Graveyard Shift Employees Reveal The Spookiest Experiences They've Had
While most people are sleeping, some work the graveyard shift. Sure, it pays better, but you also have to deal with things that go bump in the night... or that scream... or want to eat you...
Awsaf_ asked night guards of Reddit: What's the scariest experience you can share with us?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
They can smell fear.
I used to work security for a ski resort, I was swing shift, 4 to midnight.
After every shift I had about a 20 minute walk down a dark mountain road through the woods to reach my bus stop, also there were no streetlights. There's dark and then there's in-the-woods-in-the-shadow-of-a-mountain dark.
After a week or so I started getting stalked by a pack of coyotes.
One coyote isn't terribly impressive, like an ugly medium sized dog, two coyotes aren't super intimidating either, but three or more is a different story, once it's a proper pack they get bold.
The first couple nights it was just one or two, I could see their eye shine about 40 or 50 yards in the woods, they'd check me out then run off. After a week or two more started showing up, 4 or 5 at a time but once I counted 8.
The thing is, once there were 3 or more they didn't run off, they'd follow me from the treeline, every once and a while crossing the street in front of or behind me, they also stopped keeping their distance, they'd come as close as 20 feet or less.
Seeing 8 pairs of glowing eyes is creepy but the noises they make, holy f*ck.
So yeah, I carried bear mace at the ready during my walks to the bus stop for the whole season.
King of the urinals.
Not a night guard, but I was a janitor for a little bit a while ago in a building that was only accessible by a key fob. You'd need one to get into the front door, and you'd have to use it again to enter the offices.
The shift was from 4pm to midnight, and if I finished early, I got to leave while still being paid until midnight.
Each night I'd hang out with my co-workers in the office until 5 P.M., then we'd all head out to our buildings. I'd empty all the trash bins first, vacuum and mop where needed, take care of any scheduled cleanings like steam cleaning the curtains, and I'd hit the bathrooms last since everyone would normally be out of the office at that time.
Most nights I was finished between 8 P.M. and 9 P.M.
There was a night when I was finishing up, and all I had to do was clean the bathrooms. I did the woman's room without any issues, and then I headed into the men's room. When I went in, the lights turned on because of that sensor, and there was some man I had never seen before just standing in the middle of the bathroom.
I have no idea who he was, or how long he was in there, but he had to have stood still long enough for the lights to go off, and then remain motionless so they wouldn't turn back on.
When I saw him, I just turned around and left for the night.
Lmfao I laughed so hard when I read the last part. Just a "lol nah that ain't my job" moment.
They're just doggos.
I worked at an airport and while I was not a guard, I was the only one working graveyard shift at my job.
One night I was sitting at the front desk playing a game on my phone and the sliding doors to the lobby opened. I looked up didn't see anyone, thought it was weird and went back to my phone. A few seconds later I heard a clacking noise on the tile floor in front of the desk. I very slowly stood up and then froze.
Two of the biggest rottweilers I had ever seen were standing in front of the desk staring at me. If they decided to attack me there was no way I could fight off both of them and being alone until the next shift meant they would probably kill me.
After what felt like an hour of watching them their body language didn't seem aggressive so I came around the desk and it turned out they were actually both super chill dogs named Sophie and Mac. They also knew how to sit, give their paw and lay down on command.
They belonged to a boat shop about a mile away and it turns out airport security were very familiar with them as they had a habit of escaping the boat shop and wandering the airport.
They ended up hanging out with me for the rest of my shift until security picked them up and gave them a lift back home.
Not so silent.
I do rounds in a factory. During shutdown with maybe ten lights on in a giant plant for holidays, one of the freaking monstrous machines lets out a blowhorn sound that mirrored the raid sirens in silent hill.
I cannot begin to tell you the dread that inspired.
I would have ran for my life.
Dude. When I was 17, I went urbexing in this cavernous vacant PCB factory. Sprawling factory floor, all the equipment gone, just a few token lights on to sort of illuminate the place.
