I work in a public library. A woman comes up to our help desk with a young girl about five or six years old. It should be noted that the woman is white, but the young girl is black.

Patron: “Hello. Long story short, I am fostering this girl while her asylum application is going through the motions. Her English is limited, but she’s fluent in French. My French is okay, but I’m having trouble explaining the concept of a library.”

Me: “My coworker is fluent in French. Maybe she can explain easier?”

Patron: “Thanks, but I don’t think it’s a translation issue. I just don’t think she understands the concept.”

Me: “Hmm. I’ll call my coworker over and let’s see what we can do.”

I call my coworker over, who is originally from Martinique. After explaining the situation, he starts speaking to the little girl. What they say was translated to me after.

Coworker: *To the little girl* “So, how it works is that you look at the books. When you find one you like, you bring it to me or to my friend here, and we make a note. Then you can borrow it!”

Little Girl: “What does ‘borrow’ mean?”

Coworker: “It means that as long as you promise to bring it back when you have finished reading it, you can take it home.”

Little Girl: “But I have no money.”

Coworker: “It’s okay. You don’t need money. You just need to bring the book to me or my friend. As long as you’re with your guardian, we can sort out the rest.”

Little Girl: “So… I can read the books?”

Coworker: “Yes!”

Little Girl: *Eyes going wide, looking around the whole place* “I can read… all the books?”

Coworker: *Laughing* “Haha, yes, as fast as you can read them!”

She is simply awestruck. She slowly turns around, as if the sheer size of the place is finally dawning on her. She then tugs on the shirt of her foster mum.

Little Girl: “Let’s go find the books!”

She checked out with five books (the maximum for a child dependent on an adult library card) and she was back within days to return them and check out five more.

After a few months of this, and as her English improved unbelievably quickly (I wonder how that was happening?) she was able to get her own card, and her voracious appetite for books increased as a result.

Sixteen years later, the asylum application is a thing of the past, and this little girl is now a young woman studying for her degree in Literature. She uses our library for all her resource materials.

At the time of writing this story, she currently has the maximum number of books out on loan and has never been late in returning or extending their loans.

This story is part of our end-of-year Feel Good roundup for 2022!

Read the next Feel Good 2022 story!

Read the Feel Good 2022 roundup!

I’m a freelance graphic designer. I am helping a small bed and breakfast in a touristy part of central London create a pamphlet for their guests. Along with information about the B&B, it also contains a small map showing local attractions. One of them I am familiar with: the Foundling Museum, which is about the history of abandoned children in London and what charity did to help them.

It is a hand-drawn map, with spellings provided by the client. I call them up to discuss the final touches before it’s sent to the printers. The client has been brusque and arrogant during most of our interactions and does not like to be challenged.

Me: “Are you sure you want this to go to print like this?”

Client: “Yes! Stop questioning me.”

Me: “It’s just that you have the Foundling Museum as a local attraction here.”

Client: “Yes! It’s an important part of the local history!”

Me: “Yes, of course. It’s just that you’ve forgotten to add the ‘U’ in ‘Foundling.'”

I hear the client aggressively click on their mouse and type something on their keyboard. And then silence. Noticeably prolonged silence.

Client: “F***.” *Click*

A revised version of the map was sent a few minutes later.

I’m eating dinner in the staff room. There are some biscuits and cupcakes in a tub on the table that appeared sometime last week, but I’m ignoring them.

One of the managers and a coworker come in and chat about some things. As the manager is leaving, he grabs a cupcake and says to both of us:

Manager: “Feel free to have these.”

I think to myself, “Nice, I’ll have one after I’ve finished this.” But then he continues.

Manager: “I dunno whose they are, but I’ve been eating them.”

I’m never leaving my food unattended here again.

Years ago, I had a coworker in my office who always seemed to have some kind of drama going on. Frequently, she was absent from work or would be in the manager’s office for hours each day sobbing about what was going on.

Here’s a list of different things she was apparently experiencing:

1. One week, she claimed her brother had gone missing and that her family was “beside themselves with worry”.
2. A week later, she claimed her mother had been rushed to the hospital and needed major heart surgery.
3. She claimed her husband was being abusive to her, but she couldn’t tell anyone in her family because, apparently, it was a secret marriage that her family could never know about.

Oddly, whenever she would mention these apparently distressing events, she would stop talking about them shortly after and never bring them up again. Whenever we would ask her how she was doing or about any of the situations, she would be very evasive or just change the subject.

One week, our manager informed us that this person would be off work sick for an undetermined length of time for “personal reasons”. We later found that she had called up and told our manager that she had just voluntarily committed herself to a mental health facility; otherwise, she would have been sectioned under the mental health act. We felt bad for this girl because, clearly, she was having a hard time, and we never want to see anyone struggle that badly. For months, we picked up the slack and got her work done. People from the office were checking in with her and hoped she would recover soon. Then, this bombshell happened…

I came to work one day after being off the previous day. One of my coworkers came up to me and told me the following in total disbelief.

Coworker: “Hey, [My Name], you won’t believe who I found working at the checkout at [Supermarket]! Well, it was [Sick Coworker]!”

Me: “Sorry… what?”

Coworker: “Yeah, it appears that all this time, she’s been working while was off sick from this place!”

Me: “You’re kidding me! Wait a second… Don’t we have a [Supermarket] right around the corner from here?”

Coworker: “Yup! That’s where I found her! You should’ve seen the look on her face. She saw me, got that deer-in-the-headlights look, and then ran off to the back! She apparently thought it was a smart idea to work right opposite the place she was scamming!”

Everyone in the office was a mixture of extremely upset and baffled. Apparently, one of the senior managers went down there and confronted her and told her under no certain terms that she was sacked immediately. We later found out that the company had reported her for benefit fraud.

The funniest part is that she apparently demanded that we give her a good reference when she was applying for new jobs. From what I heard, our manager gave her a reference, but it wasn’t a glowing one. 

Many of our coworkers have since said that, looking back, a lot of things about her stories just didn’t add up or that more questions should have been asked by management. I still don’t understand what was going through her head the entire time.

I’m visiting my boyfriend at his family’s house one day when they get a call saying his father has had a heart attack and is in hospital. Naturally, they all want to rush to leave, and I volunteer to stay and look after the dog.

I am a cat person and have had little experience with dogs. The family is gone pretty much all day — as you could guess with something like this — and the dog starts reminding me that it is nearly dinner time.

I text my boyfriend.

Me: “What do you normally do with food for [Dog]?”

Boyfriend: “Give him two scoops of the dry food we have in the cupboard.”

I do. [Dog] ends up sleeping happily on the sofa until they get back, all is well, and [Boyfriend]’s dad is recovering at the hospital after emergency surgery.

When they return, [Boyfriend]’s mum looks at a very happy dog.

Boyfriend’s Mum: “Was everything okay?”

Me: “Yes. I was surprised how quickly [Dog] wolfed down his two scoops.”

Boyfriend’s Mum: *Frowning slightly* “But that’s his food for the whole day.”

No wonder the dog was so happy that evening.