(My cousin is in the hospital. Our car is in the shop, so in order to visit her, we have to take a bus and walk a great distance to get home. My son and I are standing at the bus stop in the dead of winter, when a cab pulls up. The driver is a complete stranger to me.)

Cab Driver: “Hey, I know you. You’re that crossing guard! I go by your corner all the time. Where are you going?”

Me: “We’re going home. I live near where you see me every day.”

Cab Driver: “Get in. I’m going that way to pick someone up. I’ll take you for free! I mean it. No charge.”

Me: “You sure? Okay.”

(He took us home and wouldn’t even take a tip!)

(My fiancée often travels to Vancouver for business, doing day trips. This particular day, he sends me a text once he has checked into his flight at the airport in Calgary saying that he forgot his wallet at home. Sure enough, it’s on the nightstand. He isn’t concerned about ID as he has a passport, but has no idea how he’ll get around Vancouver during the day with no cash, credit cards, or debit cards. Having arrived in Vancouver, he flags down a cab. As soon as he opens the door of the car:)

Fiancée: “Hi, I just want to be upfront with you right now that I left my wallet at home in Calgary and so I’m not sure if you will be able to accept my credit card number by memory, or I downloaded the E-Cab app that seems to be popular here, so before you take me anywhere I just need you to know that.”

Cabbie: “We’ll figure it out. Hop in.”

(They drive to the downtown office where my fiancée’s meeting is. The cabbie calls his dispatch to see what options my fiancée has. The dispatch advises them that they can do a manual credit card entry. After spending a few minutes figuring how to do that, the cabbie is unable to complete the transaction as the machine prompts for an authorization card, which he does not have. The cabbie calls his dispatch again and they say they can run the charge remotely from their office.)

Fiancée: *handing over his business card* “Here is my work cell number, my work email address, my personal email address, the credit card number, everything you need. If you have ANY issues having that charge processed, please do not hesitate to contact me.”

Cabbie: “No problem, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Hey, you said you have no cash or anything on you?”

Fiancée: “That’s right. Left everything at home but my passport.”

Cabbie: “How are you going to eat today?”

Fiancée: “Oh, I have coworkers waiting. I’m sure one of them can spare me some money for lunch.”

Cabbie: “If I had any cash on me, I’d give it to you just to be sure…”

Fiancée: “That’s incredibly kind of you; you’ve done more than enough!”

Cabbie: “Okay, well, have a good day; hopefully it gets better from here!”

Fiancée: “Thank you, for everything!”

(The cab company did end up calling my fiancée to verify the story and confirm the fare amount. My fiancée asked the accountant to double whatever he had previously written down for a tip and ensured the company knew what a great driver they had. I was glad to hear the story later, knowing someone took care of him for me!)

(I have just left a dentist’s appointment. As the office is in another town, about 30 minutes away, and I don’t drive at the time, I took a cab there. When I get outside, I pull out my cell phone and call the same cab company to take me to my university, as I have a class later that afternoon. Over an hour later, the cab has still not shown up. I figure they have forgotten to send someone, as it wouldn’t be the first time, so I pull out my phone to call again. To my dismay, I realize that my phone froze after my first call and is completely unresponsive, despite having a full charge. Since pay phones are a thing of the past, I walk up the street to a nearby corner store, and ask to use their phone.)

Me: “Excuse me; can I please use your phone? I need to call a cab.”

Cashier #1: “I’ll call for you. Do you know the number?”

Me: *realizing the number is in my frozen phone* “Um, no. Sorry, do you maybe have a phone book?”

Cashier #2: “Where are you heading, sweetie?”

Me: “[University]. I have a class in an hour. I called a cab over an hour ago, but I guess they forgot about me, and now my phone’s frozen, and I’m kind of freaking out.”

Cashier #2: “Oh, I live pretty close to [University], and my shift just ended. Why don’t I just give you a lift? Save you 30 bucks?”