I was walking right in the middle of that massive empty space when that exact sound happened, ear-splittingly loud, with no warning whatsoever.
Man, I f*cking sh*t. I leapt halfway out of my skin, snapped back into it, and bolted out of there faster than I'd ever run in my life. Across the factory floor, out the unlocked door, to the edge of the property, threw myself into the gravel to speed-crawl under a gate, and ran another four blocks to my car so I could burn rubber all the way home. Literally expected paint to start peeling off the walls.
Copper is super valuable on the black market.
Security at a remote site at about 330 A.M.
Doing my rounds, admittedly sleep deprived, and heard a very clear "f**k" whispered from just outside the fence. Some rustling ensued and my heart started to race. Called for back up but no answer. I go to investigate on my own and find nothing.
Ff to 415 A.M.
"Just go to sleep already" from the same spot. Call for backup, no answer, investigate, nothing.
Now pissed, I go to the security office to ask where the f*ck everyone is because I'm hearing people talk in the bushes. Turns out both of my partners left. Called the operations center, nothing. I was straight up about to leave when a truck rolled up to the security gate. I'm in the office so I see it on the camera and I flip on the microphone and say "please present your ID to the camera, we'll have someone let you in shortly." NO ANSWER. Go to investigate, drunk guy took a wrong turn and thought he was at home so he fell asleep in his truck, at our gate. Call the cops cause he clearly shouldn't be driving, not that it's really my issue. Then call operations again, this time they pick up and inform me everyone is sick and that I should go home as it's against policy to work at this site on your own. Still no clue what those voices were but man that was a stressful night. Lots of break ins from copper thieves, quite often armed tho.
If you have copper thieves breaking in frequently, I'm going to hazard a guess that your job site is an abandoned building, likely a fairly large complex.
If that's the case, the mysterious voices could have been urban explorers trying to photograph the building. As an urban explorer, I can attest that sometimes there are locations out there that are only accessible by sneaking past security guards in the dead of night- and locations that require doing so are often cool enough that the risk of getting caught is worth it.
"Fu*k" and "just go to sleep already" coming from just beyond the fence line sounds like a couple of frustrated urban explorers waiting for you to move on so they can sneak past you into the complex itself. Hearing the voices 45 minutes apart is a reasonable timeframe for this explanation- I've definitely seen locations where you have to wait over an hour in a single hiding place for an opening where you can sneak past, especially if you aren't exactly sure of the security layout (guards, cameras, alarms, motion detectors, etc).
We're a pretty harmless bunch, far more afraid of you than you are of us. If an urban explorer does things right, they'll sneak in, photograph the complex, and sneak out with the guards being none the wiser.
Now this is scary.
I'm a night guard, but the story is from a colleague of mine.
So my colleague was guarding this quite big complex in which the security system was not working. So they had two guards stationed at two different locations in this building. My colleague gets a call on the radio from the other night guard that he'a hearing someone trying to break in. So my colleague rushes over there as fast as he can.
Now this building was quite the maze and required a number of keys in order to get from where he was to where the other guard was. And he finds out that he's been given wrong sets of keys. So for him to get to where the break in is happening he now has to go around the outside of the building. This took some extra time and when he arrived he found the other guard knocked down in a pool of blood.
He had tried to stop the three guys doing the break in by himself and got rewarded with a hard pipe bashed to his head. My colleague pressed his SRT, the panic alarm. And tried to tend to his friends wound. It took about 5 minutes for the police and EMT to get there but he said it felt like it took hours. Since he was pretty sure his colleague was going to die.
He ended up in a coma for 5 days and also lost some of his eyesight in his left eye. But other than that me recovered quite well.
No one got caught since the attackers just hit him blind sided and decided to get the hell out of there once they clocked him.
My colleague still work as a night guard but the other guy that got a pipe to his head had a few months to recover and now works as an EMT instead.
It's the ones with the real people that are the scary ones. Glad both of them are okay.
I agree. Seeing how animalistic people can really be will always be more terrifying to me than anything paranormal.
