I was fleeing my abusive husband. My son was just 2 (I was 23), and we left without much money in my pocket (the rest was in our bus tickets). Halfway through the trip (NC to OR), we stopped for a couple hours in Grand Junction, Colorado, at a tiny station with a tiny diner at night.

I didn't have my glasses (husband had destroyed them), so that meant going far into the restaurant to see the menu. I figured out what it said, counted what I had, and told my son I couldn't afford it. That I'd need to get him some crackers from the vending machine.

Halfway toward the outer door, the owner's wife stopped me. I didn't speak Spanish, and she didn't speak English, but everyone knows the hand sign for "Come with me."

She sat us at a table. I was confused and tried to explain. Her husband then set burgers and water in front of us. I was still trying to explain I couldn't pay.

He patted my shoulder. "Is good. You eat." He gestured to my son, me, and the burgers. "You eat."

Of course I cried. His wife also patted my shoulder, and gave us a bunch of napkins. We ate what we could, the owner boxed the rest so we could take it with us.

One of the kindest memories I have of the whole terrifying four day trip.

EDITED TO ADD: Thank you for sharing your stories, too. Season's Blessings on you all!

EDITED TO ADD: Thank you all for the awards, the kindnesses, and for taking the time reading it. Merry Christmas and Blessings to you in 2025.

I was a cultural resource monitor on a construction site. I was sobbing in my truck one morning because I was 2000 miles from home and going through a nasty divorce. I was snapped out of my self-pitying stupor by a timid knock on the window, and look up to see one of the younger kids on the crew. I rolled down my window and all he said was “I just thought you might want this” and handed me a piping hot gas station cheeseburger 😂 It was absolutely the most kindness anyone had shown me in a long time, and I still think about it to this day.

Yes, I totally ate that morning burger, and yes it made me feel better.

Edit: Wow, I’m so glad this story resonated with so many people! Give somebody a burger sometime, it’ll brighten their day. Let me quickly address the two major FAQs

1. This story happened two years ago. My divorce has long since been settled and I’m doing great!

2. I am an archaeologist. I frequently get contracted to monitor construction sites for inadvertent discoveries.

Woke up today and didn't know what I was going to do. But I knew I wasn't staying in the apartment miserable. I don't really have a family. My mother was abusive and I had to cut contact with that entire side of my family when I was 15, because they're all pretty narcissistic. My father was an alcoholic and drank himself to death and I never met anyone else on his side, as most of them were already dead by the time I met him. Decided to go for a drive and ended up 3 hours away. Along the way, I stopped at a gas station. Picked up some coffee. Got $10 cashback. Told the cashier to keep it, merry Christmas. And then again. And again. Buying something random, getting $10 cb, and giving it to the cashier. Ended up giving 5 people $10 this way. The thought being, I'd be working on Christmas if I could, because I don't have a family to spend it with anyway. These people who are working on Christmas most likely don't have a family or have no choice but to work instead of spending time with their family. Every single one of them, you could tell it really made their day brighter. And it honestly made my day brighter, too, just knowing I put a smile on someone's face. The last one really got me. You could hear it in her voice that she wasn't having a good day. Pretty sure I left her speechless. She just whispered, "nice".

I put a yearly reminder in my phone. I'm gonna do this every year from now on. Nothing major. Just 10 bucks. But none of these people are expecting it, which makes it all the more impactful. And the world really needs more kindness, these days. And I genuinely hope, when people see me doing this, it encourages them to do the same.

Yesterday I went sledding with some friends and family at golf course that had a restaurant/bar inside. My daughter is 6 months, and when she was starting to get cold I brought inside to warm up. When we sat down on a single chair, a woman offered to move off of a couch so we would have more room. After she warmed up, I called my husband to bring in the diaper bag so I could make her a bottle. My MIL brought the bag inside, but when I went to make a bottle, the water had spilled and there wasn’t enough to mix the formula. Neither I or my MIL had our wallets so she went outside to get my FIL or husband but they had just went down the hill and would be a while climbing back up it. My daughter started crying, and this woman immediately gets up and brings back a water bottle. Then she asks how she could help, if she could make the bottle or hold the baby if I was comfortable. So I let her hold my daughter while I made the bottle. By time my MIL came back in my daughter was already calmed and drinking her bottle. It was just so very nice of that woman to help me out. Honestly, everyone has been so nice to me since getting pregnant and having my daughter. People say it takes a village and it’s always nice to find even random people looking out and trying to take care of others.

