The kindest thing anyone's ever done for you?

Who is surely glad to know that she's not much better than whacking off.

 

That's not what I meant. lol.

I just meant that it wasn't some big, life-changing event like I always assumed it would be.

For me, it always seemed like it was some amazing, mind-blowing thing and while it was, indeed, awesome, the end result was kind of like "Wait, that was it?"

From that day forward, I just figured it wasn't that big a deal. That's what gave me the confidence to speak to women much, much easier.

 

I was driving along one day when the shock absorber, spring, the whole shooting match on my right rear wheel gives up the ghost. My car was 25 miles from where I lived. A guy at work, who mostly pissed and moaned about everything (a long lecture once about air freshener after someone stunk up a bathroom was par for the course), immediately loaned me his car for the time it was in the shop.

Another crusty copy editor in our shop sent in entries for the AP contest this winter after I had totally forgotten the deadline. Won two firsts and a third, and it wouldn't have happened otherwise. I will always be grateful.

 

I remember being in San Antonio at the Alamodome for a sporting event one time and I pulled in a lot I was supposed to to get credentialed at willcall. The cop tells me I will have to pull over (pointing at an area) facing the curb on an inlet of the road, out of traffic, to check on those credentials. While I was doing that, a San Antonio city bus tries to get between my truck and a city truck and whacks the city truck, skinning its side rear panel. The first cop comes over and they start bitching about the way I'm parked, which is again the way I was told to park. The cop asks for my license and insurance and hands it to the damn driver of the bus. The cop who told me what to do came over there and asked what was going on. After I told him, he blasted the other officer, got my info back from the bus driver and wrote him a ticket. These assholes are the ones who were featured in a youtube video where the driver is texting (?) and rams a car at full speed. True idiots. But the cop saved my ass. I wrote the SAPD and copied the mayor with the story and begged commendation for the gentleman's courtesy and tactics.

 

A colleague of mine turned down a good job opportunity and recommended me for the position after I'd been laid off. I got the job, and it's been great.

I like this thread.

 

The non-work thing that popped in my head for this thread has to do with my college graduation.

I'd befriended a guy who would later become my roommate. Unfortunately, the guy and I since had a major falling out and he and I no longer speak. However, just after I'd moved into the apartment, we were getting ready to graduate from the same university. The future arguments had yet to really manifest themselves, so we were focused on what lay ahead.

Anyway, we went to the main university ceremony. When it was done, we went out and saw my roommate's parents, who immediately pulled out a camera. I saw them point it in our direction and I leaned to get out of the way so they could take a picture of their son without me in it. However, my thought was quickly dashed when his mother motioned with her arm and said, "get in there, [forever_town]!" I complied.

Later, we went toward the large mall in the center of the campus where the university was holding a reception for the graduating seniors. My roommate and his father walked toward the reception so fast that they were leaving his mother in the dust. I slowed down and walked with her to said reception. Some time after we'd gotten there, I saw the university's president and he and I exchanged some small talk. My roommate's mother saw that we knew each other, then said something that struck me. She said that if I didn't already know the president, she would have introduced him to me.

That wouldn't be the only time they were especially generous toward me that day. At one point, they walked us over to their car while their son was carting around a balloon and card they'd gotten him. Not paying attention, I noticed a card and balloon sitting in the car and thought it was his. Turned out, they'd gotten me the same.

After our respective individual college graduations (mine from English, his from journalism), we gathered outside the building where those ceremonies took place. Before I knew it, my roommate's parents invited me and a friend of mine to graduation dinner with them. When we got back to our apartment, the discussion started about where to go for dinner. Since I was along for the ride, I was willing to go along with whatever my roommate decided since his parents were the ones taking us out.

Then came a curveball that would put Stephen Strasburg's to shame. Roommate's dad sidles up to me and whispers, "when was the last time you went to the Olive Garden?" That would have secretly been my choice if my fathers had actually come to graduation, but like I said, I wasn't going to weigh in. When I truthfully answered it'd been a long time, I quickly found out I was given veto rights over his own son.

When we got to the restaurant and all ordered wine (even I did, which for me is a shock since I seldom drink wine), the last big surprise came: My roommate's father raised a toast to "our graduates." Yes, plural.

I still remember that story very, very fondly.

 

Sigged.

 

When my dad was dying many years ago the principal of the school where I was teaching -- who wasn't exactly a warm and fuzzy sort of guy -- told me to take time off and spend it with my dad, and not to worry about it. He pulled some strings and fudged some things so I could take a month off instead of the three days the rules stipulated for such things. I'll always be grateful to him for that.

 

A wonderful, heartfelt thread. Thank you for this.

Shock, God bless you, sir. I'm so sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing.

 

I was going through a nearly unbearable stretch in my life and a bunch of strangers on an internet message board offered advice and kindness that helped lift my spirits.

It's not the kindest thing ever, I guess, but it's up there.

 

When I was about 19, my ex-girlfriend's dad offered me a job at his company.

I didn't have a car at the time (saving for college) and rode a bike about seven miles to work. A couple guys there were looking to unload an old Chevy for $200.

I told them I didn't have $200 at the time. My ex-girlfriend's dad heard about it, called me in the office and loaned me $200.

He and his wife were great people.