Sometimes a cat is just a cat.
In the winter we get homeless people sleeping in our stairwells so I have to kick them out.
One time I went down and something leaped at me. I went "phew just a cat." Then I remembered the horror movie trope and realized the real scare is coming up next so I skipped checking the stairwells that night.
Phew.
Wait, what?
Not a night guard but when I worked at Sam's Club, I took a couple of night shifts to get my department ready for a big sale event. I would get there at about 2 A.M. and be done at 10 A.M.
Our store is located on a hillside kind of back towards the woods a little bit. To get in after hours, we had to go around to the back of the store and go through the receiving entrance. It was always dark and creepy but I never felt like scared or anything.
Until my last night shift. I got the unsettling feeling of being watched. Like hairs on the back of your neck standing up, heart beating out of your chest unsettling.
I booked it into the store and slammed the door shut behind me. One of the night crew asked what was wrong and I told him. He laughed and told me welcome to the night shift.
About ten minutes later, one of the night crew went out that same door for a cigarette and a bear climbed out of the dumpster beside the door.
You've left that on a bit of a cliffhanger there...
The story probably ends there. Not every tale has a movie-like climax to finish on. Sometimes, I like those stories the best, because that's how life usually works.
Phantom screams at night in a hospital? Nope.
While I was on a night shift as a nurse with one of my colleagues, we would sit in little room that was wall to wall with the elevators. The one right next to us was only for employees and was barely used at night. We were minding our own business when we heard the most ear-piercing and terrifying "scream" coming from the elevator. We sat there looking at each other, unwilling to actually check it out, but when we rushed out shortly after the elevator wasn't in use. Needless to say we were on the edge for the entire rest of the shift. We never found out what caused it, and it never happened again.
Maybe someone had a bad reaction to a spider on them or something.
I'm more convinced it may have had something to do with the reinforced cables expanding/retracting in the cold weather. The whole thing didn't exactly sound human.
Sleep tight.
During my time as a Sheriff's Deputy, I worked as a night guard for a local branch of a massive investment firm for extra cash, and worked the 4pm-12am shift on weekends. There was only two guards on shift at any time, and because it was a financial building, they allowed those of us certified to be armed if we had the certificates.
The facility was three buildings across a 4 acre property, was gated, and was on the tail end of an industrial park, on the border of a really rough neighborhood, where break ins and shootings were not uncommon.
One night I was on guard during December, a lot of the desks were covered in Christmas decorations and wrapping paper, and a lot of the employees would leave little treats and bowls of candy out for us to thank us for being there for them. We all really appreciated it and it helped take our minds off of the long hours while we were there alone, and it reminded us of why we did it.
That particular night the other guard I was with was a fellow soldier with me in the National Guard, so we both knew we were trained and had each other's backs, which had me pretty at ease as I walked down the long dark empty hallways with my flashlight. Suddenly my radio lit up, and my buddy tells me the cameras in one of the cubicle areas was feeding black, and he thinks the lights went out, and my job was to walk over there and reset the breaker and get the lights back on.
I turned around and began to walk down the hallway, it was absolutely pitch black, no service lights, no door lights, no faint glow of computers left on, nothing. The air felt cold, my flashlight felt darker than normal, something wasn't right.
My heartbeat began to speed up as I remembered that the breaker room was all the way in the back, near the server, and I had to walk down nearly 40 rows of cubicles to get there. I listened carefully in case it was someone versus something that caused it, and I kept hearing this odd clicking sound as I began to slowly walk through the cubicle row.
Suddenly, I saw a silhouette "crouched" down between two cubicles in the back, I knelt down and drew my gun, thinking I caught someone in the building, I pinged the radio twice to signal my buddy to get 9-1-1 on standby, and began to slowly walk towards it, issuing verbal commands.
"Stand up, face me, NOW!" I yelled at the silhouette, wondering why it wasn't moving. As my flashlight hit it, it was a godd*mned clown statue holding a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
I laughed and holstered my gun, my hands were shaking, I was sweaty, I genuinely was happy I didn't have to use force or possibly take a life that night. I felt so relieved. I walked up to, planning to move it back inside of a cubicle to get it out of our way.