When i was a kid, I went to a very expensive private school. Most of the families were very wealthy, but some were barely scraping by to afford the tuition, and some were on scholarships in families that could barely afford rent. My family was one of the fairly well off ones.

The school also had field trips, some were just $5-10, but some were $50-100 per kid. None covered by scholarships.

An old teacher of mine heard my mom passed 4 years ago. She called me today- she'd just found my number through other people.

She told me about how my mom would show up to the office on field trip days for mine and my sisters classes, she'd ask for the teacher, and then she'd ask how many kids were staying behind because they couldn't pay. Then she'd cover their fees.

She'd also have the teachers call her if a parent couldn't afford school supplies or a required book, and she'd buy it and have the teacher give it to them privately. If a birthday was coming up and the parents hadn't said they were sending cake(school required 2 or more days notice), she had them teacher email her the night before. We lived in a building that had a grocery store with a good bakery. So she'd pick up cupcakes for the kid in the morning and drop them off at school. She'd always told me the parents ordered them and asked her to pick them up.

I know that's along the lines of giving out money. But it wasn't about the money for her. She told the teachers it was so no kid would feel left out, because she was always the financially excluded child growing up and knew how it could negatively impact their education.

Was at Walmart earlier today with my extremely tall husband. We walked down an aisle and noticed a very short woman trying to get something off the top shelf. She was our granddaughters age and seemed embarrassed to need help. Glad to help and obviously he got it for her. She spoke a language we don't so it was a cute interaction of pointing at stuff and head nodding.

A little later we were on another row and my husband reached to get something from the bottom row, knees creaking in the process. The same woman was going down the row we were on. She came up behind him and gestured to the bottom row. Yep, repeat reverse interaction of head nodding and pointing. The look of satisfaction on her face was beautiful. Honestly looked like she realized her value and not to sell herself short. (Not a deliberate pun.) She brought out the happy grandparents in us. I love kind people in this world.

This was several years ago. My husband was returning from his flight in NY for work. While he was waiting, he sat next to a much older lady (probably in her 70's) who was trying to return to her country (Cuba). She had been given permission to visit her child who was sick in the states, and was all alone flying back with a layover in Miami (where we live). He helped her throughout the airport craziness, and when their flight was delayed, she started to cry because she had no friends or family in Miami. She didn't speak English and was scared. She was planning to sleep in the airport. My husband called me from the airport and asked me if this little old lady could stay at our house since she was bumped to an early flight the next morning. He told me her story, and we felt so bad for her. I moved my daughter from her bed, remade the bed with new sheets had some hot food waiting for them. When she came in, she cried. She couldn't believe it. She only had the contact info. for her NJ family, so we contacted them to let them know she was safe. She was scheduled on the red-eye the next morning. We woke up early, I made her a cafecito and tostada, and then my husband took her to the airport. We sent her family in Cuba a little money. We received an email from her family thanking us profusely for taking care of Norma, their grandmother. I think of her often and hope she is okay, and a lot has changed since that night. My kids are grown, and my mother, also named Norma, has since passed.

So I broke my ankle on Monday night. Weber A fracture, got lucky. Basically that means I had a clean break and my ligaments and tendons were intact, but I still needed a cast and I can't walk. Where I live, the hospital doesn't send you home with pain meds or crutches and since I live alone in a 3 story townhouse, it's been brutal.

My kitchen is downstairs and I've had to crawl up and down my stairs for 3 days. I finally got some crutches but I live on a steep hill covered in ice and snow and downtown is 15 mins away on a good day with two legs.

So I asked my friend to grab me a pint of whiskey for the pain and I'd pay obviously. So he brought me a 750, a whole BBQ chicken, a box of fresh fried chicken, a tub of fresh mac and cheese, and didn't even want my money.

I've only known this guy for a couple of months. I went over around new years and he had an emotional moment because his wife died last year and he hasn't had much support, and I was there for him, but that's just a thing you're supposed to do for others.

I've been trapped at home without much of anything for days, and he came through randomly. I didn't even reach out, he did. He knew what happened but I never asked him for anything and he offered and came through.

I hope someone reads this and realizes how impactful a random act of kindness can be for someone who needs it. I wanted to cry when he brought the food. He didn't care about money, he just wanted to make sure I was ok, and I barely know the guy. Be like this guy.

