This didn’t happen to me, but it was me-adjacent and involves a tow-truck driver. A few years back my son-in-law was headed home from work when the tow truck in front of him started bouncing off the curb and then stopped. SIL pulled over, went to the drivers window and the guy was passed out in the front seat,…

I was walking to work, in Manhattan, many years ago. Out of nowhere, it began to rain HARD. The kind of rain that blinds you; that soaks you within 10 seconds. Not having an umbrella (I was so poor then it seemed like a luxury), I shoved my body into the closet doorway. I was still getting wet. Mascara running down my…

When we were in our mid-20s in the 1980s my then-boyfriend/now-husband decided he might want to do graduate work at the University of Chicago. So, being completely broke, we flew into O’Hare and took the subway down to U of C to take a campus tour and stay in one of the dorms. It doesn’t actually go to the campus but a…

Many many years ago, my then boyfriend and I were college students and would spend weekends going to see local bands, staying out ridiculously late. We had very little money, were completely ill-matched personalities (I was a law student, he was a heavy drinker and raucous musician) and it was a weird, unstable time.…

I don’t have a story that will make you cry, but tonight I’m really thankful for everyone that tipped 20-35% on takeouts and delivery in an effort to keep the restaurant I work in open. I’m down to two shifts a week and my other job just furloughed us until summer so that extra $2, $10, and $20 we were tipped will…

My friend asked me to let her dog out as she was newly living alone and had a long shift scheduled at work. I stopped by her place right after I got done at work to let the dog out. We were sniffing around the courtyard at her apartment complex when a dog without a leash ran up to us. I tried to call to the dog and…

When I was 18, my mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 Breast Cancer. In the years prior to this she had cut off her family and separated from my father. She didn’t trust anyone so she made my barely a legal adult self her power of attorney. Six months after diagnosis she took a big turn for the worst and was mostly…

I was at work one day, in the summer. I was talk to a visitor outside at one of our buildings. There were wasps flying around, and we were generally trying to avoid them, but it was difficult.

When I was in college, I was in line to get my car washed — first nice day after a snow storm. Super long line so the guy in front of me decided to leave and suddenly threw his car in reverse and was about to hit me, so I backed up and hit a parked car at the little mechanic shop next to the car wash. The mechanic…

As I was walking in a parking lot back to my car, underdressed, on a cold, windy day a car pulled up and the passenger explained that her grandmother knit scarves and they offered me a beautiful hand knit infinity scarf for free.

created a burner for this so not sure if it will be seen.

It was 2000 and I was driving my mom’s old Mercury Cougar through Massachusetts (between home and college) when smoke started coming out from under the hood. I pulled over in a Home Depot parking lot and opened the hood, staring at it.

Summer of 2003, my husband and I are making our annual trek from Oregon back to IA/MN. We were driving his grandfathers 1991 Oldsmobile 98 - a beast of a car. I loved that thing even though my legs stuck to the leather seats during the summer; even though we had to replace the transmission after it broke down during…

So this isn’t my story, but a reminder that people out there are thinking about the less fortunate.

Not me but something my mother did:
I lived in a remote spot of California growing up. One day on the way to school, we saw the neighbor who lived in the “weird” house walking to town with a suitcase, her dog, and a puffy, red face. Without hesitation, my mom whipped the car over, sternly said “Keep walking, I’m coming…

I did Peace Corps in rural Nicaragua. On 6-hour bus ride to visit a friend, I was thankfully seated next to a kind woman, Dona Maria, who loved all dogs. Some Nicaraguans regard the local street dogs as pests or dirty so traveling with my street dog rescue was sometimes a challenge on public transport. My seat mate…

When I was a little kid, my family just moved to a new (small) town. My mom had just had surgery and wasn’t supposed to do any heavy lifting or anything, but when she came out of the local library with me and my brother, she saw she had a flat tire. We were new in town, we had nothing, I don’t know if she had any way…

I thought I didn’t have one but I do!

I got in a minor fender bender (A guy ran into the back of my car in a parking lot and then tried to gaslight me into not taking his insurance and said that “my parents would probably be upset if they found out I was in an accident.... bitch please with that condescension... you. hit. me. ) Anyways, I got his info and…

I’m happy to say I have a million stories I could share on this. 1) I took a very long bus ride home from college 4 nights a week. Because it was the last run of the night, I would be dropped well after 10pm and would walk down some very dark streets. When the driver found this out, he started(with permission of the…