Suddenly the little f*cker lit up "BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" it laughed, loudly and sharply.
I took off running like. The thing absolutely caught me off guard and scared the living sh*t out of me. I've caught bums in our dumpster, crack heads on our roof, we even had a multiple shooting in the apartments nearby. Nothing scared me as much as that f*cking clown laughing at me. Eyes and nose glowing red. I ran all the way back to the front desk and made my buddy get the lights in there.
I'm not even scared of clowns normally, but that one in particular would continue to creep me out for the rest of the time I worked there.
Sad thing is, nothing I encountered in my time in the Military or Law Enforcement ever scared me as much as that clown.
There's just not enough good "Clown Training" nowadays.
F*ck that clown.
| Image by Elf-Moondance from Pixabay |
Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide refer to, as defined by Medical News Today, as the "deliberate action taken with the intention of ending a life, in order to relieve persistent suffering." It's a controversial topic. As of 2021, active human euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia, Luxembourg, Canada, and Spain. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, Germany, the Australian states of Victoria Northern Territory, and Western Australia.
But this issue has many passionate supporters who often know what it's like to care for someone who would have benefited from the practice. They told their stories after Redditor Random2328 asked the online community,
"What are your thoughts on medically assisted death?"
"She was able to go to a place in Switzerland..."
"My grandma was 89 and wasn't dying of anything in particular—she didn't have cancer or dementia or anything—but her memory was slowly failing and her body was generally falling apart from old age and a leg injury from fifty years prior. She had been a widow for fourteen years. She was lonely and in pain all the time and her family lived across the ocean so we couldn't see her as much as we'd want to.
There was nothing actively killing her, but she did NOT want to be alive anymore. She wasn't depressed, just old and in pain and ready to be done.
She was able to go to a place in Switzerland, with all four of her children, and take a pill to end her life while her children sang to her and she looked out at the mountains.
We all got to say goodbye to her and she got to be completely in control of the end of her life. I can only hope that if I am ever in that situation, then the world will be kind enough to let me close my own exit as beautifully and peacefully as my grandma did."
Your grandmother sounds like she was truly blessed. Being able to make that choice––and still have time with her family––no doubt meant the world to her.
"I don't know if I'd have the courage..."
"I just went through this with a good friend in Canada. He had glioblastoma and was given 3-6 months to live. Ultimately he lived for 15 months, but he wanted to be sure he could end his life when things got bad for him, so he made the necessary preparations. I'd long known he'd made these plans. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. But as I was caring for him for the last six weeks of his life I got to witness the process firsthand.
Long story a bit shorter: Towards the end, my friend could no longer walk or speak. He could understand everything you said to him, but he couldn't find the words to reply intelligently. In his frustration, he made it clear that he was ready. So we explicitly asked him if he was ready to die. He said yes.
The next day two nurses came to his home. They talked to him and confirmed that he wanted to end his life. So, while sitting in his favorite recliner, they put in an IV. His immediate family and I sat with him. The nurses administered medication that made him fall asleep. Then they administered a second medication that stopped his breathing. In less than 5 minutes he was gone.
I don't know if I'd have the courage to make the decision my friend did, but I didn't experience his suffering. Being present for him as he ended his life has convinced me that having the option to end your life on your own terms is the absolute right thing to do. There's no reason someone should have to continue to suffer when they know all they have to look forward to is more suffering. I'm very grateful that my friend had the option available to him. Had he been in my state in the U.S. that wouldn't have been possible. But it should be."
"She made the decision to have the procedure done..."
"My grandmother passed away last week with a medically assisted death.
She had cancer that had spread to her brain, and was given a few weeks to a few months to live. From what family members said, she was deteriorating fast.
She made the decision to have the procedure done as she wanted to end her time here with dignity. The appointment was made, doctors consulted, and paperwork drawn up. 10 days later two medical professionals came by her house where she was spending time with her children. It was done quickly and comfortably.
