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"My mom..."
GiphyMy mom is a piano teacher and was shopping in a music store. A ~10 y/o kid came in wanting to buy his first musical instrument, particularly a ukulele so the clerk showed him some where the entry level was about $65. He ran back outside to his mom waiting in the car, then came back in and asked "What is the cheapest musical instrument you have?" and the clerk started showing him a $3 kazoo. Overhearing this made my mom sad, so she went over and asked the kid if he really wanted a ukulele and would promise to practice and learn it. Hooked him up with the instrument, a beginner book, picks, etc. When she left the store the kid and his mom both waited to give her a hug.
"When my youngest brother..."
When my youngest brother was about 8 or 9 (he's 12 now), he came home with a "student of the month" paper in his folder. He heard that the school custodian recently had come back from having back surgery, so after lunch he gathered a few of his buddies and they swept the cafeteria to give the custodian a break. He was so humble about it too, he didn't care that he got noticed.
I just remember being so proud and crying a bit because although I knew he is a good nugget, I just didn't expect him to go out of his way at such a young age- and to get his buddies to follow. Makes my heart happy.
"A few years ago..."
GiphyA few years ago, I was on my way to catch the bus when a middle-aged woman called me from behind a newspaper stand. She pointed to the bus stop, one block down, where a guy was standing holding something. She said he was her son, who just got out of jail after serving time for dealing drugs, and today was his first day trying to make an honest life. He had baked some traditional pastries himself and was trying to sell it on the bus stop, and she wanted to make sure things went right for him on his first day so he would not feel tempted to go back on selling drugs.
Then she put some money on my hand, asked me if I could buy some pastry and obviously not tell him she was there. At the stop, I saw the guy, probably in his mid-30s, with this little table of pastries. I bought three, we chatted a little bit and one minute later my bus arrived and I left.
It always makes me emotional and warm inside to think how pure a mother's love can be.
At a concert..."
At a concert I saw a buddy walking with his friend who was blind and also somewhat physically disabled. I overheard him telling his blind friend "oh man I was so smashed last night! I couldn't walk or see nothin. Thank god for you and your cane. You were steering us everywhere like a champ I would have been helpless without you!". It was really so heart warming and you could see how much it meant to his friend to be told how he was the helper, not the person being helped. I'm assuming he was being a little hyperbolic, but the amount of joy I saw brought to his friends face from his kind words was so heartwarming.
"I was sitting..."
I was sitting in a bar having a beer after work when this guy comes in and orders some shots. After the first couple, he starts low key crying. A semi-regular old man sitting near him asked what was up, turns out his girlfriend split up with him and he wasn't taking it well. Old man asks to join him for a drink, new guy agrees.
This old man, named Keith, always drank two beers, paid, and left.
Anyways, they sat there and got absolutely hammered drunk. They tried every liquor in the place and really tied one on. Keith was going on and on about how he hasn't let loose since he was stationed on Okinawa. By this point, new guy has completely forgotten about his ex girlfriend. They both made each other's evening.
Next time I saw Keith, I asked him how the night went. He said he hadn't had a hangover like that since Okinawa.
The new guy become a semi regular and joined our little bar family. He eventually hooked up with a new girl, and I believe they're still seeing each other. Unfortunately he moved, so I haven't seen him in like 6 months.
"I have two nieces."
GiphyI have two nieces. At little ones birthday her friend gave her two unicorn toys. She immediately looks at big sis with a huge smile " look big sis! This one for you! We can both play!" She was genuinely so excited to play unicorns with her sister and it never even occurred to her that she didn't need to give one to her. My heart grew three sizes that day.
"Once we wrapped..."
I'm a record producer. On a particular song the client wanted a child's voice to open it, so the bassist's 10 year-old son came and recorded a vocal part.
Once we wrapped, the singer said to the kid: "Musicians get paid." And he handed the kid a £20 note. The bassist then did the same.
A small gesture maybe, but in our world making a living is hard and it was amazing to see professionals showing how it ought to be.
"One Christmas season..."
One Christmas season I saw a young woman (late teens or early 20s) walking through an IKEA picking up things in the huge marketplace area, taking a picture of them, putting them back, and moving on. She was obviously thinking intently about gifts but I was confused- was she making a wish list or something? An employee saw this and asked if they could help her find something. She says "Oh, no thank you. I'm helping my Dad Christmas shop. He works really hard and has very little time, plus when he gets off work his brain is just fried. So every year when I'm on break I go around to a bunch of stores and take pictures of things I think my Mom would really like. Then I'll show them to him at home, we talk about them and he picks some out. Then I go back and get them. It's the least I can do for him, plus it's kinda become our little secret Christmas tradition. Mom has no idea."
