15 Stories That Prove True Wealth Is Measured in Empathy

• I was only in 2nd grade i think, and i remember this girl from the grade below us was crying in the field at recess. Everyone was kind of staring and confused and didn’t know what to do so i went to her and hugged her and i started crying too, and didn’t know why. She told me her grandfather passed and I said I was sorry. I remember not knowing why I was crying too. I never even knew grief yet. I was just sad because she was sad.

• I went climbing with some friends and some colleagues from one of those friends. At one point, I started feeling a bit overwhelmed, but I had hardly noticed it at that point. My best friend came over and warmly said “hey look, over there are some nice routes as well, and it’s much more quiet there. Wanna go?”. He did it because he noticed the change in my mood. I felt so seen. It was such a small thing but I’ll never forget that. He does such things from time to time still. And he really isn’t the person who would strike you as empathetic and warm. Normally, he can be quite stubborn and confrontational. He is like that only to people who need it and that he really cares about.

On an elevator in the hospital in NYC, on the way to have my leg amputated, this sweet old man told me he loved my freckles. I was a teenager and had not come to love them yet, and I told him as much. He sighed at me and said, “That’s too bad; a woman without freckles is like a night without stars.”
I cannot tell you how that made me feel.

• When I was about 7 years old we lived in a house with a pool in the backyard. I was riding my tricycle around the yard and, being the lawless rulebreaker I was, decided to go through the fence into the pool area when nobody was looking. As I was circling the deep end the bottom of my jeans got caught in the tricycle and it fell sideways into the pool with me attached. I was a decent swimmer for my age, but the weight of it was pulling me down. I managed to grab onto a corner seat thing (meaning my head was about 2 feet under the water) but with the tricycle still attached, I couldn’t get up to the air. My golden retriever named Brandy saw, jumped to a ledge and then over the gate, into the pool, all while barking wildly. The barking alerted someone in the house and they ran outside quick enough to witness Brandy dive into the pool and drag me by my shirt up out of the water. I would have drowned without her. I still miss that wonderful dog.

• When my Mother passed, a knock came on the door. One of her clients sons gave me an envelope of money. I was confused. He explained that when his mother had passed, they were low on money. My mom helped pay for their airfare to get her kids home. She never told us about it. She wasn’t a rich woman. That’s when I knew the world had lost someone great.

• I leave quarters in the little kid toy vending machines any chance I get. Happened to me when I was young so I always do my best to keep that strangers tradition going.

• I’ve had multiple cats who would hang back from digging in to a shared dish of wet food to let an elderly sick cat eat their fill first. And there was the time I was snuggling with my two cats and my then-roommate’s cat (who only tolerated us most of the time) was sitting across the room looking at the three of us looking kinda sad. My orange boy got up, walked over to her, and gave her a nose touch. They started hanging out after that and when he crossed the rainbow bridge a few months later I think it hit her the hardest.

• When my flight was cancelled, a stranger gave up his flight on something direct/not affected by the weather so I could get home to see my boy on his first birthday.

• A couple of years ago when we lived in Austin I had a seizure walking my dog around my apartment complex. I was very disoriented and didn’t know where I was and I guess I looked insane because a nice young man stopped to help me. He was very sweet and helped me call my mom so she could tell him my apartment number and safely walk me back to my apartment to my husband. Thank you young man who helped me if you’re reading this.

• Used to do lots of international travel. First Class ticket on a Houston-Amsterdam flight and empty seat beside me. Just before doors close, harried looking guy with 8 yr old daughter boards. Some seat problem back in “Economy” class caused flight attendants to seat the young girl beside me (separate from her Dad). Offered my seat to the dad, so he wouldn’t worry about his daughter, and spent 10 hours riding in a middle seat back in steerage. The cool part: Flight Attendants knew I’d traded with them, and brought me the full first class treatment back there — meals, drinks, pillows, the works.