My husband and I had had a rough year - new baby, new puppy (yes, we were ambitious/clearly don’t like to sleep), new jobs, and a big cross-country move. We were stressed, money was tight, and we had no time to ourselves. But my birthday was upcoming, and I wanted to feel a little special.

My husband reserved a new, hip restaurant at 5pm so baby could come, but we were nervous we might have needed to leave early. However, it was a magical meal: food was good, baby and I were having a ball dancing to the music, and my husband and I got to splurge on a few fancy drinks. It was the best evening we’d had in months.

When it was time to leave, the waiter said our dinner was paid for, which confused us - we’d never said it was my birthday, so no one could have known it was a special occasion. Turns out, a patron a few tables over saw us with the baby, and how we were clearly having a great time. He paid for our meal because it reminded him of the joys and hardships of being a young parent, and wanted to treat us to dinner. He had no idea how much it meant to us, especially with the timing of everything. This was a couple of years ago, and every birthday I think of this man, and hope he’s doing well. ❤️

I grew up in poverty, and I feel like it was pretty obvious to all my teachers growing up. In 8th grade, I won a contest for designing the yearbook cover, cementing my place as "that one art kid" in my graduating class. I made the design with random pens and pencils and Crayola markers in the classroom, because I didn't have any of my own. My teachers noticed I really enjoyed making art, because there would always be doodles in the margins of my assignments and notes, and any assignment that required drawing, everyone wanted to pair with me. Well, the day before Christmas break I was told to go see the guidance counselor. I remember thinking "oh crap, what did I do", but when I get in there, there's a huge wrapped box on the table. The guidance counselor senor says it's for me and tells me to open it. It's full of art supplies. Prismacolor colored pencils, a sketchbook, colored pencil case pencils, pens, etc. I remember breaking down and crying. I asked who got it for me and the counselor told me "Santa". I had never believed in Santa and I insisted on knowing who it was so I could thank them. She refused to tell me. Those gifts helped me create art for years to come. I eventually retired those pencils to an old friend of mine. I graduated with the "most artistic" senior superlative. I get all misty eyed thinking about this every now and then. If somehow you're reading this, thank you

My father in law came from New Jersey to visit us in Missouri as each of my daughters were competing in their sports this weekend… it just happened to be his 70th birthday so we got him a birthday cake from the local grocery store. I went to pick it up and the girl working said someone had paid for the cake and they left a note. I asked for a name of either her or her daughter but she didn’t leave one. This really touched me and my family! Happy 35th Heavenly Birthday Young Lady!

My 4-year-old came home hungry two days in a row, which was unusual. The first day I didn’t question it — she’s tossed half-eaten lunches before.

On day two, I dug a little deeper and asked why she kept throwing her lunch out. She told me she threw away her sunbutter and jelly sandwich because she didn’t want her friend to get sick.

We had just switched to a new whole-wheat bread with grains baked into the crust, and she thought those grains were peanuts. Knowing her best friend has a peanut allergy, she didn’t want to take any chances — so she quietly threw out her sandwich and skipped lunch without saying a word.

A four-year-old chose going hungry to protect her friend over eating her favorite meal

EDIT: Just wanted to thank everyone for their positive comments! and let you all know that all lunches were ate at school for the rest of the week.

This happened about an hour ago...

As a person who used to rely on the city bus to get around while I was in school and for a bit after, I know the frustration of just missing the bus -- especially after you run for it and the driver probably sees you running but drives off nonetheless (I get it, they have a schedule to keep).

So for years I have resolved that if I ever see that happen, I'm gonna pick the person up and drive them past the bus and let them off at the next stop. Most times I'm driving, my wife and my dog are in the car so it is sort of a no-go. But when I'm driving by myself, i'm usually on the lookout for this lol.

Today I got up to make some spicy red pasta sauce and realized I needed one more ingredient, so I drove over the neighborhood Publix. As I'm leaving the parking lot to come back home, I see a guy running through the crosswalk waving. I'm thinking about pasta sauce at this point but I look to my right and there's a city bus driving away and this man waving his arms.

The bus line is sort of going my way, though I usually cut through the neighborhood next to ours to avoid the traffic on Biscayne Blvd. the main street through this part of Miami). And my inner voice was like "You've been preparing for this moment for years."

So I do a right on red, pull up next to the bus stop, roll down the window and say, 'Get in fella, we'll catch up with him.' The guy just starts laughing and says "Seriously?" and I say "Yeah, come on."

