Stories of Kindness from Around the World

 During a recent business trip there was a hold on trains to the airport and many people were stranded and had to buy new tickets for flights and also arrange hotels for the night. I was traveling alone and like everyone else I had to stand in very long queues.

I had queued for about 30-40 minutes and was looking around when I saw a lady with a small child in her arms near the back of the queue. I knew she had at least another 30-40 minutes to wait just to reach my position and maybe 10 more minutes from there as I was quite close to the front of the queue. I could also see that she was quite tired and the child was heavy and asleep on her shoulder.

I looked back until I caught her attention. Once I got her attention I waved her forward and asked the people who were behind me if they minded if I swamped positions in the queue with this lady. So I let the lady into my position and went to the back of the queue myself.

At first she said nothing as I know she was very surprised by this gesture, but when she got to the front of the queue and had booked her hotel she looked back and found me in the queue. Her look of relief and gratitude made the rest of my wait very easy indeed as I felt very good for the little gesture I had made.

What touched me too was that other people in the queue close to me had seen what I did and acknowledged it was a nice thing to do. I hope I inspired in them the idea to do similar for others.

But I know I made that lady's day just a tiny bit easier and allowed her to get her child to a bed sooner and that was more than enough for me.