(In college, I live in a second floor apartment. I take a bad step and crash to the ground. My roommate isn’t home and I’ve lost my keys so I sit on the steps waiting. Being poor and in college, I just ice the foot that night and hope for the best. The next day, though, it is pretty obvious I’ve broken a bone. We have no car and rely on the campus bus. The stop is only about 200 yards from our place so it isn’t too painful. We don’t know the Saturday bus driver, but ask him if he’ll stop in front of the campus infirmary as I’d seen the weekday driver do that often. The driver not only refuses, he goes a different route so we don’t even pass the infirmary. My roommate and I get off the bus at the library and I start to hobble across campus, stopping to cry frequently. We are about half-way when a cop stops and asks if we need help.)

Me: “I’m just trying to get to the campus medic’s office. I may have broken my foot.”

Cop: “No problem.”

(He gets out of the car and opens the door for my roommate and me, and drives us right to the front door of the infirmary.)

Cop: “Here’s my card. Call me when you’re through. I’d like to know the diagnosis.”

(After X-rays, it is determined that I have, indeed broken the outside bone of my foot so I get a cast and crutches.)

Me: “So, ready to walk?”

Roommate: “I’m calling that cop.”

Me: “Seriously? Why? He did us a huge favor. I don’t really think he wants to know. He was just being polite.”

Roommate: “I don’t care. I’m calling.”

(She calls him and he comes to pick us up! He drives us home and chit chats.)

Cop: “Do you have a prescription that needs to be filled?”

Me: “Well, yeah. But I don’t think I will. With the cast on, it doesn’t hurt that bad. Honestly, I just want to put my foot up and have a beer.”

Cop: “Do you have beer at home?”

Me: “Actually, no. I’ll have to make do with putting the foot up.”

Cop: “Right, then.”

(He stops at the convenience store on the corner from our neighborhood and asks if I want a soda. I decline.)

Cop: “Okay. Stay put, then. I’ll be right back. This place has the best donuts and I’m due for one.”

(I kid you not, he came back out with donuts and a six pack of beer! He drove us home, helped me up the stairs, got me situated on the sofa with a beer, and headed back out!)

(I’m in a hurry, because my flight got delayed and I have ten minutes to get from one side of the airport to the other to catch my connecting flight. I sprint through the airport and reach the inland security-check, panting and sweating, and see a really long waiting line in front of me.)

Elderly Gentleman: *in front of me* “You look like you are in a hurry.”

Me: “I just got here from [Country] and my flight got delayed so I have to be through this security gate and in the plane in about two minutes.”

Elderly Gentleman: *starts smiling over all over his face* “Awesome. I was waiting for a reason to try this.” *pulls out his black diamond VIP card from [Airline] and waves it at the service lady who is coordinating the waiting lines*

Service Lady: “Oh, hello, sir. I’m really sorry I didn’t notice you before. What can I do for you?”

Elderly Gentleman: “Well, my son needs to catch his flight to in two minutes. He got delayed on his incoming connecting flight.”

(The service lady brings us up to the red carpet check through, and makes sure that we get checked immediately, to speed things up. A young lady behind us starts yelling.)

Lady: “YOU HAVE TO WAIT IN LINE LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE! I HAVE A GOLD CARD AND YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO LET ME WAIT FOR SOME OLD FART JUST BECAUSE HE IS GOING TO DIE BEVOR HE REACHES HIS PLANE!”

(Everybody, including the TSA people, stop and watch to see the reaction of the elderly gentleman.)

Elderly Gentleman: *still his VIP-card in his hand, looks at his VIP card, back to the young lady and back to his card again, turns around and continues with the security check*

Lady: “YOU STUPID, DEAF, OLD IDIOT! GET BACK IN LINE SO I GET THE SERVICE I PAY FOR WITH MY GOLD CARD!”

Elderly Gentleman: *turns around* “Show me your gold card.”

(The young lady fumes and shows him her gold card. The elderly gentleman takes the card throws it in the bin.)

Elderly Gentleman: “People like you are not worthy to wield the power of a gold card.”

(With that, he walked off with me and the service lady in tow to guide us to my flight. Everybody started laughing and the young lady stood there totally baffled. Due to this awesome gentleman, I was able to catch my flight in time and see my fiancée for a whole week.)

(My parents have been residents in a condo for older adults for almost a decade when my father passes away unexpectedly. Without Dad’s income, Mom won’t be able to cover the monthly fees for the condo, and will need to move. While we are looking at other options, we get a call from the accountant at the condo facility.)

Accountant: “Mrs. [My Name], I have an option that might be of interest to your mother. From time to time, it becomes necessary for us to move residents to different rooms to make space for renovations and expansion of our facility. When we do that, we temporarily decrease the monthly charge to compensate for the inconvenience. As your parents have been in that room for quite a while, it’s overdue for renovation. So we’re going to move your mother to an identical unit two doors down until her old room is available again. The new rate will be [an amount that mom can afford comfortably].”

Me: “How long will the renovation take? I appreciate that this will buy her some time, but once she’s back in her old room and the rate goes back to normal, she’ll be in trouble again.”

Accountant: “Well, we’re actually going to be expanding the office suite into that space, so the old room will no longer be available.”

Me: “So…”

Accountant: “So she’ll continue to get the reduced rate until her old room is available again.”

Me: “Which is… never?”

Accountant: ”That’s correct. I do apologize for the inconvenience. We hope your mother will find her new room satisfactory.”

(Thanks to some clever accounting, my mother was able to stay in the community she loved at a rate she could afford, until she passed four years later.)

This story is part of our celebration of Not Always Right publishing over 100,000 stories!

This story is included in the roundup of Not Always Inspirational stories to toast this achievement!

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(I am walking home one day from work when a car slows down next to me. The driver catcalls, offers a ride, everything short of a proposition. Eventually he drives off leaving me thoroughly creeped out. A moment later, a car full of young women slows beside me.)

Driver: “Hey, we saw that guy bothering you. Are you okay?”

Me: “No, not really. I’m worried he’s going to follow me home and my roommate won’t be back for an hour.”

Driver: “Hop in. We’re going to [Restaurant]. You can come!”

(And that’s how I ended up at a fast food restaurant with a bunch of strangers, sharing shrimp poppers and laughing. They got me home safely and I’ll never forget their kindness!)

(I live in a small subdivision with mostly working class families. We all try to watch out for everyone else’s kids when they are playing together outside. I hop in my car to go down to the local convenience store and pass my kid playing with a group of about ten other kids a couple blocks away.)

My Kid: “Bye! Have a good night at work!”

Me: “I’m just going to the store. I’ll be right back.”

(All the other kids start jokingly calling out orders. I drive to the store and buy what I needed. As I’m being rung up I see a box of candies that are 15 cents each. I buy the whole box. When the cashier gave me an odd look, I just say:)

Me: “I’m about to make it rain.”

(Driving back I pass the same group of kids, slow down, and just start flinging candy out the window.)

Me: “It’s a parade!”

Kids: “YAAAAAY!” *start scrambling for the candies*

Me: *out the window as I drive off* “EVERYBODY SHARE WITH EVERYONE ELSE!”

(I get home and sit on my porch. A few minutes later the kids stampede past me.)

Me: “Where are you guys going?”

Kid: *out of breath from running* “You said share, so we’re going to go split it with the kids up the hill!”

(They ran about eight blocks to share their loot with kids they weren’t even playing with at the time who would never have known about it if they hadn’t shared. I have never been more proud of those little hooligans. It cost me less than twenty, bucks, but the feeling I get when I think about it… Can’t put a price-tag on that.)