Nana left peacefully on her own accord, in the comfort of her own home, and while she was still more or less herself. It was very strange to have a time and a date looming, but it also allowed me to set aside that time to be alone and hold a small vigil of my own (I'm currently in another country, and couldn't get back)
She lived in Canada, where this service has recently been made more accessible, and I'm all for it. If it helped my Nana, it could help so many others."
It sounds like your Nana was able to have peace––and so do you.
"It should be a right..."
"It should be a right for every human to choose when terminal. We euthanize our pets but not our loved ones. We allow our loved ones to suffer miserably at the end of life. I was a hospice nurse and saw the suffering first hand. It is inhumane to allow that."
Why do we allow it for pets and not for humans? What makes an animal's life worth more than a human's? Shouldn't they both be held in equal regard?
"I have a degenerative brain disease..."
"I have a degenerative brain disease and would very much like to die with some dignity left, so I'm all for it."
No doubt. We're sorry to hear about your struggle.
"I longed for there to be a legal way..."
"We let people die in fear and pain, but not animals. The last 6 months of my mum's life were exactly how she didn't want to live - confused, incontinent, immobile. I longed for there to be a legal way to end her suffering. She made it very clear to me during her life that this was not the way she wanted to go. I'm an RN and should make it clear I've never assisted in ending anyone's life, but I've wanted to. Medically assisted death doesn't mean more death, just less suffering."
"As someone who has..."
"As someone who has stage 4 cancer, I am in favor of having the right to die gracefully."
"If it's good enough..."
"If it's good enough for my dog then it's good enough for me."
It's truly as simple as that. We'd be doing so many human beings a favor.
"If you're not legally allowed..."
"If you're not allowed to legally arrange the end of your own life, is it actually your own life?"
"It was such a blessing..."
"My grandpa had a medically assisted death in 2019. It was such a blessing to my family as we were able to say goodbye, and knew how much time we had left.
Also it was relief from great pain for him, and I'm so glad he was able to make that choice peacefully.
Will forever advocate for it."
It's truly shocking that euthanasia is illegal in many countries––and that it can even carry a jail sentence. It is a complicated issue that polarizes many people from different walks of life.
Where do you stand on this issue? Feel free to tell us in the comments below!
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Privilege is discussed quite a bit these days, and for good reason. So many people are able to live life longer, more peacefully, and freely than others thanks to factors they had no control over.
And yet, there is an element of popularity among the privileges discussed. People acknowledge their race, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, and citizenship status a lot.
That makes sense. Those are massively significant social realities that we need to grapple with constantly.
But there are some other privileges that we don't always think about. There are some things even more basic that not everybody gets to enjoy.
Observing them can make us all feel a bit more grateful.
Redditor Mburns15 asked:
"What is something most people don't realize is a privilege?"
Many called attention to the fact that the physical ability to interact with a majority of public infrastructure isn't a sure thing.
Always Calling Ahead
"Spontaneity in your daily plans. If you're a wheelchair user that's virtually impossible."
"So few places have accessible restrooms, some public transport needs contact 24 hours in advance in order to accommodate you, the list goes on."
"I envy people who can just go with the flow."
Take Care
"Being able-bodied. So many people are one accident away from being unemployed and don't realize that. Your job will ruin your body - be aware and fight it."
A Silent Struggle
"Not having chronic pain" -- Aggravating_Okra_00
"Having energy to do what you want with your life. Trying to explain to people how exhausting and draining chronic pain can be. Having to explain the concept of energy budgets to people - sure I could come out and do $funthing with you, but then I wouldn't have the energy to cook and clean the house and would be useless at work tomorrow." -- Fraerie
Others chose to point out the very basic necessities that are far from ensured across the world.
To Be Comfortable
"Feeling safe in your own home. Not worrying about rats, mice, roaches, bed bugs, bricks being thrown through windows, violence outside, break ins."