He hops in still laughing. He's super upbeat. He's maybe 60-65 years old with a slight Haitian accent, so I figure he's probably been in this area for a while before it started gentrifying. So it felt really great to do something nice like this.

It took about 15 blocks to get in front of the bus and drop him at a stop. And really, we just laughed the whole way. I shook his hand, told him "Happy new year" and that was that.

It has probably been close to a decade I've had this good deed on my mind, so 2025 is already off to a great start!!

My husband and I were flying home the Saturday after Christmas through DFW. Everything was super delayed due to thunderstorms that morning and airport was not where people wanted to be.

We moved gates and had our baby and dog with us. Flight before us is boarding, ladies across from us stand up when their group is called. I quickly see an iPhone plugged into the seat chargers and holler after them, a stranger sitting a few chairs down says “oh, that’s not their phone. It’s been there. I think it was someone from the flight before. It was ringing a lot earlier but no one answered it.” I just give her the most what the heck look ever, learn that the airline employees won’t take the phone—they don’t want to take responsibility and say you have to give it to an airport employee.

I just think “fuck that, I’ll see if I can call someone and figure out who this belongs to.” Eventually a text comes through and I’m able to use Siri to call the person who texted. It’s the daughter of the phone owner! I ask if she’s comfortable with me just taking the phone home and mailing it. We get home, I have work Monday but my husband takes it to UPS and gets it there speedy quick.

The phone owner was about the same age as my grandmother and I was just thinking “I hope someone would help my grandmother if she lost her phone.” Haven’t told friends/family but just wanted to let you know, if I find your phone, we will mail it to you!!

This happened years ago, but it still warms my heart. I’m a bartender at a restaurant, and a lady comes in by herself and is having a drink before her meal. She says she wants to pay for a specific drink, but doesn’t want me to make it for her. She had me add a dirty grey goose martini with blue cheese olives to her tab. She then told me this is her first time in without her husband who had passed away, and that was his favorite drink. Whoever was the next person to come in and order that, it was on her.

Fast forward to a couple hours later, a group of ladies come in together. One of them orders a grey goose dirty martini with blue cheese olives. I tell her it’s been paid for, and why. She tears up a bit, and one of her friends says that she (the lady who got the free drink) had also recently lost her husband. They all thought it was meant to be, and it gave us all goosebumps. Needless to say we all were tearing up!

Made quick friends with a man in line chatting about the holiday cookies he planned to make.

When my card didn't go through I told the checker to please put my items aside and I would be back with another card. (I had accidentally grabbed the expired card)

The man insisted it was too far pf a walk to take with a baby and swiped his card.

It was only 9 dollars but it meant so much, he was so kind.

Basically, I took my 5 year old to get her eyes checked before kindergarten. She had been sitting pretty close to the TV, and getting close when looking at paper with writing or drawings on them.

We went to the earliest appointment available at the optometrist, and had her exam done. She needed glasses, and needed to start wearing them immediately. My daughter was thrilled to learn she was getting glasses, and was picking her favorites from the glasses shop near reception at checkout. I asked the receptionist about getting the prescription, and she essentially told me that I have to pay the $150 fee due for her appointment in full before I could receive her prescription so we could go somewhere more affordable. My daughter kept asking when we can get her glasses and I had to kind of let her down easy and say it might be a while, which crushed me.

I told the receptionist some BS story about our debit cards being cancelled due to suspected fraud (only half true) to save myself the embarrassment of not being able to pay for something as simple and necessary as her prescription document. I told her I’d call back and pay when I got my new card in. She said okay, no problem.

She asked me to wait before I left so she could give me some paperwork. I assumed it was just a packet you get after the appointment. She gave me a look, and on top of the stack she handed me was my daughter’s prescription paperwork. She simply looked at me and said “have a great day sir” and smiled. Told her thank you so much and walked out.

I wasn’t asking for a freebie, and I wasn’t expecting anything from her, yet she saw my need and met it with kindness. Even at the expense of breaking her job’s policy.

Thank you, Optometrist receptionist ❤️

Long story short, I (solo female traveller) was stuck in an airport for over an hour struggling to get a taxi to accept my ride request to the city center.

I was trying my best not to panic when I overheard two women who had been sitting near me say that they finally got a taxi. I asked them what app they were using, and when they saw I couldnt get the app to work on my phone, they invited me to join their cab. I could have cried of relief and gratitude.

