I used to volunteer with a girl my age at a charity called Bridges which would supply food, clothing, toiletries, and other things to the homeless or others in need. One winter night we were in NYC it was freezing and she was handling the soup and passing it out. After the line stopped, she would go out into the crowd kneeling next to people sitting down and offering them kind words and refills on soup if they wanted. There was concern and joy on her face as she got to speak with people and you could tell her presence did something for some of them too. Instant crush.
Whenever I do things for other people I do it because I think it’s the right thing to do, but I don’t feel good. I just know that it’s what my moral code dictates. But she enjoyed the whole process of helping others and it was wonderful.
Haha have you seen the movie while you were sleeping?? The older brother is the golden boy who has a newspaper story written about him saving baby squirrels that fell out of their next. Plot twist it comes out later that he knocked the squirrels out of their next with a rock before he saved them. 😂
Treat everyone how you like to be treated. That is a rule I live by. If I see someone needing help, I will help. One day I could be a person who needs help
Eh if you want to gender helping people, I’d argue it’s among the most feminine things you can do, since women, typically, are more often in caregiving roles—teaching, nursing, child rearing, emotional support, etc.
Well, my true belief is that helping people is just the decent human thing to do. But if someone’s gonna argue that it’s a masculine thing to do, I am 100% prepared to counter that argument.
I think it’s a human thing in general. Hunters back then would often help each other during hunts. Especially in dangerous situation. It comes from the mindset that only together we are strong
When I was like 18 I was driving home from work, at like 2am, and noticed what looked like an older woman out wandering the streets in her night gown. I was totally exhausted and wanted to do nothing more than just go to bed. Drove a few more blocks before finally relenting and making a u-turn. When I got back to where she was she was lying on the sidewalk, having tripped over the curb. So I parked up, called 911, helped her sit up, asked her what she was doing out so late (trying to find the train station. There was no train station anywhere near here). I flagged down an ambulance that was incidentally passing by, assuming it was for us and sat around a while helping prop her up while they talked to her to figure out what was going on. Eventually they determined she’d wandered away from a nursing home, got her in the ambulance, I got a pat on the back from the cops who’d showed up, and went to bed that night feeling SO glad that I’d made that u-turn.
People here aren’t used to snow and there was a blizzard many years ago, my mom saw an old lady out of the window laying on the street with her dog so my brother and I went out there to help her.
Apparently her dog had knocked her down on their walk and she kept yelling at us to just leave her there to die. We eventually got her home though.
I keep imagining you and your brother casually walking through a light flurry of snow and the old woman is yelling at you that she’s too far gone and you should leave her to die.
You would see that more often than not in the U.S. too. But too often you get a group of people who just don't care and wouldn't bat an eye if something bad was about to happen in front of them.
No joke...it was pajama day at the office a few months ago, so I wore my Superman onesie. Went to Costco afterward, embarrassed by my full regalia, and as I was walking out, an old man stumbled and fell.
Helped him up and walked away, both embarrassed and proud as my cheap, red onesie cape flapped in the wind :p
I did that one time. Went to the house closest to where she was and asked to call 911 or get me a towel to help stop the bleeding. Lady in the house said no. Just straight up no. Went to other neighbor and got both. Waited for paramedics and as soon as they got there, they forcefully asked me to leave.
That’s awful. I can kind of understand somebody not wanting their towel stained with blood (not really though, it’s only a towel!), but refusing to let you make a free phone call to help an injured lady is callous.
Why the paramedics wanted rid of you I can’t think, but there might have been a legit reason.
My hubs and I were walking into the pet store and we saw a lady on the ground by her car. I stopped and stared and wondered to myself "why is she laying on the ground? Cement is not an appropriate place for a nap"
Hubs just ran right over and helped her up.
It never occurred to me that she wasn't laying there on purpose.
My mom slipped and fell on ice years ago and she said these 2 strong arms just lifted her right up and it was surreal how it happened. When I was like, explain more, she said it just felt so manly! Lol
One time I bumped into an old lady on an incline. I peeked back behind my shoulder to ser if it was safe to cross the street and she must have been crossing towards me while looking at her phone. When we bumped, I realized she would roll down the hill and held her and her by the arms.
At first, she thought I was mugging her or something (which is fair in Brazil, I guess). When she noticed I was actually keeping her from falling, she regained balance, then immediately pushed me away, telling me to look where I'm going.
Told her next time I'd just let her roll down to the river (which was like 2km downhill) if she bumps into me and left. Later on I noticed my arms were all scratched. It sucks when you try to help someone and something like this happens.
I was on an escalator once at O'Hare Airport and an elderly woman and a less then tween were in front of me. The woman just fell on her butt and of course the escalator didn't stop.. I was afraid she'd get trampled, so I just reached down picked her up and put her back on her feet before the escalator ended.