-- yesohoygh
Peace
"Privacy. I don't mean digital privacy, I mean a room with solid walls and a door that closes. Lots of people don't have that."
Exercising Gratitude
"Having access to water and a sewage system. Also the abundance of food in western super markets is quite frankly insane. Every day I try and spend a moment to reflect on how lucky I am."
-- DrSealMan
Game Changer
"Sanitary products for women! It's different in different parts of the world + economic backgrounds"
And finally, a few people from countries around the world discussed the unique, intense struggles of living in a place that isn't embedded in the affluence of the Western world.
Just Imagine
"Going about your daily life without seriously worrying about your physical safety. Sleeping at night without worrying about whether a bomb is going to come through your roof."
Not a Given
"Having the ability to express an opinion. Free speech is very censored in a lot of the world." -- BananaLCG
"Criticizing your own government." -- ipf000
The Ability to Think About Other Things
"Living in a good country, not having to spend your youth worrying about how to immigrate to good countries."
-- MiniSugaSwag
But before you think of this list as a big long guilt trip, imagine a more positive spin on this. There are so many things to feel grateful for, even when it seems like everything is working against you.
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The law is a fickle mistress, and it varies from state to state and county to county sometimes. And then there is the blatant hypocrisy of it all.
There are some things that feel like they should be allowed to pass but you get scolded for, like jaywalking, and then there are things like actual robbery in broad daylight, like telemarketers and nothing happens to them.
Make it make sense. It's like taxes, the wealthy know loopholes and the poor go to jail. Shameful.
Redditor u/Xanduh wanted everyone to chat about legal life fails by asking:
What do you wish was illegal?
I try my best to follow the law. And Lord knows how well I'm doing. There are so many obscure laws for ridiculous things, yet, scamming people of their life savings is a free pass. I'm confused... apparently, so are many others...
Save a Life
drag race drugs GIFGiphy"Hiking up prices of life saving medications. (Insulin, epi-pens, etc.)".
The Hands of Time
"Advertisement like "anti-aging" is absolutely preposterous."
"I would love to see a massive class action lawsuit against any skincare that proposes "anti-aging". Watch a judge rule in the plaintiff's favor citing that the products did not actually turn back time."
Credit
"Your credit score goes down because you cancelled a credit card."
"You want to have multiple lines of credit that you're responsible with, preferably for a long period of time, because it proves you're a reliable borrower. If you have no debt, it's almost like you've not established credit at all. Your score goes up the more lines of credit you have. It's bonkers. Someone more financially literate than me could probably explain better, though."
- isocleat
The Devil
Kate Mckinnon Snl GIF by Saturday Night LiveGiphy"Hi, I'm X. We're trying to reach you regarding your car's extended warranty."
- Mtt76812
I'm at the end of my tether with these car warranty calls. I swear to God... nevermind. And advertisements needs to be more regulated. That is a start at better fixing justice.
Extra $$$
Happy Credit Card GIF by HollyoaksGiphy"Convenience fees for online ticket purchases. Why am I getting charged for saving on paper, ink, and everyone's time?"
You're Cancelled
"Companies making it really difficult to cancel things. Especially subscriptions. I think the process to subscribe to something to should be exactly the same as the process to cancel it. I'm looking at you spotify."
"Gyms in general. before they started popping up everywhere I was a member at LA fitness."
"Well I moved 2hrs away from the closest one and they wanted me to come in person to cancel, then they wanted me to send in a damn letter. I can signup online, why can't I cancel online?"
- Rektw
No muss, no fuss.
"Printer ink being ridiculously expensive for no reason."
"Buy a laser printer. Here's my oft-told tale of woe: School got out so my kids no longer had homework to print. A month or so later we needed to print a document. Our Kodak injket printer not only refused to print but said we needed to buy a new ($90) print head because the old one had gummed up, because we'd gone too long without printing."
"I went to the local office supply store and bought a Brother laser printer. It scans, it copies, it uses wifi, and most importantly it just works.About twice a year when we need to print something I go and get it out of my garage and bring it into the house, set it on the kitchen counter, plug it in, and print to it."
