Kindness of strangers

[cassie]

Miss Jayne, who I have not seen on BYC for a very long time, sent me cookies. She had a contest and the prize was a dozen or so of her home made cookies. I entered, but of course I didn't win. I asked her about buying some. She asked me why. I told her I was going through a very rough patch, among other things I had just lost my mother, and I thought a nice cookie to go with my tea would help. She sent me a box of cookies. Just for me. I can't tell you how much that small gesture meant to me. I still have the box and I think of her often.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

I love reading stories like these!

Just a short while ago, our very own Imp sent me a box full of prehistoric goodies! There were some gorgeous pieces of petrified wood and some really neat otolith bones. What a nice feeling it was to get such a wonderful package in the mail from such a great BYC member!

When I was just born, and even up to the point when my brother was born, the two neighbor boys from next door would come over after a snow storm and shovel our driveway for us. It was such an awesome gesture, because my dad would often work long hours and my mom couldn't shovel with two little infants around. That whole family was always so genuinely kind and generous.

 

[kari_dawn]

Thank you all for sharing your wonderful stories with us...it really does make me feel better about the direction of humanity.

 

[Fierlin1182]

Yes, some great stories here.
I love getting things in the mail. It seems like a rare thing to get anything besides bills and bank statements these days

A present would be awesome!

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

I'll tell you something that happened to me.

I was walking down the hill from our barn (or rather, soon to be barn). The neighbor girl (9) had come over to play with the kitty. As I was walking down, I slipped and dislocated my knee. The knee I had surgery on to prevent it from happening. I said a bad, bad word and somehow through the pain thought "I can't believe I just said that in front of her." She asked "Are you alright?!" I said "Go get your mother please!"

Their entire family came over to help me, called my husband and helped me into the car. Called and asked how I was and offered to help. It meant so much to me...

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

I have always relied upon the kindness of strangers.

I live alone in an old house in an old community. I moved here 5 years ago. Most out here have lived here their whole lives. I am for sure the "City Girl". I have found that the people around me are good people.

Some examples:

- My dad found me a beat up old pickup that needed some work. The first time I tried to drive it I backed it up out of the driveway and it died. Diagonally across the road. Dead as a doornail. Sigh. While I was sitting there pondering what to do a pickup pulled up and a kindly white headed man leaned out the window. "Do you need some help?" Yes, sir. More than you will ever know. He and his wife (who I affectionately now call Ma and Pa) got out, helped me push the truck back into my driveway and then he poked around under the hood until he had magically fixed whatever had wiggled loose. They were so sweet and kind. Since then they stop by every so often to make sure that I am okay. I adore them.

- A huge dead tree fell across my driveway a few years back. Thankfully I had parked back by the chicken coops that day or I would have been stuck. I once again pondered the giant tree and decided to just go to work and deal with it later. When I got home some neighbor had drug the tree to the side of the drive so I could get through. A week or so later a bunch of men in the local Ruritan Club came by with chainsaws and cut that sucker up.

- When the tornado blew through the community and took a bunch of shingles off my roof at least half a dozen cars stopped by to make sure I was okay. Thankfully my insurance company was on the ball and sent someone out pronto. It was sweet though that they came to check on me.

- When I first started building the chicken coops I had any number of old men stop by to make sure I was doing it right.

One of them (Mr. Bill) still stops by about once a month to make sure all is well. I went through a short period of time when my schedule at work changed and I was keeping different hours. He got worried when he didn't see my car at home when it should have been. He was practically stalking the place until he finally found me at home. I almost got my ears blown back for that one.

The list could go on and on. When the real world gets oppressive all I have to do is come home to be comforted that there is still kindness out there. It's one of the reasons I don't want to move. I'm not sure I could ever find a community like this one.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

What a wonderful community Citygirl! Thanks for sharing such great memories. I love the landscape on TN, and my husband really want to buy land there....but I'm petrified of the....ticks. No, seriously. Ever since I found out they have a "TICK Action Committee", I have been hiding under the bed.

 

[itsy]

There's a website called 2hands.org.

I went on there for the first time a couple weeks ago. It's a site where people can post for help (be it a spare tire, a lift to work or food to feed their family, etc) and other people can respond to their posts with offers of help. Some of the listings are truly heart breaking. I was crying when I finished reading all of them. It also makes you appreciate what you have.

Either way, one of the posts spoke to me. It was a family (mom, dad and three kids) who are going through a rough patch. Mom lost her job of almost two decades and they are having a hard time making ends meet. On this limited income, they certainly wouldn't have been able to purchase Christmas presents for the kids this year.

So - I have a large extended family. I've reached out to everyone through facebook - and the response from my family has been overwhelming. I contacted the woman from the post and my family is giving her family Christmas. All of the kids will have presents and she doesn't know that we're getting gifts for her and her husband, too. To go even further, one of my aunt's has started a food drive for them at her job and people are buying them food as well as food gift certificates from the grocery store.

I'd recommend that everyone try to do something to help someone less fortunate this year. I wouldn't have been able to get her entire family presents on my own, but if you have a large family, you might be surprised as to how much you can get together if everyone just does one little thing.

 

[Fierlin1182]

Aww, that's so sweet! It's like after the Queensland floods, we got people in the shop buying little goodies to send up in a "Shoebox of Love" for some kid who'd lost all their belongings and most likely their house too. $30, and it could've made that kid's life a little better after all that

City girl, I'm sure they helped you settle in well! They sound like lovely people. We give our neighbours some of the vegetables we grow in the garden, but that's about as far as it goes

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

It really is the best community out here. I share eggs around and people leave produce for me (and the chickens!). It is a nice mix of people staying out of each other's business and being all up in each other's business. I can't really explain it any better than that.

I love living in the boondocks.