning to get desperate..I'd stopped the car and asked people who were walking past and with little command of the Italian language I only had the address written on a piece of paper...people would shrug and walk off.

Anyway in desperation I got out of the car and walked over to one of the cafes where there was a bunch of men deep in conversation playing dominoes...I was a bit apprehensive interrupting their games and conversation but I showed them my piece of paper, and they all looked very serious shaking their heads, No....no idea......then without a word and just a gesture of follow me..one man stood up, got in his very rickety old jalopy ( I kid you not this car was a real bone shaker) and with more than a little trepidation I got into mine and followed him. I have to tell you I was very anxious and wondered where he was taking me particularly as we were going for some miles right out into the dusty wilderness and the campo...but after about 20 minutes driving he pulled up outside a house...and gestured with a hand out of the window that was my destination...I jumped out of the car and ran to his open window and tried to offer him some money in way of thanks and he waved it away...smiled and just drove off.

Thank god for that man this was my first visit to Italy and but for him I would still be driving around that place to this day... :D
 
Nearly every time I go out.

I can't reach the stuff on the top shelf, or I can't get down to the bottom, I can't read the small print to check my allergies (not many, but the few I do have, like mushrooms, give me an awful bellyache!), I drop my walking stick, I have difficulty with heavy swing doors, or those that only open one way, all manner of things. Try holding open a paper bag and putting bread rolls into it while leaning on a walking stick!

People are generally very kind, particularly young people. The most impatient are the forty and fifty somethings . "People like you should shop when other people are at work" is not common, but not unusual.
 
Many times. When I lived up north, it wasn't rare to slip and fall on the icy sidewalks. When someone fell like that, it was considered common courtesy to stop and help them up and make sure they were ok. I've been helped up by passers-by more times than I'd like to count. In the words of Blanche DuBois, "I have always counted on the kindness of strangers".
 
Laurie said:
Nearly every time I go out.

I can't reach the stuff on the top shelf, or I can't get down to the bottom, I can't read the small print to check my allergies (not many, but the few I do have, like mushrooms, give me an awful bellyache!), I drop my walking stick, I have difficulty with heavy swing doors, or those that only open one way, all manner of things. Try holding open a paper bag and putting bread rolls into it while leaning on a walking stick!

People are generally very kind, particularly young people. The most impatient are the forty and fifty somethings . "People like you should shop when other people are at work" is not common, but not unusual.
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I can't think of specific incidents but I know I have been helped by strangers. I've been asked in the supermarket to get things down from a high shelf or for help reading a label when someone says they have cataracts or forgot their magnifying glass.
 
Many times here too, not long ago, my lawn mower was stuck on high center, a stranger stopped and helped me. I always try to help others stranger or otherwise.
 
I've gone into the vitamin store without my readers once or twice, and had to ask an employee to give me some info on the label. Those labels are getting harder and harder to read. I don't think it's just my imagination either, seems that the print on some things is so tiny, the letters are almost like tiny blobs of ink. :eek:
 
Funny you should mention this, I tend to find myself assisting others often, just this past Friday, a woman, came into our club house, very physically challenged when it came to balance. I couldn't help but start helping her and offering to get things for her and then at one point she decided she wanted to do something for herself and got up from the table and fell flat on her backside and my stupid self went right to her side to help pick her up, forgetting about my back, which paid a price. But it is just natural for me to do things like that, as I think it is for many people, nothing heroic about it, just something many of us feel compelled to do when we see others in need.

I will most always stop to help someone if they appear to be in need, like a senior or a child, or sometimes a person not familiar with the language and if I can try to point them to help or something, it annoys me to see people be dismissed when they are struggling.

I've been on the receiving end many a time as well and have found most people I've encountered to have a generous spirit when it comes to these things, not when it comes to crime, that's a different subject you might be left to your own devices if someone commits a crime against you and ask for help.
 

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