People Describe The Most Memorable Stranger They've Ever Met

Breakdowns

"Old car of mine broke down in the rain. Got it off the side of the road, had no idea what to do."

"Was a poor 18 year old kid and couldn’t fix a car or pay anyone to do it. Seconds later a guy pulls over and says 'what’s the problem?' and tells me to pop the hood. Stood there for ten minutes giving me a basic lesson on my car."

"Got it running a few minutes later (dirty rotor on the distributor). Hands me his card and says 'ever need any more help come see me, advice is free'."

"Turns out he owned an auto repair place specifically for my type of car, and just happened to be driving by."

- autorotater

"My story goes a little differently."

"My old car breaks down in the middle of the road. I get out to push it off to the side of the road. Guy pulls over and asks me for directions while I'm pushing car. Like WTF. At least offer to help get it off the road man."

"And no, I did not know how to get to where he was going, so he drove off and left me to continue pushing my car to the side of the road."

- Diligent-Wave-4591

"When I was about 4 years old my parents were driving cross country from California in our little RV to visit relatives in South Dakota and Maine. As we were heading down an off-ramp, my older sister and I saw a tire roll past. It was our RV's back tire."

"It was Sunday morning in the 1970s—decades before cellphones—in the middle of the midwest with nothing near the interstate. As my parents were getting ready to walk to find an emergency call box, a tow truck came down the off-ramp."

"He stopped and said he was headed home, but could tow us. He towed our camper to his house where my sister and I spent the day playing with his 5 kids, my parents drank coffee and talked with his wife while he called around looking for the parts to fix the RV."

"By late afternoon he got us back on the road."

"My memories of their faces are hazy because of the years, but I clearly remember the whole family being really nice people."

- LakotaGrl

Fire Ants

"I remember when I was little, and I stepped into a big fire ant hill. It hurt all over and my dad didn't know what to do. Our Mexican neighbor saw from a distance and told us to use lemon/lime juice and pour it all over my body."

"It was hard to understand because he only spoke Spanish and a little bit of English. Once that lemon juice was on me, I felt great. I never saw him again after that though. He was a really kind man."

- 64-BitGamer

Back From The Brink

"A man who sat next to me on the plane and was survivor of stage 4 lung cancer. I was 14 and he must’ve been in his 50s. I just remember how thankful and incredibly happy he was that he was going to see his family for the first time in remission"

- One-Ice-9259

"OK damn I’m tearing up. 🥲"

- Switchbladekitten

"He was a really friendly guy. I wonder where he is now. This was 11 years ago"

- One-Ice-9259

Flowers For A Bad Day

"Years ago I worked in a small restaurant with an open kitchen."

"One night, things were really slow, just one customer eating, and only two of us working. I was hanging out, chatting with the cook."

"He was having a rough day and was just venting to me about how he was feeling. Our customer (who had been within earshot) pays, leaves, and then comes back about 20 minutes later with flowers."

"He hands them off to the cook, with a note that says how good the food was and how he hopes things get better for him."

"I just witnessed it go down, but still think about how kind it was."

- babysfirstbreath

An Angel

"I crashed my car with my 4yo in the back seat; nothing big, but my car didn’t run and my son and I were in a bit of a shock. I got out of the car and pulled my baby out, he was scared but unharmed."

"We stood there by the side of the road and my mind was a complete blank, I was clueless and all I could do was hold my baby and comfort him."

"Someone came along, a young man, he brought a chair from somewhere, asked me to sit down and told my boy he was being very brave: he got some people to help him push my car out of the street, called a tow truck, brought us water, found a bathroom for us to use, waited with us for the tow truck to arrive, helped them load my car and made sure we were all set to return home."

"I didn’t get his name, but he was an angel if I ever needed one and I’m an atheist 😉"

- AdministrationLimp71

Love By The Garbage

"Once a bin man didn't see me and nearly rammed a bin into me but another bin man noticed and swung it around at the last second and asked if I was ok"

"He was mad tall and had nice eyes and I fell in love with him for a brief second surrounded by the smell of hot garbage"

- riarum

Just Playing Along

"This wasn’t too long ago but I'll never forget this:"

"A friend and I were at a city festival. Being sort of drunk and in a funny mood, we started to pretend that our empty cups were a string phone."

"Just dudes being dudes and finding it the funniest thing ever."

"Then this approximately 50 year old grim looking guy slowly walks towards us, lifts his bottle to his ear and goes 'DUDES, I WAS LISTENING THE WHOLE TIME'."

"Still has me chuckling :)"

- bkend_31

Rescue On The Tube

"Many years ago I got my arm stuck in the electric door of the tube in a very rare work trip to London."

"There was an alarm going and the carriage wouldn't move so it obviously detected my arm and I thought that the doors would open again like a lift would, but they didn't."

"It got tighter and tighter in my arm, I couldn't pull it free and the colleagues I was travelling with were absolutely no help, just dying with laughter at my utter panic."

"It was peak travel time and the carriage was packed and the only person who helped me part the doors to free my arm was a stranger on crutches as he had one of his legs in plaster."

"He was my hero that day."

- MissionSorbet2768

We can't possibly remember every single stranger we meet, but there will always be a few who stick in our minds forever.