"There's a couple..."
GiphyThere's a couple who look like they have to be in their eighties I see almost every Saturday morning when I go to the mall to run my errands. They walk around together holding hands.
"My last week..."
My last week of high school, our lunch lady gave out small gifts to some of the seniors. Just the kids that took the time to chat with her that she got to know more personally. I received a sketchbook with a sweet good luck note in it. I was always in art club and was going to school for fine arts. So she took the time to get all of us a gift that was specific to US.... this lady saw hundreds of kids a day and still took the effort to get to know us.
"When I was a preschool..."
When I was a preschool teacher, we had one kid who was our certified cheer upper. If someone was crying, she'd get a tissue, walk over, carefully blot their eyes and make them blow their nose. All while saying, 'It's okay, You're okay'. Eventually they'd stop crying, she'd take their hand and they'd go play. She was a lil angel.
"I was playing..."
GiphyI was playing with my 6-year-old nephew and pretending to cry really dramatically, and suddenly his 2-year-old brother yells "OH NO!" from the other room, comes running in repeating "oh no!" as he runs, and starts patting my cheeks and dabbing at my eyes with his shirt saying "you okay." Such a sweet kiddo.
"My daughter..."
My daughter is on the spectrum, but she is very loving and likes to give hugs. She just has a sixth sense about her when someone really needs that hug. One of her daycare workers had just found out her cancer had returned. She hadn't told a sole at the school yet. My daughter just walked up to her and said, "I think you need a hug" and gave her one. She still does that to this day. The child is clueless on so much, can't pick up sarcasm at all, but boy she is in tune emotionally to people!
"One of the kids..."
One of the kids in my class was talking to one of our new kids. It came up in conversation that the new kids shoes didn't fit and made his feet hurt. The boys also realized that they wear the same size shoes. The next day the OG kiddo comes in with a pair of Jordans he never wears for the new kid to have and a note from his mom saying it was ok. It was one of the most precious things I've ever seen.
"I was on..."
GiphyI was on what I call a rumpled suit flight. One of those flights on a Friday at 6 from NY to DC where most of the flight consists of business people in suits drinking $14 double whiskeys. A fellow rumpled suit sat across the aisle from me next to a mother and her kid. When she could the kid brought down her tray table and a coloring book and started coloring. I didn't hear what was said but at some point the kid handed the rumpled suit a coloring book and they spent the remainder of the flight coloring and chatting. I was kinda like, "I want to color too."
"I was on a flight..."
I was on a flight about a month ago and there was a kid next to me with a bunch of Pokemon cards. This was after sword and shield was announced so I asked him if he was excited for the new game. His eyes lit up immediately and he started geeking out and showing me all his favorite Pokemon. I told him my favorite game was Emerald and he said he never got to play it. I have a GBA emulator on my phone with a rom of it so I let him play it the rest of the flight.
The joy of a child is absolutely beautiful.
"A little boy..."
A little boy at the airport kept trying to climb over a concrete divider that had active traffic on the other side. His mom was loaded with luggage and kept trying to stop him, but didn't have free hands.
My brother in law walked up and said "Hey kid. There's a rule here. You have to keep one foot on the ground at all times. Look around. Everyone has at least one foot on the ground."
The kid kept trying to climb, but with one foot firmly glued to the ground he wasn't in danger anymore. Such a creative and wholesome way to let the kid keep playing while keeping him safe!
"I gifted..."
GiphyI gifted a used electric wheelchair to a family who couldn't afford one. The kid, maybe 14 years old, was kinda grumpy looking when he arrived, didn't say much. Once we got him in the chair and he was zooming around he was all smiles; his mother was also super happy. I heard the next day he told his sister to clear off the driveway so he could practice with it, and by the weekend he had gone to a fair.
"When my youngest..."
When my youngest was 2/3 he slept in bed with me. I woke up one night to him not there. I panicked and looked around. He was laying and sleeping cuddled next to my oldest son.
"So we go..."
When I was, like, 11, Dad was driving us to a gathering at my grandma's.
There was a woman pulled over on the side of the road. Dad asked if they needed help. She said she'd run out of gas. Dad told her he would get some.
So we go into a gas station. Dad explains the situation to the cashier and is prepared to buy a can of gas. There's this other customer that looks like a biker - big dude with tattoos and piercings - who tells Dad he has gas at his house and tells us to get in our cars and follow him.
His wife and young son were in the front yard. Turned out this was his sister's house; the guy had fled a hurricane with his family. Nevertheless he insisted on giving us the gas for free.