(Driving home one day, we see a bicyclist fall off her bike just ahead of us. When I see in our rearview mirror she still hasn’t gotten up, we pull over to see if she is okay. I jump out of the car with my 11-year-old daughter.)

Me: *calling out as we walk towards her* “Hi, do you need a hand? Are you okay?

Cyclist: *picking her bike up* “I’m okay… This was my first time riding my new bike and I am more worried I damaged it than me.”

(Her arm is bleeding a little, and her chain is dangling off her bike.)

Me: “Yeah, you’re a bit scraped up but the bike looks okay to me.”

Cyclist: “My chain came off and now I have to walk the bike home.”

Daughter: “Oh, I know how to fix that! Here, I’ll hold this thing in and you loop the chain back up there… Okay, hold it in place; I’m letting go. Okay, now pedal it gently to click it into place.”

Cyclist: “Oh, wow, you fixed it. Thank you so much!”

Daughter: “You’re welcome! Have a nice day!”

(As we walked back to our car, my daughter was beaming that she had the knowledge and ability to help a grown up and make their day better. The cyclist waved as she passed us as she rode by.)

(I am to perform in a concert around Christmas, and my parents want to come to the show. For some reason, I am not able to get them tickets from the organizers, or from the venue. In fact, there is only one place in the city where I can get them, and it is located in a part of the city I have never been to before. I Google the address before I leave home, but it turns out that they have moved, and not updated their address on their website. I don’t have a smartphone at the time, so I am hopelessly lost in an unfamiliar place, in the middle of a Canadian winter. Needless to say, I am quite distressed. I spot a bus stop up ahead, but the bus is right behind me, and I knew I’d never make it to the stop in time. I am about to cry, when I heard the bus stop right next to me. This is the exchange that took place.)

Driver: *smiles at me* “You look like you could use a lift.”

Me: “Thank you so much! You just made my bad day so much better. I got lost.”

(I chuckle awkwardly, and reach into my pocket for the fare.)

Driver: “No need for that. You had to pay to get lost; you shouldn’t have to pay to get found.”

Me: “Are you sure? You already did such a nice thing, stopping for me when I wasn’t at a bus stop. I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

Driver: “No trouble. Take a seat.”

Me: “Thank you so much!”

(It wasn’t the last time I saw that bus driver, as I was a regular transit user, and he always chatted pleasantly with me and made sure I knew where I was going before I got off his bus. Considering how many other bus drivers in that city were downright rude to me on a regular basis, this driver was a real ray of sunshine. Thank you, Driver, for everything.)

(I am on an international flight going home from studying in Germany. I’m exhausted and stressed out by headaches at each air pressure change, when a baby starts wailing. This goes on for nearly an hour quite close to me, but then I hear a different voice.)

Woman: *to the mother* “You need some rest, dear. Do you want me to take your baby for a while?”

(I look up and see a nun in her full robe and habit. The mother quickly agrees.)

Nun: *to baby* “You just need to be walked a bit, don’t you? You’re so cute. Here, let’s give you a bounce and go see what’s on this end of the plane… then the other. I know you don’t like the air pressure changes either.”

(The baby soon stops crying, and the nun starts singing to it in Italian. She held it for the next two hours, even after it spat up on her habit!)

(My family and I are on a ferry boat travelling to Long Island like we do every summer since I was a child. My grandfather has lost most of his hearing and refuses to wear a hearing aid because he “doesn’t need it.” This is the conversation I overhear between my dad and Grandfather, both standing at the railing along the edge of the boat.)

Dad: “Hey, Pop, when you were younger, back in your wild days, would you have thought twice about diving right off of a boat like this?”

Grandfather: “Oh, no thanks, I already had a cheeseburger.”

Dad: “…”

(I am running like a lunatic to catch a tram only to see it leave the stop. But luckily another tram is right after it…)

Me: *gets on oblivious to it being empty*

Tram Driver: “Hey! HEY!”

Me: “Sorry, did I do something wrong?”

Tram Driver: “This tram is not driving anymore tonight and headed for storage”

Me: “But you stopped for me?”

Tram Driver: “Yes, because I saw you run for the tram, and that was the last tram tonight and you’d be stuck here otherwise. I can’t take you to wherever you’re going, but if I speed a bit you can catch the previous tram at the next stop and run to it”.

Me: “Thank you!”

(And so he did, and I caught the other tram at the next stop. I was too flustered to do much other than stand there, but the kindness was much appreciated. It would have been a two-hour walk!)