Stories of Kindness from Around the World

I just spent a wonderful holiday on a little Greek island together with my family. One day, my husband and I left the kids with his parents (who were with us), rented two motorbikes for the day and went to the other side of the island to visit a very old and well-known monastery.

There we happened to see a French lady who was walking by herself with a cane and obviously had difficulties with the 300 steps that led up to the monastery. When I noticed she had a French accent I started speaking French with her, and she appreciated that, saying that her English wasn't very good. While we were talking it turned out that the next day she was going to travel to the village we were staying at and I was already looking forward to seeing her again there and talking to her again, because I enjoy practising my French.

The next day I did not see her at all, and I thought I remembered her saying that she would leave the island the day after. So I thought I must have missed her. Yet, three days later I suddenly met her again at the beach, and she told me she was taking the ferry that night at 2 a.m. and was now looking for a place to stay close to the port, because obviously she could not take her suitcase to the port all on her own in the middle of the night. I knew that the hotel she was thinking of, which was right at the port, was rather expensive.  I suggested an inexpensive restaurant to her which was on the beach-front, a short walk from the port.  As her hotel wasn't offering to take her luggage to the port for her, I suggested I come with her to her hotel and carry her suitcase to the restaurant for her.

I did as I had said, and she was so overwhelmed and said that people did not do this sort of thing nowadays anymore. But I thought it was natural, my parents brought me up to carry old ladies' shopping bags and so on, so it really was the only thing to do in the situation.

She insisted on buying me a drink, and while I was drinking an orange juice with her we talked some more.  She told me a lot about herself, and it turned out that she was actually a well-known French actress back in the 1970s and stopped making films in 1982 because of a bone illness. (I had never heard of her, because I am too young, but when I told the story to a French friend of mine this week, she said, yes, of course did she know her, she used to admire this actress.)

We had a very interesting talk that evening, she gave me her address, too.  I got to know a very interesting person just because I offered some simple help to someone who obviously needed it. It is so rewarding to help people, I wish I got the chance to do it more often.