2 hours ago
2
Earlier this year, I had a phone call with a woman named Debbie about one of her toughest days as a parent. While she was carting her two sick toddlers to buy medicine, one abruptly vomited across the floor of the local shopping mall. A passing stranger stopped, grabbed a roll of paper towel from the display in front of the chemist, and sopped up the mess – then went inside to pay for what she’d used, insisting on footing the bill. It was a small but lovely act that spoke to the decency of other people.
Working as a journalist often involves speaking to people on, or about, the worst day of their life. But for the past year I have had the tremendous pleasure of interviewing Australians (and the occasional Briton) about something very different – the acts of kindness they’ve received from a total stranger. Guardian Australia asked readers to send in these stories, and we have been publishing them in our weekly Kindness of Strangers column.
Some of these acts of kindness, like the one Debbie received, have been relatively minor. Others were as life altering as securing the recipient a place in the rehab facility that helped them beat addiction. Each of them left an indelible mark on the recipient – enough so that they still remembered them in vivid detail, even many decades later. One woman, now in her 70s, gave me a blow-by-blow account of the surfer who saved her from drowning as a teenager. Another septuagenarian could still remember the exact words of encouragement offered by a classmate during his daunting first year at university half a century ago.
I’ve now conducted over 50 of these calls and while every story has been unique in loveliness, I’ve found that many share a similar pulse. There have been several that came from people who put themselves in a potentially risky situation – accepting a ride or offer of accommodation from a stranger – and instead of being met with our worst fears, experienced only generosity. Sometimes a bad first impression, like that made by a gang of scary-looking youths or leather-clad bikers, was swiftly upended by those strangers’ immediate willingness to step in and help out.
As was the case for Debbie, many times an act of kindness came on an otherwise awful day; a reminder of how the best and worst of life are so often intertwined. And almost every time, the act of kindness in question was not a showy public display but a quiet act of generosity seen by only the recipient. Many of the people I spoke to never even had the chance to thank their kind stranger, but forever thought of them fondly and wished them well. Our calls often involve tears (on both ends of the line!) and reflection on how the act inspired them to pay it forward wherever they could.
At the end of our interviews, I usually ask subjects what they learned from their encounter. Debbie put it simply: “It still reminds me that there are good people out there who will drop what they’re doing and help you out, if they have the opportunity to.”
That is something we’ve seen this week on a very different scale in Ahmed al-Ahmed, Reuven Morrison, and Boris and Sofia Gurman, who risked or lost their lives standing up to the Bondi gunmen. It’s in those who shielded others in the attack or ran towards the danger to help out, and the very many Sydneysiders who stood in lines around the block, waiting to donate their blood.
There is evil in the world: that much is sadly undeniable. But for a far greater percentage of people the instinctual reaction, in circumstances both exceptional and everyday, is one of selflessness. What a gift that has been to learn.
What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?
If you’re having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here
