Making a Difference - post random acts of kindness

Murrmurr said:
When I worked as a bus driver I made an unscheduled stop - pulled over to pick up a young lady with a baby, and I didn't charge her.

These aren't huge things, but I know the help is appreciated, and it lifts my spirits.
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My son and I had a similar experience in Seattle many years ago. Coming back from a doctors appt, we got on the wrong bus and ended up in West Seattle, a long way from where we needed to be. The driver asked us where we needed to go and when we told him our hotel, he said, "I have to drive right by there to get back to the depot." Appreciated his kindness, he sure didn't have to do that.
 

A big thank you to the young man at WalMart today who not only took a minute to check me and my three items out during his own break from work, but then when he saw my scrubs, he said, "Thank you for all you do. Stay safe out there."

It had been "a day" on call. I 'bout cried.

There are good people out there!
 
My husband, who is disabled and 72 years old, experiences random acts of kindness all the time. These actions make me appreciate how nice people are in our town.

Last week, he drove over a curb and flattened two tires. When the tow truck came, he exited the car and walked about 10 feet down the street. Suddenly he fell (this happens often). A young couple (20s) got out of their car and helped him up. This is very hard to do because he is a dead weight during these situations.

Also last week, he was in a handicapped space at the bank, his foot kind of fell off the brake (as he tells it), and the car moved and knocked over the handicapped sign. The front end of the car was messed up, so he called to ask me (!) if it was safe to drive.. DQ was right next door, so he decided to test that by driving over there. As he exited DQ, a couple of men followed him. They offered to fix the car for free so it would be driveable. They brought tools and bolted all the parts that needed that, and told him it was now safe to drive, but he'd need a new front bumper.

Every time he goes to the store, whether he falls or not, someone helps him. Usually they put the groceries in his trunk for him.

My husband and I are separated. I think he shouldn't drive any more, but I'll post a thread about that later, maybe tomorrow.
 

Once, we were driving back home after sharing Thanksgiving with my husband's family. We stopped for gas, and a homeless guy hobbled over and asked for money. As a rule, we don't like to give money out, so we gently refused. Then the guy asked if we had any leftovers? We were happy to split half the leftovers that we had in the car, with this man. He was so happy, and we felt truly thankful that we had food enough to share.
 
The bus stories here reminds me of another. I had walked quite a distance to visit my adult daughter in her new apartment. I had planned to take a bus back, since there had been a blizzard warning. As I waited for the bus, the snow started to fall, and got intense. I am not in the best of health, and feared what the long walk back, in rapidly accumulating snow, would do to me. I saw the bus I wanted pass on the other side of the street and expected it to make the loop and then come back down the street on my side. It didn't. I stood there, shivering in the worsening weather, when another bus stopped. It wasn't the one I wanted, but the driver asked which I was waiting for. When I told him, he radioed in and found that the driver had merely turned his bus in and gone home! This driver offered to take me as close to my destination as he could, even though he was done for the day and it wasn't my route!
 
When my daughter was visiting me in Adelaide, Australia .. we took buses. The bus drivers were so helpful, to the point of getting off the bus themselves to show us the way to a tourist centre that had brochures about the city, bus routes, etc. People in general were very kind in helping when I had a map out, and went out of their way to direct me to a specific bus stop or street. I tended to get confused, as the direction of traffic was opposite to what I was used to.
 
Pinky said:
When my daughter was visiting me in Adelaide, Australia .. we took buses. The bus drivers were so helpful, to the point of getting off the bus themselves to show us the way to a tourist centre that had brochures about the city, bus routes, etc. People in general were very kind in helping when I had a map out, and went out of their way to direct me to a specific bus stop or street. I tended to get confused, as the direction of traffic was opposite to what I was used to.
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That would challenge me, too. I struggle with maps and directions in the US, so yeah, that must have been hard!
 
One thing that comes to mind happened years ago. A woman and her daughter moved in a few doors away from me. The little girl was 6yrs old and I noticed her walking home from school all alone. I asked the mother one day if I could take the little girl to school and give her lunch at my house. The Mother said yes. So for the next 7yrs that was what I did. Years later when I joined Facebook the girl reached out to me. Her mother had sent her to College in California and never let her come back. The girl got married and has 2 children which her mother never saw because she wouldn't let her daughter come back. When the girl saw me on Facebook she reached out to me and said that she never knew what love meant until she came into my house and saw the love I had for my kids and my husband. Her mother had never even told her who her Dad was and still today she doesn't know anything about him. Her mother got married and she wasn't even invited to the wedding. The mother had another daughter when she married and she never even met her half-sister. Sometimes life can be very cruel.
 
Not random only because helping some of my neighbors with home repair at no cost to them helps me keep busy. They buy the parts needed I bring the tools needed & guide them on how to do the repairs.

The other day an underground 3/4" PVC water supply line for lawn watering split for some unknown reason. Choice to dig back 3ft on each side to be able to cut & splice in a new section or use a $6.98 putty especially designed for water leaks. The neighbor opted for the putty. Sealed the leak like it was supposed to. Glad to be able to give options & keep simple repairs at a low cost.
 
animals an make a difference, too...