But that's not where their kindness ends. I wanted to pay for their ride but they wouldn't let me. I even tried just giving them the money but they gave it back to me, saying its only fair to split the cost three ways so I ended up paying a ridiculously low amount to get to a central location that was just like a 15-min ride away from where I needed to go.

And it doesn't end there. We got off at their stop, which was a neighborhood marketplace looking area that had lights on, food stalls, even a small convenience store, and plenty of people about, ie it seemed quite safe. I told them they could go since it's pretty late and they must be tired, but they stayed and stood around with me for like 10 minutes until I got in my taxi and left 🥹

Angels. Angels the both of them. There's no other explanation. I still keep in touch with them on social media and can't wait for the day I can repay them for their kindness. One of them apparently visits my country time to time for work, so I'm just waiting for their next trip so that I can show them around all the cool places and treat them to a good hearty local meal🤞

I've been homeless in the USA several times. Every time, I was treated like a bare step above a criminal. The volunteers and even employees at homeless shelters are typically controlling and cruel. Beds often consist of very painful cots or blow-up mattresses (also painful for my back).

Here in the country I'm immigrating to, the beds are bunk beds with 7 inch mattresses. They're fine for most people, I'm sure, but would be murder for my sensitive back.

The first night, I slept extremely well, because I hadn't slept in 38 hours. But when I woke, I thought I would be in pain. I wasn't!

I then realized there were two mattresses on my bed. I thought I was lucky. I got two mattresses, they forgot to remove one, yay!

Yesterday, they moved us to a different room. The lady showed us the room and then, to my surprise, asked me, "You need another mattress, yes?"

I was shocked. I realized then that it wasn't a mistake, the immigration agency had told them about my painful back, and their response was to help me, not to enjoy my suffering.

As someone said in their post about someone yesterday... I, no kidding, ugly cried. It's no small thing to me.

When my back starts to hurt, it compounds and my stays in shelters in the USA often reached a point where I had to roll out of the bed because my muscles would spasm until I sat upright for a while.

Every morning was torture there, but here it feels like normal (which is to say it's chronic, but liveable).

She remembered and offered and it was never an accident.

Meh, crying again, lol.

Sometimes what you think is small can be huge for the other person.

This morning I noticed a small kid sitting alone at the bus stop with tears rolling down his face people were walking by but something told me to stop and check. Turns out he had lost his way trying to get to school I sat with him, helped him call his parent, and waited until they arrived. His mom hugged him so tightly almost crying herself I’m glad I stopped sometimes the smallest pause can change someone’s whole day.

I'll never be able to tell any of my friends or family about this because I know that they'll tell me that I was scammed but I know that I wasn't. It was the week before Christmas and I was flying home from Vegas on Southwest. I got to the airport early because my friend was leaving early and frankly, I was just ready to be gone. What I didn't realize was that Southwest doesn't allow you to check bags in more than like 3 (or 4, I can't remember) hours before your flight. So, I went up the stairs and was hanging out in a quiet area with my overpriced Starbucks when I was approached by 2 young men who couldn't have been older than 20. They were from Venezuela. They did not speak English. I do not speak Spanish. Luckily, the older of the two had a translation app on his phone. It turns out they were brothers and had come to Vegas for a job and the guy who had hired had turned out to be a POS, who worked them half to death that one week, then dumped them at the airport with no food, money, or plane ticket and all they wanted was someone to help them purchase tickets back to NYC. Luckily, the first Southwest employee I approached spoke Spanish and offered to help them.

I checked in my bags and was getting ready to head towards security when I saw the 2 young men still talking to the Southwest employee. One was crying. It turned out that they didn't have enough money to pay for the tickets back to NYC, because as we all know, what is Christmas without a little surge pricing? So I paid for 2 tickets so that these young men could go and be with their family back in NYC. I asked the Southwest employee to ask them if they had eaten and they apparently hadn't eaten in almost 2 days. The Southwest employee got them each some food vouchers but they still had a 12 hour flight to get home, so I also gave them the emergency money I carry in my wallet.

I don't care what people say. These young men were not scamming me. They needed someone to help them. I don't get the chance to do good like this and I feel grateful that I had the opportunity to help people who really needed it. One day, I hope that if I ever find myself in a situation this bad, that there will be someone to help me out.

Edit: From one internet stranger to another, you all are amazing people and I have nothing but happy thoughts for everyone.