Positive thread: Unsung heroes... tell us about your good deeds.
 

Talked to my sister yesterday and the subject of my older, wealthy brother came up. She told me a couple of stories about him I'd never heard.

Seems that a while back he was approached by a couple at a gas station looking for gas money. At first he was suspect, but after hearing their story began to believe it was true. So, he agreed to fill their gas tank. They chatted while the gas was pumping. Hearing more about their bad luck, my brother offered to take the couple and their two kids to dinner at the iHop next to the gas station. By the end of dinner, he was so moved by their story, he invited the family to stay with him at his home until a pending housing opportunity came through. They stayed with him for 5 weeks before their situation improved and they were able to get their own place.

Hearing this story about my brother really made my day. Got me thinking that there are probably plenty of people doing kind things that most of us never hear about.

Share some of your good deeds that you might have kept to yourself. Maybe you'll inspire others to do the same. SmileWavy

i always buy a soldier(s) lunch or breakfast if i see them alone at a restaurant.
I keep it quiet.....they never know who did it.

A friends elderly Mom's PC took a dump right around New Years. This was Mom's only real contact with family and friends. Her Mom used to feed me and take me along on family outings when I was a kid, very nice woman.

My friend has 2 kids, was between jobs so she didn't have the funds to buy her Mom a new one. Her 3 sisters and brothers do very well, but nobody would step up to the plate.

Of course it was right after Christmas, so all the good deals were out of stock. So I just "bit the bullet" and bought Mom a very nice laptop and had it shipped to her. She now has a machine that has tons of memory and is blazing fast. She can play Call Of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and Minecraft without a single hiccup.

But of course she'll only use it for email, Facebook and Solitaire, but what the Hell. She still doesn't know who it was from.

I instigated a major, and I mean major, upheaval in the way the State of Michigan evaluated child custody issues in divorces involving minor children back in the late 1900's. Actually forced a change in several laws. Significant civil rights issues.

Ten year battle; full time job in addition to my normal full time job. Serious financial and time commitment. Nobody will ever know. Well not exactly nobody. I know, my kids know and the primary foot soldier in the endeavor knows. But he died in 2011.

To my way of thinking, random acts of kindness should be kept personal.

(But to you, that shared, good on you for your R.A.K. I'm sure the recipient is stoked!)

i'd prefer that all my wonderful deeds remain unsung.. :)

That's the way I am as well. Good deeds are their own reward, but I will tell you, running the snow blower in the morning is therapeutic too - which is why I use it on the neighbors' walks and driveways. Good deed? Maybe. But it works out pretty well for me, so maybe it was a selfish act that benefited someone else by accident.

I have paid for couples' dinners and people in uniform at restaurants, just because. Always anonymously. Glad to do it, never cared about recognition. Doing nice stuff for people makes everyone's life better.

A few years ago I was reading in the evening and heard, on the highway near my home the "bang" of a tire blowing, screech of rubber being asked to do the impossible and the sickening "crunch" of an automobile changing shape against a solid object.

I was out the door in 90 seconds and drove to the site of the accident, where another motorist had stopped to render assistance. The only casualty was a young male. He had blown a tire and lost control. When the car landed in the ditch (backward) he sustained a scalp wound from hitting the interior just over the driver's door. A tow truck was on the way to remove the vehicle and I guessed the kid, who was getting a bit "shocky" was going to need stitches and some help.
My first aid kit supplied a gauze pad and I dialed his Mom's number for him and then took over the call when he wasn't giving her the information she needed. I told her who I was and that we were going to the local health center and she might want to meet us there.

After we arrived at the Health Center, I went in while the nurse examined him and called for the doctor. I asked the kid if he could do me a favor, He of course said, "Anything"
I explained he had been reaching up with his fingers to check out his scalp wound and then rubbing his face and suggested if his Mom saw him with blood all over his face, she would be more worried than she should, so could he please wash his face.

Just in time. Mom and step-dad showed up five minutes later.
They thanked me for looking after the kid, but as I said, I just hoped if they came across my kid in the ditch they would do the same thing.

