The Happy Story Thread

Aquajock

Aquajock

Cathlete
Yesterday afternoon DH and I went to our favorite gourmet deli to pick up some sweet treats for our later-p.m. movie. The kid at the sandwich and bakery counter, before we would even ask for anything, produced a bag containing two brownies that must have weighed about a pound each. He said, "I forgot to give these to you the last time you were here." He had remembered our stop for sandwiches and brownies on 12/29/09, and had also remembered that he had forgotten to put the brownies in the bag! And I had forgotten that he had forgotten, because the next day was when I learned the sad news of my older brother's passing. We gratefully accepted the brownies, AND bought two huge macaroons to keep them company (both of which are now history, as are the brownies).

What a mitzvah. What a mensch!

Happy stories to share, anyone?

A-Jock
 
I love stories like that! I can't believe he remembered and made good on it; that is so sweet.

Once, my DH & I were waiting in line for tickets to a Christmas show at an old movie palace in town. They were showing "It's a Wonderful Life" and there was going to be music and the staff was dressed in '30s fashions. We got in line about an hour before the show was to start to get our tickets, since we were going to a nearby restaurant for a quick bite first. A couple came up to us and the woman asked if we'd like their tickets for the next show, because the couple who was going to join them couldn't come. We said sure, and when we tried to give them the $20 for the tickets, they refused to take it. They gave us the tickets, and told us to enjoy the show and to have a Merry Christmas, and almost ran away because we kept thanking them AND almost throwing money at them! We couldn't stop talking about it all through dinner. Talk about getting us in the holiday spirit!
 
I LOVE, LOVE stories like these. It just goes to show you that amoung all the rotten apples there are always the good ones. I like to believe that MOST people are good.
 
How cool!

My first year of college my boyfriend at the time and I had gone grocery shopping at Meijer. He went to pay using his cc and it was declined for some reason. He had money available, not sure why that happened. I had no money, so we said sorry and were going to leave. The woman in line behind us told us to stop and she payed for all of our groceries and said that someone had just helped out her daughter in a similar situation and she just wanted to repay the favor. We did not know what to say but thank you over and over. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about how kind that was.

Another time during college I was working as a server at Red Lobster on Christmas Eve. It usually is not a busy night. You never expected to walk home with much for tips. I waited on a single man and gave him good service because I didn't have any other tables. His tab was $30 and he wrote in a $50 tip on the credit card slip. I didn't notice until I walked back into the kitchen and looked at it. I immediately went back to his table and said I could not accept this, it's too much, etc. He just said "Merry Christmas."

There are lots of good people out there.

Good idea for a thread!
 
I want to add another one that I read in our local paper's Letters to the Editor.

I live in a rural area that has high poverty. We have a walk in free clinic. One of the nurses posted in the local paper that some woman walked in on Christmas Eve and handed out envelopes to everyone in the waiting room, then left quietly. Inside the envelope was a gift certificate to a local store where they could buy things they needed.

I am such a sap. I love stories like this. I want to be that person who makes somebody's life better, even if it is with a simple gift out of nowhere.
 
My brother joined the army a few months ago, and while he was in Basic his cell phone broke. So he and his wife switched numbers, and she brought his broken phone to the Verizon store, along with their three little kids, to try to get it fixed, but she ended up having to buy a new phone (which everyone knows is expensive if you have to do it unexpectedly.) An elderly couple in the store overheard what was going on, thanked her for my brother's service and paid her bill.
 
Aquajock, thanks for starting this thread..... I'm loving reading the stories (with happy tears in my eyes).
 
These are all kinds of things I'd wish I'd done. I always see something, then get in my car, end up at home and think, why didn't I (fill in the blank). But I'm proud to say my DH is one of those generous and kindhearted, spontaneous people. He's paid dinner bills for people who looked like they really couldn't afford it, and left without them knowing. He has paid grocery bills for strangers. He's loaned money to his students so they could get gas to drive home, knowing he'd never see it again. He's given lifts to strangers. I can only hope someday a little bit of him will rub off on me.
 
