(The ticket machine at Winchfield train station is super crappy, and constantly has issues accepting cash payment. There are also no buildings anywhere near the train station. I am heading into Basingstoke for a Christmas work do at about nine pm. It is wet and icy, so it’s horrible. There’s a young girl, probably about 11 or 12, at the ticket machine. She has her cash in hand, so I know it won’t be a long wait, and I start fishing for my card.)

Girl: “Erm… Y-you can go ahead of me.”

(I look up, and she’s stepped to the side and pulled out her phone.)

Me: “Oh, thanks.”

(I go to the machine and the girl walks a fair bit away. The ticket machine isn’t accepting cash, and it takes a moment for me to click that the girl can’t get her ticket. She hasn’t cleared all her information from the machine, and I see her station is not one where she can get off without a ticket, so I buy hers and mine with my card. I head over to her after.)

Girl: *on the phone* “Please, Mum. It’s really cold and the ticket office is closed. Can you really not be here sooner? There’s nowhere I can wait! Mum, please?” *she starts crying*

Me: *tapping the girl’s shoulder* “Your ticket.”

(She turns round, and I hand the ticket over.)

Girl: *hesitantly taking it* “What?”

Me: “I bought your ticket. Get home safe, okay?”

(I head into the station platforms and start crossing the bridge.)

Girl: “Hey! The money for the ticket!”

(I look round. She’s trying to hand me a tenner, and I have no change on me.)

Me: “It was a few quid; it’s fine.”

Girl: “Are you sure?”

Me: “Positive. Good deed for the day and all that jazz.”

(We are on holiday in Sabah. On the way home, we are supposed to fly from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur at noon. When we get to the airport, we are told the flight has been cancelled and we have been put on the next flight at six pm.)

Airline Employee: “I am so sorry. We contacted everyone who was supposed to be on that flight. We called your hotel; did they not tell you?”

Me: “No, we didn’t receive any messages.”

Airline Employee: “My apologies. If you could please wait over there.”

(We go and stand next to a couple who apparently are in the same situation. A few minutes later, a young man approaches us.)

Young Man: “If you would please follow me, I’ll take you to lunch.”

(He drives us to one of the best hotels in Kota Kinabalu and tells us the airline has paid for our lunch and he will pick us up in about an hour. After an amazing lunch buffet, he comes back:)

Young Man: “There are two options for you to spend the afternoon. I can take you to the chocolate factory or I can take you to have a massage.”

(We all choose the latter, and he takes us to a massage parlour where we have a fantastic one-and-a-half-hour, full-body Thai massage. When he picks us up again to take us to the airport, he hands each of us a box with a piece of chocolate cake.)

Young Man: “Since you didn’t get to go to the chocolate factory, I brought you something from there.”

(The cake was delicious, and he got us back to airport an hour before our flight left.

We spent most of the flight composing the most glowing review for the airline and its employees. Compared to how American and European airlines treat their customer, this was a surreal experience.)

Due to not owning a car, I rely heavily on public buses to get me to my destination whenever I need to go somewhere. This means I am often caught having to stand at the stop for upwards of twenty minutes in the worst weather. Unfortunately for me, at the time of this story, I was having trouble with finances and did not own an umbrella, nor anything thicker than a hoodie. So, I was stuck in the pouring rain and soaked to the bone one cold spring day.

That was when a lady in a van pulled up at the bus stop and rolled down her passenger window. Expecting her to ask for directions, I stepped forward to answer her questions,only to find a travel umbrella pressed into my hands. She told me that she’d seen me as she was passing by going the other way, and had used the intersection further onward to turn around. She wanted to give me her spare umbrella, because she felt that no one should have to stand in the rain in such a thin hoodie without an umbrella.

I was already soaked to the bone, so it wasn’t too much use for me by that point, but she refused to let me give it back, and instead drove away, saying that she hoped I got dry soon.

I’ve never seen her again since that day, but I still have that umbrella. If you’re reading this, thank you for backtracking just to give someone already completely soaked the means to stay dry in the future!

(I work in the bakery department of a busy grocery store. The lines are always long at the main cash registers, so my coworkers and I usually try to buy food for break or lunch in our department. One day, it’s particularly busy for us, with customers lining up at the coffee bar and the cake case, and catching anyone who is putting out product with questions. Many of them are unhappy with waiting and are impatient with us when we can finally help them. My manager sees me finish taking an order with a particularly difficult customer and pushes me out of the department to grab something to eat for the first time all day. I go up to the main registers to cash out, since I know that my coworkers are already stressed out with how busy it is. I find the shortest line — six customers, several with big carts full — so I can to begin the wait which I know will take up most of my break. The woman in front of me looks around and sees my uniform.)

Woman: “Oh, you must be on break! I know you don’t get a lot of time; do you want to go in front of me?”

(I stammer a thank-you, and move in front if her. The next couple in line turns around, and offers the same.)

Me: “Oh, no, that’s okay. You guys don’t have a lot to check out, either.”

(They shook their heads, insisted that they had nowhere to be, and moved aside to let me go first. This process continued all the way up the line, with every single person at that point hearing that the people behind them were letting me go so I’d have time to eat. I cashed out very quickly, turned back to my very sweet customers and thanked them all again, letting them know how much it meant to me, and ran off to eat. I’ve had sweet customers, but never an entire line of them, and it really restored my faith in humanity.)

I work in an animal shelter, and I know how difficult it is to find owners for certain pets. The older a pet is, the harder it is to get them adopted.

One day, a man walked in to give up an animal, and I sighed inwardly because it was an adult female cat. They are some of the hardest to find homes for. The cat was a beautiful torbie, young and in perfect health, but absolutely terrified.

She never really calmed down around us. She did nothing but hide and freak out whenever someone got too close. We could tell that she wasn’t doing well, as she was losing weight, and her fur was getting a lot thinner.

Then, after almost two months, a girl walked in. She looked like she was about to cry; she was shaking and biting her lip and blinking rapidly. She asked to look at our cats, especially if we had any nervous females. I was surprised and confused by her very unusual request, but I immediately thought of the torbie and took the girl to see her.

As soon as the girl saw the cat, she broke down in tears. To my surprise, the cat responded by letting out a meow, the only sound I’d ever heard her make, and instead of trying to run away, she started to carefully sneak closer.

I couldn’t think of anything to do but watch silently as the girl grabbed the cage, sobbing and blubbering incoherently, and the cat pressed herself against the girls’ fingers.

It took close to twenty minutes before the girl calmed down enough to explain things to me. The cat used to be hers, but her dad gave it away, because neither the cat nor the girl got along well with the rest of the family. Apparently, the cat was a stray that had snuck into their house and stuck around, eventually growing close to the girl, but never really settling in with the rest of the family.

The father had threatened to get rid of the cat and eventually went through with it. Now, the girl had moved out and she’d been looking all over for her cat, desperately hoping she was still alive.

I was overjoyed to see the cat return to her rightful owner. By pure coincidence, I ran into the girl a few months later at a grocery store. She showed me pictures of the cat in their new home. She had adopted an older female cat who got along famously with the first one, and both cats looked like they loved their life. The girl was even buying a grilled chicken just for her cats!