11 Moments That Quietly Prove Kindness and Compassion Are the Strongest Superpowers

My son was in the hospital after a traffic accident. A nurse called: “Don’t worry, his dad came for him.”
His dad isn’t alive.
I begged them to check the cameras. She sent me a still from the footage. I went completely numb. He was my partner, David. My son had not spoken to him in weeks. The last thing he said was, “You will never replace my father.”
David said nothing. He never does.
When the hospital could not reach me, they called the second number. David left work in the middle of a shift. Drove 3 hours. When he got there, the nurse said, “Your son has been asking for his dad.” David did not correct her.
He walked in, and my son grabbed his shirt and said, “I was so scared. I called you first. I called you before Mom.”
I asked David later why he never told me. He said, “Because it was not my moment to take. It was his moment to give. And he gave it when he was ready.”

Parents split up in 2007. Dad disappeared, and Mom was no longer able to be the parent we needed. I basically raised my little sister on my own. Our life was in shambles. I was alone, scared, and had no idea how to handle things or maintain a household.
My mom ended up getting remarried about a year later to by far the kindest man I will ever meet. Me and my sibling tried to warn him of the hurricane of a woman my mom was. The train wreck his life would be as a result. But he wouldn’t listen or notice the hints.
They got married, and quickly after, he realized what he had gotten into. I knew he was going to leave.
So I started applying to colleges in a half-hearted attempt, even though I knew I could never go because I couldn’t leave my sister with our mother. I told my stepdad about it.
He looked me in the face and told me, “You’re going to college. You’re going to improve your life and get out of here. I’ll stick around for 4 more years and take care of your sister.”
A man that had no responsibility towards me or my family showed me the greatest act of kindness I’ve ever seen. He was willing to be miserable so that I could have a better life.
I’m graduating in May, and he has stayed true to his word and is still watching after her every day. There are no words to describe how much I respect and love that man.

I grew up in a dysfunctional family. I was spending more and more time at my friend’s house until it became weeks at a time. No one at home cared where I was when I disappeared for weeks. No one asked where I had been.
I was at my friend’s house once, and I wrote a letter to my uncle asking if I could live with him. My friend’s mom found the letter and asked if I would like to stay there.
Immediately, I said “yes.”
I brought the paperwork home to my mother, who immediately signed it without reading it. A week later, I had a new family and a new life.
I cannot get past the level of kindness and sacrifice my friend’s mom showed. My friend was now my brother. Nothing changed the trajectory of my life like this before or since.
It’s been 40 years. I love you, Ma.

I had gotten into a fight with my stepdad, and he kicked me out. I didn’t have a job, money, or anywhere to go, really. I took my dog with me, and I drove out under this overpass and stayed there the first three nights.
I was a mess. On about the 5th day, I was out of gas, and I had been crying forever because I didnt know what to do.
This cop comes up to my window and asks me what I was doing and that I really shouldn’t be alone where I was. He stopped talking and just looked down at me, then asked me what was wrong.
I started crying even worse. I explained to him what had happened, and he lifted his hand and cut me off.
This man reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, then took every last bill he had and gave it to me.
It ended up being about $40. He called his son to come pull my car to the gas station, where they put $20 in my tank.
Then he hugged me and told me I would be okay.
That man was a saint.

During my junior year of high school, I was the outcast girl. As far as I knew, nobody had a crush on me, so naturally I was dreading Valentine’s Day.
Come V-Day, I was called into the principal’s office. I was really confused and nervous because I had no idea why they would call me in, but when I got there, there was a large box on the desk that was apparently for me.
I opened it right there in the office and found a small bouquet of roses and a smaller box that contained a teddy bear, chocolates, cookies, and a note at the bottom that said, “Happy Valentine’s Day.”
I searched the box for any information about the sender, but I couldn’t find an invoice or anything. I called both my parents and asked all my friends if any of them were the one who sent it, but no one admitted to it.
Even though I never found out who sent it, it still remains the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me. I kept the smaller box to keep things in, and I still sleep with the teddy bear 5 years later.
I just wish I knew who to thank.

