nothing society is doomed :l

It was the late 1980s. I had been fired and had to use a pay phone. I left my wallet at the phone by accident. Back then, we had landlines, and the person who found my wallet went through it and contacted me. He was so kind to do that.

On the flip side, years later, I went out to get into my car one day and saw the contents of a brief case scattered on the ground. So I gathered them up and took them home hoping to find the owner.

The way that I tracked her down was via a cashiers check. I called the person that it was made out to and that person contacted the owner of the contents. Turns out, the check was for a catering event for a significant family occasion and she was distraught about the loss of the check. But, having recovered it, they were able to continue on.

Always look for those opportunities to make a difference.

Once I was having lunch with my sister and I ordered an iced coffee( a regular coffee with some ice cubes). The waitress showed up with a regular cappuccino. I kindly corrected her and said that I ordered an iced coffee. She said there was an error on the menu, so she can't make me one. I was like: "It's fine, thank you." 15 minutes later she showed up with an iced coffee. I know it is not the nicest thing for some, but she made my day. Gave her a tip.
(Italian chain restaurant in Hungary)

I never met my biological mother. I never will, not in this lifetime anyway, because she passed many years ago. The best thing she ever did was give me up for adoption. It breaks my heart that it was such a wrenching decision she had to make on her own. Her brother told me it was a decision made out of love, and I would have been raised in poverty if she'd kept me. This is truly the most selfless thing you can do for another person.

I don't know if this counts, because she wasn't a complete stranger - she had been my doctor before - but I had lost my insurance, so now we were just acquaintances. We happened to run into each other on the street once & realized we lived in the same neighborhood. At that time, I had undiagnosed bipolar disorder, was in denial, & in an incredible amount of pain. Tbh, I was pretty nutty. But she invited me for coffee, & we started meeting once a week - on her own time - early before she went to work. Eventually, she gently convinced me to try medication. She literally saved my life.

In 2007 my wife got a call about 6:00 am that her father had passed away. After going to the rehab facility to take care of things we stopped at a restaurant for breakfast. She was of course on the phone notifying people while we were there, and apparently someone overheard, because when I asked the server for our check she said it had been taken care of by someone who realized we were having a bad day. He or she didn't want recognition, so we couldn't express our appreciation.

The woman who found me after my car crash was amazing. I was trapped in the car and all the windows were broken. After she called an ambulance, she put her own coat over me because it was cold, and then she sat with me until the ambulance arrived. She held my hand and kept telling me that everything would be all right soon, that help was on the way, that nothing could happen to me, that she would stay with me, that I didn't need to worry, etc. I was badly injured and in a lot of pain, but her words got through to me and made me feel better and a lot less scared. I will never forget her kindness.