Best
Les

There's that in addition to the tins of home made oatmeal cookies that mysteriously appear on the front porch.

The stuff you do each day counts.....stopping to move someone's trash cans back off the road when the wind blew them over (other cars just driving around them...)

I always have a shovel in my truck (as a landscaper) so I stop and move animal carcasses off the road (other cars driving around or over them while checking their text messages...)

I always wave to folks walking their dogs...

Toot the horn when I see someone gardening....

You only go around once in life...

Couple of years ago I was in a shopping mall. Mother with a little girl in her arms had parked a giant stroller near the entrance to the store so it wouldn't be in anyone's way. She hadn't realized that her purse was sitting on top of the canopy/sunshade.

Punk kid sauntered by, grabbed the purse and ran. I gave chase. He ran down the hallway adjacent to the store and took off for the escalator when he saw me behind him. Mall was packed so I yelled, "Stop that guy!" Of course no one did anything but stare. We both had to shove past some people on the way down but it slowed him enough that I got close.

At the bottom of the escalator he turned left and ran into a glass door that was locked. Bad luck. He turned around and tried to rush past but I grabbed hold of his coat and he sort of spun and fell to the floor. I quickly put my knee in his back and grabbed an arm so he couldn't move. In less than a minute mall security was there and pulled me up off the guy. At first they thought it was a fight but others quickly chimed in to say the guy had stolen a purse.

I'm 170 LBS soaking wet so I don't usually go looking for trouble but something about the helplessness of the mom and opportunistic nature of the punk compelled me to do something. I couldn't just stand there. Turns out they had been looking for this guy as he had robbed others.

Interestingly the mom was not as appreciative as I had expected. She gave me a lukewarm, "Oh, thanks," and wandered away. No biggie - I felt pretty good about myself that day :D

Hey, that's a great idea. I'm gonna steal it.

Yeah, but do you put raisins AND chocolate chips in yours?

Concur.

I need all the positive energy I can get.

I sing off-key anyway.

I don't make 'em. They appear on MY PORCH so I eat 'em.

(Truth is the best have walnuts.)

Thanks to those who shared their stories. There's way more good than bad going on in the world, but the good doesn't seem to get equal time.

My wife performed a RAOK years ago that still makes me smile.

Next door neighbor had learned earlier in the year she had breast cancer. On Christmas eve, my wife dropped off some cookies to them. Neighbor apologized for the lack of Christmas decor as they'd been so busy with her health issues, they just couldn't find the time or energy to decorate. My wife came home and declared the neighbor's two kids weren't going to wake up to no Christmas tree. She drove to the local Walgreens and asked the manager if she could buy one of their display trees including the decorations. Around 9pm we put the tree on the neighbor's porch, rang the bell and ran. They never did figure out it was us.

Years later, neighbor was in remission and ended up as a sidebar story in the drug company's annual report. In the story, she talked about the highs and lows of the past few years fighting cancer... one bright spot being "the miracle Christmas tree."



Alright, mister. I know you have pertinent material for this thread. ;)

If I should ever do any good deeds, I won't confess to them. No reason to raise expectations.

I can only tell you that doing good, most times unexpected, unasked for things for both friends and strangers alike is addictive. Anything I've ever done pales in comparison to what has been done for me, so I'm aspirational. Big things, little things, the most important thing is just being there.

When I was an early 20's guy I was romancing some chickie in the sand dunes at the beach. It was going on dark and two young boys aged about 9 or 10 were playing about in the water. One of them rocketed out to sea in a very fast rip. I took off down to the water and he was about 100 or 150 meters out. I got to him in minutes but he was starting to not come back up the surface for air too often. it was pretty close. I suspect he had about another 10 or 20 seconds left. I grabbed the kid and told him to lie on his back, and the kid said "Like this", and had done it all at school. I swam him back in and reunited him with his little buddy. By the time I got him back in there were a number of adults on the beach but I just split with the girlfriend. And yes it did have a happy ending.