In France, Peyo, a beautiful 15-year-old stallion, often comes to comfort and soothe terminally ill patients at the Techer Hospital in Calais. The horse always chooses which patient he wants to see, kicking his hoof outside the door.


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SmoothSeas said:
animals an make a difference, too...

In France, Peyo, a beautiful 15-year-old stallion, often comes to comfort and soothe terminally ill patients at the Techer Hospital in Calais. The horse always chooses which patient he wants to see, kicking his hoof outside the door.


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Nice, but I'm just wondering. Since they're vegetarian, horses have a high-fiber diet & leave really big piles.
Is that horse housebroken? šŸ˜Š
 
This is not random either but I think it fits in here.

Timor is an island close to the NW coast of Australia. During WW II the Japanese invaded and some of our troops were stranded there. They hid out in the high country and the Timorese people took huge risks by protecting them and providing them with food.

In more recent times the Indonesians began infiltration of post colonial East Timor - they had already claimed the western side of the island. They used local militia to attack the Timorese people in a campaign of terror. Eventually the UN sent in peacekeepers and this is the story of one Australian peacekeeper medic and the baby he delivered.

Former peacekeeper Ben Farinazzo, 22 years on, reunites with Timor-Leste man he helped deliver - ABC News
 
Another not intentional not random. There is a website, FreeRice, that has over 4 dozens 'games' with a purpose: Thru their supporters and sponsors they donate 10 grains of rice for each correct answer you give which add up to bowls of rice really quickly. It especially adds up quick because millions around the world play the games. i've gone to the site off/on for at least 10-12 years. In that time they've expanded the categories.

Most (haven't looked at all of the expanded selection) have a basic format of a question and a list of 4 possible answers. In Art you see a painting and they give you 4 options of who the painter was, in geography they may highlight a country on a map and have you identify which of options is name of the country. They have various language ones, which can help you maintain your knowledge in a second language or build your vocabulary in it. You can adjust the difficulty level (5 from easiest to hardest) for each game.

i particularly like language, math and art ones, tho i play others also. One of my favorite things about it is they 1) tell you immediately if you are correct or what was the correct response if you were wrong and 2) the ones you miss come back around again (sometimes a day or two later if you play frequently with the choices in a different order. So if you pay attention to what was correct answer, you learn something, your memory gets exercised and you will get more correct answers.

https://freerice.com/
 
feywon said:
Another not intentional not random. There is a website, FreeRice, that has over 4 dozens 'games' with a purpose: Thru their supporters and sponsors they donate 10 grains of rice for each correct answer you give which add up to bowls of rice really quickly. It especially adds up quick because millions around the world play the games. i've gone to the site off/on for at least 10-12 years. In that time they've expanded the categories.
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I used to play this about two-hard drives ago. Now book marked. Thanks for the memory refresh...
 
SmoothSeas said:
I used to play this about two-hard drives ago. Now book marked. Thanks for the memory refresh...
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Probably because of the positive reinforcement and my appetite for learning it's highly addictive for me. The art one especially because i've learned to recognize some that was never that familiar with because if visually oriented you start recognizing both themes and style.


While donations of rice may not seem like much to most food secure westerners, rice is a staple globally and can make a huge difference to impoverished peoples.
 
feywon said:
Probably because of the positive reinforcement and my appetite for learning it's highly addictive for me. The art one especially because i've learned to recognize some that was never that familiar with because if visually oriented you start recognizing both themes and style.


While donations of rice may not seem like much to most food secure westerners, rice is a staple globally and can make a huge difference to impoverished peoples.
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I only remember the vocabulary challenge from back when I was playing it daily. Gonna have to download the app.

See my sig line - curiosity rules my life, and I, too, am addicted to adding to my knowledge base.

Being a secure westerner, I've never known hunger, but my hearts bleeds for those who do...
 
SmoothSeas said:
I only remember the vocabulary challenge from back when I was playing it daily. Gonna have to download the app.

See my sig line - curiosity rules my life, and I, too, am addicted to adding to my knowledge base.

Being a secure westerner, I've never known hunger, but my hearts bleeds for those who do...
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Over my life i've been sporadically acquainted with actual hunger from parts of childhood, early years on my own (one winter i lived on rice and beef broth to save up so i could go work for Civil Rights movement summer of 1966) and as a single Mom. While i made sure i got enough to sustain me--i didn't indulge myself because like my Mother i always wanted the kids to have 'more'.
 
sometimes it's the small things like this, that make me smile and temporarily restore my faith in people...

"Hi! I want to commend one of your bus drivers who was driving the 205 service from CIT to Kent Station at 15:40. As an elderly lady was getting off the bus she almost tripped. Once she was off, the driver noticed that her lace was undone and he stalled the bus to tell her. When she said that she knew, he realized that she wasn't steady enough on her feet to bend down and tie it herself, so he got off the bus and tied it for her. He was so kind to her and went out of his way to look after a customer. I haven't seen someone do something so kind in as long as I can remember and the lady was so appreciative she blew a kiss as the bus was pulling away. Your driver made my day."


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feywon said:
It had slipped my mind too, after a hard drive crash 2 yrs ago. i was glad to see it doing so well, having more games and still donating millions of grains of rice a day.
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absolutely...

I have yet to visit their new website and try the new games. Have you actually looked into the validity of their actual donations...?
 

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