I was stuck in an airport for 10 hours due to mechanical problems. Around hour 6, I got hungry and went to the food court. I looked around and decided the Cinnabon looked pretty good.
I go over and get on line. The guy in front of me asks for one cinnamon bun and is informed that they’re out of single cinnamon buns. He is given the choice of five mini-buns, or two regular-sized ones.
He considers his choices for a moment, then turns to me. “If I buy the two-pack, will you take the extra?” he asks me.
I agree and hand him some money. He refuses to accept it. We get our cinnamon buns and sit together while we eat.
I asked him why he declined my money. He responds, “I’m flying out to say my last goodbye to my mother tomorrow. She always tried to make the best of a bad situation, so I was trying to honor her good nature.”
We finished eating and parted ways. I wouldn’t be surprised if he forgot about that kid he gave a cinnamon bun to in an airport, but that man’s kindness will be stuck in my memory for a long time.

Last year, my boyfriend and I had just broken up. It was pretty brutal—we’d been together two years.
Anyways, my family was visiting the Butterfly House. There weren’t a ton of butterflies out, but these HUGE blue ones were. There were only a few. We saw maybe five the entire time we were there. They were gorgeous.
But I, being the trainwreck of hormones and emotions that I was, was sitting on a bench probably doing my best to look miserable and catch up on sleep simultaneously when I felt a little tap on my knee.
I opened my eyes and a little girl, maybe four years old, was standing there with one of those gigantic beautiful blue butterflies on her sleeve.
She smiled shyly and held her arm out to my leg and let the butterfly crawl onto my jeans.
Then she giggled and ran away.
The butterfly only stayed on me for maybe five or ten seconds, but still. That little girl knew I was down, and she made it better.
Sweetest thing.

I was in a pretty big, fancy bookstore downtown that I loved eating in and walking around when I had free time.
I had picked out a t-shirt that said Fahrenheit 451 with an illustration of a pile of books on fire beneath it that I was going to buy. It was pretty expensive, but I fell in love with it and decided it was worth it.
On my way to the register, I saw an older guy, probably in his 60s, looking completely lost. He saw me and asked if I could help him. He said his wife’s birthday was coming up and had no idea what bag to get her.
I helped him for a good 30 minutes, asking which colors she liked, and if she had a Kindle, laptop, glasses, or if she might like a new wallet or purse. He was so sweet, and it felt good to help him out.
He picked a few things and walked to the counter. He told them to put my shirt ($35) in his order so he could pay for it, and told me his wife would be happy to hear about me taking the time to help pick a gift for her.
I dunno, just little stuff like this between strangers makes my heart warm.

I was around five years old. My family was on vacation, and a huge storm rolled in. The hotel we were staying at lost power, and the elevator to our floor was out.
For me, walking to the 20th floor of my hotel was an arduous task at the time. My Mother was expecting my little brother, and my Pa had his hands full taking care of my Mom and my two sisters who were panicking from the storm.
A man overheard my complaints about how tired I was, came over, scooped me up, and told my parents he could carry me up, as he was on the floor above.
I fell asleep as he carried me up.

When I was like 10, I was at the ice skating rink. I wasn’t very good, but I REALLY wanted to be good. It was open skate, so there was a bunch of people on the rink, and I was by myself (my grandma brought me, and she was sitting outside the rink watching).
There were some girls, some even younger than me, who were so good, and I was so jealous of them. I was trying to learn how to skate backwards, which was really hard for me to get. I was also trying to teach myself, which didn’t help.
After a while, I was getting kind of upset because I just couldn’t skate backwards and everybody else seemed better than me. I was on the verge of tears.
Then this middle-aged man came over and asked if I was trying to skate backwards. When I said yes but I didn’t know how, he offered to teach me.
He showed me how to do it, and held my hands when I tried it. He probably spent a solid half an hour with this random little girl teaching her how to skate backwards.
After I got the hang of it, he left. I’m definitely not a great skater now, but every time I do skate, I think about that man.