"It works great - even remembers my wifi settings (SSID and password) from the previous time. No muss, no fuss. If I really want to print something in color I'll use Kinkos. Turns out I literally never need to print in color."
Child Currency
"Using children to monetize your social media channels."
"It's honestly sad that their parents force them to be the face of their social media accounts, since the children will never have a normal childhood due to their fame."
Bot Thieves
Theatre GIF by StubHubGiphy"Bots buying tickets and up-charging the crap out of the price."
- pgh613
Those ticket thieves need to be taken down. No Broadway show is worth $1000! Don't fall for it kids. That mess needs to be cleaned up. There is actual crime happening to the naked eye. Let's focus there.
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While the world is a dark and scary place, there would not be a world, or a human race, without inherent kindness.
Kindness always gives you a little thump to your heart that nothing else can truly provide. A rush of knowing you've made someone's day better. And you may change the trajectory of that person's life because of it.
To hear more of these kindnesses, for inspiration, Redditor slizsarbleh asked:
"What is something you've done purely out of the goodness of your heart, but have never told anyone?"
Here were some of those stories.
One Grieving Heart To Another
"I lost my mom earlier this year and am still working through the grief. The first week a came back my coworkers had gave me a check for several hundred dollars as a kind gesture. I was truly overwhelmed by the generosity."
"The following week I came into the break room to find one of the techs with a lost look on her face. She had just gotten a phone call that her brother had been murdered the night before."
"She had moved to our city just a year prior and didn't have any family close by. As I held her and listened to her cry, I booked her a flight home."
"It was several hundred dollars as she is from a small town and the flight was for later that day. I told her to go be with family and let me know when she was ready to come back. I had no doubt that is exactly what my mom would have wanted me to do."-thatgirlmocha
Taking It For The Team
"I was extremely stressed and took a mental health day, planning on going to mom's and crying myself to sleep. We ended up going to the mall, and even though money was really tight for her, she wanted to buy me lunch (we split the bill)."
"She realized that she lost a newer $50 bill while walking around. She was devastated."
"I traded my smaller bills to a cashier for a newer $50, folded it like she would, and tossed it under the seat of her car. The next day she called me, almost crying because she was excited to find it and said that without it, groceries would've been pretty tight that week."
"Taking me out that day prevented me from having a full breakdown. I think $50 was a small price to pay for what she did for me that day."-SleepsLikeACat
Services For The Poor
"I do IT work, usually small business and a lot of home repair. I have many wealthy clients and a few not so fortunate. It is not unusual for me to go to a home and it is obvious they are barely scraping by."
"So I either don't charge those people, or make it a nominal fee. I also refurb the old PC's and give them to people who have one that is not repairable."
"My best fee ever was a basket of home grown creole tomatoes, damn those things are delicious."-Disposable70
It really does cost nothing to be kind.
Just A Game, But More Than Just A Game
"This isn't as impressive as the comments I've read but this is just something I did recently."
"I'm a member of a Sims group on FB where people talk about the game, expansion packs etc. I noticed a comment by a teenager who said her favourite pack would be Pets but she can't afford it."
"I went onto her page and saw that she really loved horses. I could also tell from her pictures that her mum was disabled and money looked tight."
"I was fortunate enough when I was her age to always get the packs on the release dates and I used The Sims as a wind down from revising and school."
"I thought that this girl needed the escapism way more than I ever did so I bought every expansion pack, messaged her the activation codes, a link to a YouTube video on how to use them, and a short message saying I hope you enjoy playing and to keep smiling."
"I really do wish her the very best."-MariaOSullivan
Saving And Changing Lives
"Bought insulin for the child of a lady in front of me at the pharmacy. The woman (single mom) was in tears & didn't have the $200 copay for that month."
"I gave her my number & told her to call me within the next few days. That was a few years ago. She now manages the office at my practice, makes enough $ for anything she needs/wants, & is one of my closest friends."