Me: “Seriously? It wouldn’t be too much trouble?”

Cashier #2: “No trouble at all, sweetie.”

Me: “Thank you so much!”

(She drove me to school, and I made it in plenty of time. I never saw her again, but I’ll never forget her kindness. As a side note, that was the last time I ever called that cab company!)

(I am on a road trip by myself from Manitoba to Alberta, about 12 hours of driving. My car is in rather rough shape, but I had gotten it tuned up before the trip and am trying to keep an eye on everything as I go. One of the things I check at each stop is the tire pressure, but somehow I never actually notice that my tires are so badly worn the metal wire is sticking through. Needless to say, my tire blows as I am driving. I pull onto a side road when I feel it going, and start the process of changing the tire for a spare. It’s getting late; I want to finish quickly so I can get to a store to fix the tire before everything closes. Unfortunately all the lug nuts are badly rusted, so I am really struggling when a convertible pulls up beside me.)

Driver: “Are you all right?”

Me: “Yes and no. I’m fine, but I can’t get this tire off.”

Driver: “Maybe I can help. Oh, wow, this tire is worn down to the wire.”

Me: “Wire?”

Driver: “You didn’t notice all the metal showing through? You’re lucky this didn’t blow while you were driving.”

Me: “Oh, geeze. I’ve been checking the tire pressure constantly and didn’t even notice. Yikes.”

Driver: “Your other front tire’s the same.”

(At this point I am starting to freak out a bit. I am very far from home, neither tire is coming off even with help, and I have no idea how I am going to get to a store to get new tires.)

Driver: “These aren’t coming off. Come on. I was actually just heading to the tire shop. I’ll give you a lift and they can come get the car.”

Me: “Thank you!”

(The tire shop he is going to is literally only two blocks down that road. He is well-known to the employees, and when he explains the situation they were happy to get their truck and grab my car. They tow it back to the shop and got to work taking off the damaged tires.)

Employee #1: “What did you do to these tires?! [Employee 2], come see these!”

Employee #2: “How were you even still driving? There’s nothing left to them.”

Me: “I actually just got them this year. And I had the car checked before I left and no one mentioned they were in bad shape. I still can’t believe I didn’t notice the metal when I was checking tire pressure all along.”

Employee #2: “That’s insane. These are literally the worst tires I have ever seen.”

Employee #1: *has managed to get the first tire off and is looking at wheel hub assembly* “And everything in here is completely rusted.” *he literally breaks off bits of the rusted metal disk inside with his fingers*

Me: “Oh, no. Will it still work to get me through the rest of the trip?”

Employee #1: “Yes, it can still go a bit, but when you get back home you’ll need to either replace the entire assembly or the whole car.”

Me: “Okay. That’s good. The car is only supposed to be temporary anyway; it wasn’t expected to last more than a year, and it’s already been almost two.”

Employee #2: “If you’re going to get rid of the car anyway there’s no point in getting nice new tires for it. We can probably just re-tread your tires. I’ll go see if we have everything we need already.”

(They did have whatever they needed, and in less than an hour my car was ready to go again. The original helpful driver even offered to pay for the repair for me. I paid, and gave him a huge hug for all his help. I was so overwhelmed the whole time. Not only had I been so lucky that my tire blew when I was going slowly, but it had done so within blocks of an awesome tire shop, and right when an amazingly kind stranger was about to pass. A major thank you to that friendly driver and those helpful employees. Because of them my trip went great and I made it home safely.)

(I didn’t hear all of this exchange, but I heard enough to know it belongs here. I’m getting on a bus when a passenger in front of me starts putting coins in the fare box. I should note that fare boxes on buses in my city don’t give change. The driver stops him after he’s put in $1.50.)

Driver: “Okay, stop there. You put in $4 last time, so I’ll just apply the $1.25 you overpaid as a credit toward your fare today.”

(Thank you, bus driver, for reassuring me that some drivers really do know and care about their passengers.)