• Was heading to work one cold winter morning. I was getting myself coffee and something to eat for breakfast. Chatted up another guy while waiting for the bus when this older lady comes up to me, wrapped in a blanket and obviously homeless since she wasn’t dressed for the weather. She then asks me if she can have the rest of the coffee if I’m finished and don’t want anymore. I wasn’t going to let her drink my scraps so I offered to buy her whatever drink she wanted. She asked for a large hot chocolate with whipped cream. The other guy I was talking to saw me buying her coffee and offered to buy her a sandwich to eat. Every now and then I think about this and realize that my problems aren’t as bad as I let them be.

• When I was 4 years old, I got a purple twilight sparkle my little pony, a friend to go with an orange applejack one I already had. I remember my dad teaching me to plait her tail. One day I’m in school, I was in primary 1, which is how I recall my age at the time. An older girl with a cardboard box knocks the classroom door and the teacher answered & asks the class if anyone brought any toys for the donation box for the poor children. I thought I must’ve forgotten to bring in an item, I didn’t remember ever having been asked to. I see none of my classmates are making any moves with anything & I just feel instantly miserable that the girl will leave with nothing so I put my hand up. We had old-style desks with stained inkwell holes & tops that flipped up with a storage compartment underneath. I opened mine and looked at my 2 my little ponies I’d brought in, as I was excited to show my friends my new purple one. I decided on the spot that the child that would get my donation would be happier having the newer one & so I handed twilight sparkle over. I just remember the teacher asking if I was sure & nodding dumbly as I think I knew I’d have burst into tears had I said anything. I remember nothing of my parents’ reaction or even if they noticed I didn’t have her any more. Has been a wee while since I recalled that, has me feeling a bit emotional for some reason.

• My school uniform was a hand-me-down from my brother. Yes, just the one uniform. I was allowed one bath a week, and my clothes were washed twice a week. So suffice to say, I didn’t have many friends. Then one day, a popular girl at my school walked up to me and said that I was gonna have a sleepover at her house that night. She needed my home phone number so her mum could sort out the logistics. I was 100% expecting it to be a prank, but I was never given lunch money and I was starving, so I kinda figured, “can’t be worse than going home.” Her mum picks us up and she asks about my day and actually listens to what I have to say. Which is literally the first time in my life this has happens. We get to their mansion (which is just a normal three-storey house, but I don’t know any better) and this girl hands me the fluffiest towel in the entirety of human history. She says, “there’s enough hot water in the shower for an hour, use as much shampoo as you want, and there’ll be a fresh set of clothes waiting for you when you get out.” No judgement, no shame. I got out when the water ran cold, and when I finally went downstairs, they had every. Single. Comfort food you could think of. That family just saw a struggling a kid and decided to help me. Her mum ended up buying me an entire wardrobe (and a literal wardrobe to keep it in), and picked me up from home early every day so I could shower and get into a uniform that fitted me. I’m 29 now, and that girl just made me the godmum to her firstborn, and her parents calls me kid number four.

• I stopped to help a soaked delivery driver whose bike had broken down. We loaded his food into my car, and I drove him to finish every delivery. When I finally got home, I opened my trunk. A black duffel bag I had never seen before was sitting inside. I unzipped it. It was stuffed with cash. My stomach dropped. I tried calling the driver, but his phone was switched off. The next morning, I went to the delivery company’s office and asked them to contact him. An hour later, he arrived, completely drenched despite the rain having stopped. The moment he saw the bag, he burst into tears. “It’s not mine,” he said. “It’s from everyone in my neighborhood.” He explained that dozens of families had spent weeks collecting money for a little boy fighting a terminal illness. He’d volunteered to deliver it to the hospital after his shift because no one else could get there before visiting hours ended. When his bike broke down, he’d been so worried about the deliveries that he’d forgotten the bag in my trunk. Before he left, he smiled and said, “Yesterday you thought you were helping one delivery driver. You were actually helping an entire neighborhood keep a promise.”