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for starting this thread and everyone adding to it. Sometimes we forget what a wonderful place this world can be. A little reminder of how wonderful it is can go a long way. Thanks for making my day.

Jean
 
I don't have to leave the Cathe Nation in order to find a happy story. I have been the recipient of countless acts of kindness from so many women on this board -- women I have never met in person who went out of their way to bolster my spirits at the lowest point in my life. I received many handwritten notes, flowers, cards, and small gifts during the 5 months that my FIL was in the hospital. And when my beloved niece and FIL passed away last year, folks from here made memorial donations in honor of my loved ones. I still get choked up about it. You all know who you are and I will never forget what you did for me and my loved ones. <3

P.S. I wish someone would remember that they owe ME a 1 lb brownie. :p
 
Great thread!

My DH is a big sweetie. We have an elderly neighbor and he stops in a couple times a week to make sure her firewood box is full, steps are shoveled, etc.

The other day I was in town for a dentist appointment and when I came out there was a paper bag on the front seat with a scone from the local bakery, from DH. :)
 
Love these stories! Love 'em!

If I may share a memory of my now departed and sorely missed brother Stephen:

Stephen had his share of ups and downs in his life but managed to maintain a fairly consistent work history in the paint business. At the time of the Katrina hurricane disaster which devastated Louisiana and Mississippi, Stephen was employed by Home Depot. Stephen volunteered to join several hundred Home Depot employees who were deployed to Louisiana and Mississippi, to assist residents in literally rebuilding their homes and their lives. Stephen and his fellow HD co-workers from all over the map stayed in the most rudimentary accommodations and flea-bag motels to participate in this effort, and saw some pretty horrific images in their assigned areas. I was always very proud of Stephen for interrupting his home life to do that.

Keep the stories coming, Catheletes!

Love,

A-Jock
 
My youngest son transferred to a new college in the fall of 2009. He was placed in housing with all transfer students. He became friends with two boys who shared a room directly across the hall from his room.

One of the boys in that room was from a very poor family and had exhausted all his savings to attend the college that fall. He announced that he would not be returning for the spring semester as neither he, nor his family had the funds to finance his education.

Lo and behold, the father of his room mate called the school and offered to pay for the remaining two years of this boys education so he could stay at school and finish his education.

WOW! What an amazing gift for this young man.
 
Wow Tammy, that IS quite a gift!

Michele is right. I've also been a recipient of cards, gifts, calls etc from some of the wonderful women I've met through Cathe that have helped get me over some of life's speed bumps.

And speaking of Cathe, I remember during the 2007 RT, several women walked to the Dunkin Donuts across the parking lot for coffee during lunch. Cathe saw them coming back and immediately sent someone out to get coffee for everyone. A small, but very gracious thing done by a thoughtful hostess.
 
I LOVE THIS THREAD!! Thank you for starting it, and all the great responses!

One incident that pops into mind for me: a few years ago I was doing a "big shop" at Walmart, and the bill was a good $200. Right when I get up to the cashier, after spending 30 minutes in line, is when all the credit card and debit lines in the building went when ka-phlooey. The cashier could only accept checks, and of course I didn't have my checkbook. I was almost going to cry, because I had spent all that time in line, not to mention 1+ hours shopping, and I was going to have to walk away and come back another day :mad: ... to Walmart, ugh! :mad:

Well, I noticed the lady and her husband that had just checked out whispering, and then the husband comes up to me and says "my wife says we can pay for your groceries, and then you can just mail us a check for it later."

I nearly died! I couldn't beleive someone would be so nice, and so darn trusting! I thanked them up and down, but I just couldn't let them do that, even knowing of course I would have put a check in the mail the second I got home. I just thanked them like mad, and said no, they were wonderful to offer, but no I just couldn't.

