(My mom is eligible in the French charity that distributes food packages to people with low income, so she decides to volunteer to ask for donations in the local supermarket. The charity waits behind the registers with empty shopping carts and ask to people if they want to donate part of their groceries after their purchases. While it’s obviously not an obligation, some people still have rude reactions.)

Child: *stares at my mom*

Mom: *waves*

Child: *to his dad* “Dad, what’s that?” *points at my mom*

Customer #1: *in a huff* “Don’t mind them. That’s for hobos!”

(Later in the morning…)

Mom: “Hi, would you like to donate food for charity?”

Customer #2: *unintelligible grumble*

(Later, beginning of the afternoon, my mother notices an elderly customer at the register, being very slow to get checked out. Once she gathers her groceries in her bag, she proceeds to walk towards the main entrance very slowly, barely walking. She then notices the charity stand.)

Elderly Customer: “Oh…” *looking disappointed*

(She then leaves. My mom sees her barely walking through the parking lot, carrying her groceries. Two hours later, she notices the same slow and elderly lady coming back into the store, this time pushing a shopping cart. They think nothing of it, until they notice one more hour later that she checks out with a cart filled with canned food, bottles of milk, and boxes of eggs. She then pushes the cart towards my mom, smiling…)

Elderly Customer: “Here.”

(Yes. While it was winter, and she was very old and barely walking, she did a round trip from her place back to the supermarket, just to donate a completely filled shopping cart. My mom and the other volunteers thanked her a lot, and the lady only replied with a smile, and then my mom told the other volunteers about her while they watched walk away from the supermarket, again through the parking lot. Thank you for bringing back faith in humanity, unknown nanny!)

(My neighbor knocks on my door kind of late one night. He’s usually quite light-hearted, with an almost exaggerated southern accent, and he smiles a lot. But, this night, he has a dark look to his face. His voice is very low.)

Neighbor: “I need to ask you a favor. A big one.”

(My heart drops as all manner of horrible possibilities come into my head.)

Me: “What’s wrong?”

Neighbor: “Our electricity got cut off. Can I run a power cord from your garage to my TV until they reconnect us the day after tomorrow?”

(I almost laughed in his face because I’d really gotten worried as to what was going on!)

Me: “Of course; it’s fine!”

(He then gave me $20, which I try to refuse.)

Neighbor: “I insist that I you take it because borrowing your power outlet is a s*** thing to do to a neighbor.”

(My fiancée and I have a habit of fighting over the check when we go out to eat. At one of our favorite breakfast places, we have had the same waiter several times. He is really good and funny so we tip really well. We go in for breakfast and he waits on us. When it is time for the check:)

Waiter: “Which of you are going to pay?”

(We both raise our hands.)

Waiter: “Nope. Get out.”

(We were speechless and just stared at him until he said that us fighting over the check was so much fun, our meals were on him. We just stared at each other, left a tip, and left, completely speechless.)

I am a young male, having grown up without a father and with no car in the family, so I am not very familiar with how to do anything “under the hood.”

It is early winter. I am driving home from work from the city. It is dark and the weather is bad. Leaving the city I see an older man hitchhiking beside the road. He looks a little bit sketchy in the dark and I am hesitant at first. But due to having hitchhiked a lot before getting myself a car and the weather being really bad, I decide to pick him up. He wants to get to a location more than 20 km further from where I am going but gladly jumps in from the wet and the cold.

About 10 km before the destination the front passenger-side tire breaks with a bang and loud noise like an airplane landing just over the roof. As it is the first time I have ever experienced something like this, I am rather startled but safely stop the car. I am confused as to what should I do next, not exactly sure how to change the tire in the dark, wet, and cold.

Next thing I know, without much thought, the hitchhiker asks me if I have a spare. He jumps out and proceeds to grab the tire and everything else from the trunk, changes the tire himself and puts everything back after finishing. All this in record time and we are ready to continue with the drive.

After getting driving again I feel really grateful and so happy, I decide to pay him the kindness back by driving him the 20 km further he needs to go. On the way I learn he paints cars for a living, which is why he is so familiar with cars and so quick about the tire changing.

To this day I think back with warm feelings about that night because without having him in the car to help me, who knows how long it would have taken me in the dark, cold, and wet weather to figure out how to change the tire for the first time beside that road there.

I teach a sixth-grade class, which is preparing to go on two field trips. Both of these field trips are supposed to be paid for in full by a grant from the state. As I am teaching my class I get a call. The grant didn’t pay for the whole trip like it was supposed to. I would either have to leave one kid at the school while the rest of the class goes on the second trip or I would have to come up with $25 to pay out of my pocket. I would have gladly paid the $25 but didn’t have the money yet.

A few days after receiving the call I lead my class down to their art class, and then head back upstairs to grade papers. When I get upstairs I notice a small cookie tin sitting on my desk. I open it up and there is $25 in small bills and change along with a note that reads:

“I wanted to pay my own way for the Springfield trip so you don’t have to pay for it out of your pocket. -Anonomous” [sic]

The kid who did it was a very thoughtful young man and was very mature for his age. If you are reading this I just want to thank you again. It is still the most thoughtful thing a student has done for me.

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