"And now she has excellent insurance for herself & her son! Be kind—it can literally change lives! <3"-EJX713
A Simple Blanket
"There's a semi-secluded bus stop beside a store I used to work at, and a homeless guy started sleeping there on the bench halfway between the stop and the parking lot one winter."
"One day I got to work 15 mins early and saw him sleeping, wearing just a flannel and jeans. So I ram into the store, bought a blanket, and covered him up with it."
"He never woke up so he didn't know it was me. Every time I saw him sitting on the bench he had the blanket wrapped around him."-SeleneSlayer
Even In The Face Of A Feud
"I have an ongoing silent feud with one branch of my family (my dad's cousins and their kids, my second cousins), and we haven't spoken or really seen each other in over 10 years."
"I've pretty much written them off, and I don't really care if we live out the rest of our lives without patching things up."
"Two months ago, one of my cousins from that branch unexpectedly died at the age of 38. Their immediate family had always had financial troubles."
"So while I didn't fly across the country to attend the funeral, I quietly sent my sister a bunch of money and instructed her to pretend it was hers and pay off part of their funeral expenses."
"And then just last week, some of my other relatives started a GoFundMe for one of my aunts in that branch (she's my dad's oldest cousin)."
"She has Stage IV cervical cancer and wants to leave the hospital to pass away at home surrounded by her loved ones, but the hospital won't release her until her medical bills are paid in full (this is in another country)."
"I haven't told my dad or anyone else in the family, but I anonymously donated my last paycheck plus the money I had been saving for my upcoming birthday trip."
"I don't really consider it out of the goodness of my heart, though. It's just that the thought of an elderly, terminally ill person dying alone somewhere that isn't home eats away at me so much that I physically couldn't sit by and do nothing."-OrifielM
And these gestures are the kind where the kindness is its own reward.
To Instill Hope
"A lady was fleeing an abusive marriage without much more than her kids and the clothes on her back. Word went out within a whisper network requesting a few essentials she needed."
"Packed up several things from the request list and also one thing that wasn't requested. I make jewelry as a hobby. Put a pair of handmade earrings into a gift bag: silver and pearls."
"Added a handwritten note that every woman deserves something beautiful and sending good wishes her way."-doublestitch
Someone's Housing
"At the beginning of the pandemic, I was volunteering at a local pizza shop to distribute slices to kids who otherwise couldn't get fed because the schools were shutdown."
"There was a woman with 3 kids that came by every few days to get slices. Turns out the father had died unexpectedly right before the pandemic started and they lost their house because of the slumlord they were renting from."
"The mother lost her job because she had no one to watch the kids. They were living in their minivan and things were bad for them."
"They were so nice and grateful, but ashamed when they'd come by to get slices that I genuinely felt for them. I had lost my job and got a pretty decent windfall of 2 months worth of unemployment and the CARES Act at once."
"My landlord had a few properties open and is a close friend, so I got in touch with him and we worked out me paying their security deposit and the first 2 months of rent and he'd cover their utilities."
"I gave her his number and said he might be able to help and they moved in the next day. They've been there ever since and are doing extremely well now."-eyexxiii
A Little Birthday Surprise
"I was in my art class in high school and there was a girl who I didn't really know a few grades younger. I could tell she didn't have many friends but was really sweet."
"She was talking to me one day and told me her birthday was soon and that she was so excited. I decided to send her those balloons and whatnot you can get through the student store on her birthday, though she didn't know me very well so I didn't sign my name."
"It just so happened that the student store worker brought them in during our art class and I got to see her reaction. She lit up and kept telling us it had to have been her mom or her best friend who did it, and how she couldn't believe that someone got her something and she wouldn't stop smiling the whole rest of class."
"I never told her it was me, I was just happy she felt special. That was a pretty good day."-Rbbbb30
Humans, above all else, have the capacity to be unendingly kind. Despite all the darkness in the world, it is these little moments of light that define us as a species.
Hopefully this has given you some faith in humans today.