Can you beleive that total strangers were willing to pay $200 risking that they'd get it back? Wow.

As it turned out, Walmart wrote my credit number down and I paid that way, so I didn't have to re-shop, but.....WOW.
 
Well, it's not really a single specific event, but today was awesome.

We're socked in under about almost three feet of snow. Everyone in the neighborhood was outside shoveling out their cars, sidewalks, and stairwells all day. My SO and I decided to walk over to the grocery store. We found one of our neighbors shoveling out another neighbor's car - she's handicapped and couldn't do it herself.

He had already dug out his own car and his wife's car, so he really looked beat. We went and got our shovels and started helping. Then other neighbors came out and helped. Then we all just decided to dig out all the remaining cars in the lot - there are several elderly folks in our complex who probably couldn't have gotten out at all otherwise. So after three hours, pretty much everyone was dug out.

Finally, my SO and I decided to continue on our original trip to the store. On the way, we watched a car slide off the road into a snowbank and get stuck. My SO immediately went over and offered help. We helped them dig and push their car out of the snow.

On the 45-minute walk, we saw all kinds of good things happening - one lady was walking dogs for her neighbor who uses a wheelchair, people were helping each other clear their stairs and sidewalks, and when we got to the store, the deli counter folks were giving 44 free sandwiches to the National Guard troops who were out rescuing stranded cars!

I guess the snow brings out the best in people...until tomorrow or Tuesday when we all have to get on the beltway and try to go to work. ;)
 
A couple of months ago, the morning after a particularly bad storm, I happened to glance out my window to see someone at the the end of my driveway doing I have no idea what. My driveway is about 400 feet long. So I get my coat and go out to find a massive oak tree had fallen during the storm and was blocking my driveway and there was my neighbor working away with a hand saw of all things, clearing my driveway of this tree. He was afraid that if by chance there was some emergency with my kids I wouldn't be able to get out.

DH quickly went out and joined him in the clearing, but I was completely blown away by the kindness. I mean he could have gone on to work and we never would have found the tree until DH would have had to leave for work.
 
I have two neat stories...I was driving a friend home from work late one night. He lived out in a rural area that I wasn't very familiar with. I was pretty young and I had my 1 yr DD in the car with me. After I got about 20 minutes away from my friend's house (after I dropped him off) I noticed that my car was handling really funny. I was literally in the middle of no where. I pulled into the next driveway I found, got out of the car and saw I had a flat tire. I had no cell phone (this was back before everyone had one!) so I had to drive the distance up to the house to see if I could use a phone to call someone to help. The gentleman at the house insisted on changing my tire for me and his daughter invited me and my DD in the house while he took care of it. I was blown away (and so relieved!) that he helped me out like that. It was a cold night and it would have been a long wait for someone to come help me.

The second story amazes me still when I look back on it. I belong to a wonderful church and I have a group of 10 ladies that I meet with in a small group every week. They pulled together for me and ran my whole life for 1 week when I was just too devastated to do it. My dad had a massive stroke and was in the hospital, unconscious. I couldn't bring myself to leave his side. These ladies stepped up and took care of my children (15 and 10), ran them everywhere they needed to go; they made dinner every night for them, brought me food at the hospital, cleaned my house, did my laundry...everything! For a whole week I was completely free to be with my dad. It was the last week I had with my dad. Their help didn't stop...they continued being my hands and feet. As I went through the anguish of planning the funeral and dealing with some dysfunctional family members they kept going. The day of the funeral they came to my house, prepared all the food for the wake and left to give my family privacy. They returned later once all the guests were gone and cleaned up the whole thing. I don't know how I would have made it without them that week. I wasn't aware at the time everything they did but in the weeks that followed I was overwhelmed with gratitude that I was provided for in such an amazing way.

I agree with all the others...there are so many wonderful people out there that want to do good for others. We just don't hear as much about them!
 
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