The kindness of strangers

Random Acts of Kindness Day is on 17 February. It made me think of four perfect strangers and their kindness towards me.

One Summer when I was a teenager, I travelled to Paris on my own to work as an au pair. I’d never been to Paris or even travelled abroad alone. Leaving the airport, I needed to go to the train station across the city, but the taxi driver was really aggressive and frightened me, so I got out of the taxi and made my way to the underground.

A long story short, I was in a rush to catch a train from Paris to Rennes, but I got on the wrong train in the underground going in the opposite direction. The first stranger got off at the next stop with me, carried my suitcase and took me to the other side of the platform and indicated to me to get on the next train.

On the next train I found a seat. Not long into the journey, an unstable person joined the train carriage, swinging a metal chain, so the guy who was beside me lifted my case and I followed him into the next carriage. Eric was going part of the journey with me, and he directed me to my next train stop.

By this stage, it was late and I would miss my planned train connection to Rennes. I got onto another train and my body froze with exhaustion and stress. I had my first ever panic attack! The woman beside me kept shouting “l’h?pital! l’h?pital!”, as in "hospital! hospital!" - so everyone in the carriage turned their attention to me.

By now, I was too tired to start to explain the whole situation in French, but there was a guy who could speak Cantonese a few feet away from me. In Cantonese I explained I was late for my train connection. The problem was my French family lived an hour from Rennes so they would have already left to meet me. (There were no mobile phones back then!) He translated this all to the rest of the commuters in the carriage.

This amazing guy got me off at the right stop, took me to the ticket desk, bought me a train ticket, got me onto the train for Rennes and found an English speaking guy (I think his name was Terence) to look after me until Rennes. Then as the whistle blew, he jumped off the train as it departed before I could thank him or even find out his name. Somehow, I hope he knows how much he helped me that day and "thank you so much!" It always amazes me that there may be language barriers due to different dialects, but Chinese people are kin. I have fond memories of other Chinese people who I've met in different parts of the world and it's been serendipitous.

I told the whole story to the English guy. I felt sick and weak as I hadn’t stopped for food since I left home, so he kindly ordered me a cooked breakfast. Yes, I was sitting in first class, and my ticket was for economy but even the conductor was kind and let me eat my meal before moving me or giving me a fine.

These four kind strangers helped me get to Rennes, where my French family were waiting with welcome banners! They said they would not have left until I arrived! After a very eventful journey, I had an amazing summer in France with the sweetest family!

Thank you to the four angels for their kindness to a lost girl in Paris! Perhaps you told your friends a part of that encounter too.

My motto is to 'be kind'. It’s a choice you can make each day, so be kind to each other.

It's not only the kindness of strangers. I love seeing all the photos and chat between our colleagues - spreading kindness and celebrating being part of IQ-EQ. We see lots of acts of kindness, from plants to brighten up our working from home desks, to cupcakes in the office. We also give each other 'high fives' to thank and encourage our colleagues. #insideiqeq #makekindnessthenorm #randomactsofkindness #randomactsofkindnessday #kindness