Hey Pandas, What's The Most Useful You've Ever Felt To A Stranger? (Closed)

I was in NYC at Christmas a few years ago and saw two women standing in front of a random office building in midtown. When I stopped to see what they were looking at, I heard them talking about the 10-ft. Christmas tree outside the building. In their British accents, they were saying

"It seemed so much bigger on the telly."

"And I thought there was ice skating in front of it..."

"What a disappointment to come all this way, and this is it..."

I asked if there was something wrong, and they said it was so disappointing that the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree was so ordinary. I told them the building was technically part of Rockefeller Center, but if they walked three blocks further and turned right, they'd see something more like what they expected...

When I let someone open the door for me. I use a walker, but I have little trouble opening doors for myself. Yet sometimes when someone offers to hold a door, I can tell it'll make their day if I accept, and so I do. No big deal, except perhaps for their self-esteem.

I felt useful to strangers because there was a giant limb in the middle of the road and I felt that the right thing to do was move it so no one would run over it. I stopped my car and moved the limb by myself. It was really heavy.

Someone supposedly ‘broke’ their ankle. I went and helped the person up, and his friends ran to the shops for sweets. Awkward when his mom came...

Usually every day at work I'm useful to a number strangers and almost every day get verbally abuses and occasionally physically assaulted by a stranger but then that's just the joys of working in mental health.

Sunday morning. An old woman, in a small supermarket, just before me, was buying 2 or 3 bread buns, and a thin crosswords magazin. I'm a foreigner and didn't understand the language yet. But it was obvious that she couldn't afford all.

She was about to ditch the magazine.

I spotted the price on the small screen and gave a banknote to the cashier covering the bill, and told the old woman to keep the change.

It was not much for me, but I knew the situation of retired people in the country, and imagined what this magazine would represent for her.

While I was studying in Venice and had just finished another moving with a lot of boxes on my simple wheel cart over a countless numer of bridges that weekend, I was near the train station and it was really late, no more frequent vaporettos (pubblic boats), I met a couple with two huge luggages without wheels. Even though I was dead tired and it was past midnight, I gave them the wheel cart and walked with them to their hotel which was on the other side of Venice but I was happy and satisfied that I could help them save time and hand wounds and probably a lot of cursing

On my way to church one Sunday morning I saw a car pulled over on the shoulder with an older woman looking at a flat tire. She was heading to her church. I dropped my wife and daughter off and went back. I changed her tire for her and we went off to our respective places of worship.

During an insane snow storm (1993) people were forced to stay at hotels off an interstate exit near our home. Restaurants weren't open, and not every hotel had food, so they were out walking to find the nearest grocery. We had a vehicle that could get through the snow, and drove around picking up people we found walking, taking them to store and then back to hotel. If we found a car off the road with someone in it, we would take them home or to where they needed to go if it wasn't that far.

I live in a town that’s really close to woods and known for tourism in the summer and there where these people that I knew weren’t from around here because I didn’t recognise them and you might not known someone but you would always have a vague recognition of them also they were holding a map. So I was waiting for a friend near a river we call the cuddy and these people walk past looking at the map of the woods then trying to find a post with a blue ring. Me being local I knew where it was and they had kids with them and knew how fast it was gonna get boring to them so I tapped the mum on the shoulder and tell her you go up and turn left then keep going up and that you couldn’t miss it I literally stood there for 5 more minutes shaking and trying to get myself together.. I am not good with social situations but it felt good to help someone

My then-husband and I were attending the state fair, and I stopped in the ladies room. As I was washing my hands, I noticed a teen-age girl just kind of hanging around by the door, seeming very upset. She was trying to disguise the fact that she was crying, but obviously needed help. I coaxed her to tell me what was wrong and she finally let me know that her boyfriend was being abusive and she didn't feel safe. I asked if she needed a ride home, but she said she'd called her mom to pick her up. I told her my husband and I would protect her until her mom got there. We chatted while we waited the 30 minutes or so for her ride. She kept thanking us and apologizing for taking up our time, but I assured her that we were right where we wanted to be--keeping her safe. Mom came and they drove off. I really hope she ditched the boyfriend.