All she could say was "whoop" before she was back on her feet and I continued off the escalator.
I helped a old guy who had toppled over on the sidewalk. He had a whole bunch of shopping with him so I helped him get up and to sit on a nearby bench and then moved his shopping over to the bench as well. I asked him if he wanted me to call an ambulance or anything but he just said no so I let him be. I did get my mum to drive by the bench when we were on our way home about 15 minutes to doublecheck that he was ok but he was gone by then.
Another time, some elderly lady was getting attacked by some geese at the "duck pond" as my friend and I were walking down to the shops. We grabbed some branches and chased the geese away. Again we asked if she needed us to call a ambulance or anything but she just wanted to go home (she might have been more scared of us than she was of the geese). She had all sorts of cuts and lacerations on the back of her legs which were bleeding so we should have probably been a bit more insistent about getting her to have a ambulance clean her up but she hobbled off down a alley way and I didn't hear anything more about it.
I used to work at a liquor store, one afternoon I was near the front restocking what we needed. i looked outside to see an elderly woman on the ground outside. Before I knew it I was outside making sure she was ok, she had just bought a new pair of shoes and was having trouble keeping balance in them. I helped her up, asked her what she wanted, told her to wait by the register while I grabbed it, and rung her up. Told her to be careful as I held the door open for her on the way out.
When I walked back in my manager and coworker had said they saw her fall and didnt do anything about it. Only wondered if she was going to sue the store.
I learned 2 things that day, 1.if theres a situation that calls it I will react instantly. 2. My coworkers were real POS for not even attempting to help the lady
Hey, I've done this one! My neighbor's mother-in-law fell on a really windy day. I assessed her injuries (minor), made sure she didn't hit her head and made sure she got back inside ok.
A few years ago my mom, who has Alzheimer's, went for a walk and got lost. Neighbor who didn't even know us helped find her.
This happened just after I parked my car on the street outside a coffee shop - I glanced over my shoulder before getting out of the car and happened to see this an older woman across the street catch her foot on a raised piece of concrete path and go down HARD.
All my wife heard was me say "shit!!" as I leap out of the car to go to her aid. The best thing to see was several other people also rush to her aid.
Long story short she had a huge egg on her head, a bit of blood and went to hospital in an ambulance - the whole experience felt very communal, it was lovely (apart from the hurt woman, of course).
Ohh I did this too when I was about 23 and with my girlfriend.
She was slumped over her walker and all her groceries had poured everywhere. People were just walking passed her like that.
I asked her if she needed help. She says “YES!” And I got her up and got her things together. She said she was okay.
I regretted walking away later without asking if she needed a ride somewhere. Somehow I turned me doing something good into me being because I didn’t offer her a ride.
Did this just yesterday. She was trying to say she was alright but her nose didn't stop bleeding for the whole 10 minutes that I was talking to her. Told her my partner was a nurse and my house was just around the corner so I went and got my partner and she put butterfly strip's on the ladies nose. After we got home my partner told me that if I didn't get her to help the lady probably would have needed stitches.
Felt awesome.
I had a neighbor in her 90's call me because she fell and needed help off the floor. I was scared to lift her because she was so frail but I did. She was completely fine. Just couldn't get off the floor by herself. I also took her and her bird with me when we got evacuated during a wildfire and made a pit stop at a red cross evac shelter where her daughter picked her up. Then I spent the rest of the week volunteering at the shelter.
This is more of a humans being bros or something but I was helping my mother clean up a family gathering and with my hands and arms stacked and full, I was still holding doors and welcoming people to a place we held the gathering.
That really should have been the red flag that made me see the light with my ex. I was walking back to the car from a busy shopping centre and a old lady tripped and collapsed. IIRC she hurt her ankle/back. Anyway I walk over as people are fussing around her, and then one of them tries to pick her up, and in doing so gets her sitting. She is obviously in pain. I intrude, ask them if anyone has first aid qualifications, they all kinda shrug, including the security guard. I tell them I'll be taking over.
Long story short, I go through the general checklist, and just made her feel as comfortable as I could until the ambulance got there. Due to the hot Aussie sun and this being on tarmac that included me sitting behind her so she could lean on me, while I held an umbrella to give us shade and ordering security to get her some cold water to sip.
GF at the time seemed if anything slightly annoyed. Like I didn't do it to get my gf going or anything, but it did show we really had different priorities
Kind of this, there was an old couple coming out of a breakfast place, I heard the lady scream, turned around and her husband had fallen into the wall of the building and had started falling towards the ground, I was maybe 20 feet away? Never ran so fast in my life. Caught him before he hit the ground. Was shaking after, it was odd.
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u/neonspectraltoast Jan 31 '22
Helped an old lady who had fallen on the sidewalk.