Random acts of kindness...

Yesterday in Manchester on a lovely walk with Katie and her boys she told me a really poignant story about something that happened to them the week before.

Herself, Colin and the twins were going for a walk around Hollingworth lake and stopped and sat down by the edge for something to eat. An older gentleman sat down next to them and started to talk about the twins. Now this does happen an awful lot (I have seen it in action at Trafford, seriously she needs to keep the conversation to a minimum or she'd never get anywhere. People are really interested in twins!) They made polite chit chat and the man started getting a bit upset and telling them how his daughter had given birth to twins but sadly they had both died and he was no longer a grandad (how unbelievably sad). By the end of the conversation he slipped a note into Kate's hand saying he wanted her to have it 'for the boys'.

Of course both Kate and Colin refused profusely for about 10 minutes, explaining that although grateful for the thought it would be wrong to take it. The gentleman, after insisting for some time, started to walk back to his car with Kate in tow still trying to give the money back. When they got to the car he explained that it genuinely would make him very happy if she was to accept and Kate decided she had no choice but to be gracious and thank him for the gesture.

When she got back to Colin and the twins she looked in her hand and realised that he hadn't given them a tenner (as she had thought) but £100! They went back to where his car had been he had already gone.

We talked about what she was going to do with the money (not buy shoes needless to say). I said, being the romantic, that she should invest it and in years to come she can tell the boys that story and maybe the money can go towards something really special like their first car... (obviously in my world deflation doesn't exist).

Such random acts of kindness very rarely happen but when they do it stays with you for ages. I love a story like that, one that is both touching and a little mysterious. It does remind you that there are such kind people in the world and sometimes small things happen in your life which are completely unexpected and have the potential to bring new opportunities, if you let them....

What will they do with the £100???