Stories of Kindness from Around the World

It was a busy morning and I had several errands to do before the day became too hot to be outside the house. As I was walking by the side of a busy road I saw an old lady, maybe in her 80s standing perilously close to the traffic. Although my mind was preoccupied, I thought to myself that I should warn her not to stand so close to the chaotic traffic rushing by. When I reached the spot where the old lady was standing.

I noticed that she was trying to get attention of passersby who of course were too busy to take note of her. She kept pointing to the middle of the road. When I tried to gently move her back further away from the edge of the busy road, she said that she is standing there because she have dropped her house key in the middle of the road and is unable to open her house without the key. I looked around and no one seemed to be interested in the two of us. I knew I was getting delayed but decided to help.
The traffic was busy on the road with commuters on two-wheelers and office goers in cars as well as school buses rushing with school children. It was the worst time of the day to cross a busy road without a traffic light. I asked the old lady to stay at a safe distance, took a deep breath, and gingerly stepped onto the road waving my hands frantically almost expecting to be hit by an oncoming vehicle. At first one lane stopped and then I moved further on to the middle of the road continuing to wave my hand. Just then a school bus was approaching me and I boldly stepped in front of it to stop it. My experience has been that School bus drivers are always considerate of reckless pedestrians like me. The school bus stopped exactly opposite the spot where the key had fallen. I quickly picked up the key and ran back to the old lady waiting by the side of the road and returned the key to her. Although the bus driver honked angrily at my recklessness, the school children who were watching my actions from the bus let out a cheer and clapped. As I turned to continue my hurried walk the old lady pulled me by my hand and gave me a big warm hug saying I don’t know how to thank you and this is all I have to give you. I felt so happy and elated to have helped this old lady. I hope the school children who were watching me and cheering would do the same when their turn comes in life