This post is inspired by Shot@Life, an initiative of the United Nations Foundation dedicated to using vaccines as a cost-effective way to save children’s lives in developing countries. (Image courtesy United Nations Foundation.)
Hi team, I need help. Here’s why:
For every comment on this post, Shot@Life gets $20 to vaccinate a kid.
Twenty. Dollars.
Twenty dollars is what it costs to give one child four vaccines that help protect them against measles, pneumonia, diarrhea, and polio. During Shot@Life’s Blogust: Blog Relay for Good, 31 bloggers have been helping to secure $200,000 in sponsor donations. We need 10,000 comments, and we’re about 1,000 away from that goal right now.
Over the years, your comments have shaped my life. Whether you were celebrating Hank’s birth with me, or cheering my Life List, or comforting me when things took a difficult turn. I know you guys care about helping other people because of how much help you’ve already heaped on me.
So let’s do this.
Can you comment twice? Yes. Yes you can. And if you have a means of spreading the word, please Tweet, Pin, link on Facebook, or post a quick link on your own site.
Let us know the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you in comments. And thanks to you for being so nice to other people. I like you.
Yesterday Fadra Nally of All Things Fadra wrote about the comments you never see. Tomorrow, I’m passing the baton to my friend Stacey Ferguson of Justice Fergie — so you can help us reach our final goal by commenting on her site as well. We have until August 31. Thanks again.
Mighty Girl 
My husband, who immigrated from Argentina and didn’t learn to speak English until he was 27, decided he was going to try to pass the California Bar exam. It was his only hope of ever getting a useful (paying) job. He took the Bar two times and failed, studying full-time while I was working part-time, taking care of the kids part-time, and living off a parental loan. Finally, on the third try, he passed (!). And when I called to let my friend know, she congratulated us – we all cried. And the next day, a babysitter showed up at our house, paid for by my friend. My husband and I went out for a celebratory dinner in the city, and we couldn’t have done it without her help.
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Another nice thing: during our super-lean times (see comment about Bar exam), my best friend gave me all of her airline miles so I could go visit her in Pittsburgh (I live in California). I loved her for that. Still do.
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Not *the* nicest thing, but *a* recent nice thing:
My father-in-law and sister-in-law sharing delicious vegetables and herbs from their gardens.
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I walk to work everyday, and one day my backpack had opened up on the trip. I didn’t realise it until I got to work, but I had left my stuff strewn all along the walk. I wasn’t able to go back and trace my steps (I’m a early childhood teacher, and I couldn’t leave the children) but I called my student husband, and woke him up. He followed my bread crumbs along the sidewalk, picking everything up, and brought me my lost items at work.
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When I was just starting out in publishing and making very little money, a coworker (I never found out who) gave me $40 a week before pay day because they knew I was out of funds from an expensive car repair and that I needed to buy groceries for myself, my sister and her children who were living with me at the time. The note said: We all need a little help sometimes. I’ll never forget that and I try to pass it on as often as I can.
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Longtime lurker, first-time commenter. Nicest thing: forgiveness, I think.
Headed over to Stacey’s blog now.
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The nicest thing anyone has ever done for me – my husband marrying me and making me happy every day. We’ve had probably our toughest year ever but he has been there supporting me the while way.
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Years ago, my mom dropped her plans to spend the day with me the morning after my boyfriend and I broke up. I felt very loved, which I needed badly. We went to see the Bourne Identity at a matinee and to this day I love that movie with a passion — somehow it’s all wrapped up not in breakup woe but in being taken care of by mom, even as a grownup. Someday I hope my daughters will turn to me for support and that I’ll give it as unblinkingly as my mom did.
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So many nice things! Hard to pick just one, so here are several nice things people have done “for” me.
My birth mother gave me up for adoption…
My parents adopted me…
My husband told me he loved me after we’d been together less than a month
My four year old step-son always gives me snuggles and cuddles, along with telling me I look “very handsome” when I get dressed up (I’m female, but we tell him he’s handsome, so he figures that’s a decent compliment for anyone).
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And another one!
After a long and turbulent family vacation flight to Barbados, wherein I popped too many Ativan and was borderline comatose, a lovely security woman sat next to me on the bench where I was laying down in the airport, and stroked my hair and told me I would be fine, until my parents came along and found me.
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Friends and family did a million nice things for us when my 31 year old husband was diagnosed with cancer. The one that springs to mind right now is a friend who immediately sent us DVDs of funny movies.
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Not the nicest thing, but a nice thing: I’ve fainted in public a few times, always when I’m by myself, and strangers always rush to help me. It renews my faith in people.
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One of the nicest things was very simple: my “work spouse” who co-managed a team with me took a day off and drove 6 hours to pay his respects at the funeral home when my father died. I don’t know why exactly, but it moved me to tears and reinforced the notion that sometimes the most important thing you can do is just show up.
Let’s get those babies their shots!
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A nice thing that someone has done for me is to like me for who I am.
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Out of the blue hugs when you really need them – especially since I come from a non-contact family. That’s also how I met my husband.
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One of the nicest things ever done for me was drive four hours round trip in the middle of the night to pick me up from my freshman-February-dorm-room-of-depression so I could spend the weekend with him and his fun college friends.
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Unexpected kindness when I need it most.
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While I can’t seem to pinpoint the *nicest* thing anyone’s done for me, I can’t stop thinking about all of the little things people do on a daily basis that can make such a huge difference: neighbors checking in on your house when you’re on vacation and they see something suspicious, people taking the time to hold open a door when you’re trying to push someone in a wheelchair through it (less common than you’d think), smiles and hellos from passersby rather than the much easier There Is Something Very Interesting On The Ground approach… It’s really the little things that do it for me.
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My family and friends carried us through our journey to have children.
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The nicest thing is when people sincerely say thank you for something you did and you weren’t expecting it.
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Every day, no matter how tired he is, or how frustrated he is with work, or with me, my sweet husband kisses my forehead before I fall asleep.
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When I was fundraising for the AVON walk for for breast cancer, I started a new job. Someone I had only been introduced to, gave me $100 to add to the pot. Not knowing me at all and being so completly generous blew me away.
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When I came back home from the hospital with a new baby boy, I was delighted to find my mom had cleaned the house and filled the kitchen with groceries. AMAZING!
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The nicest is a steady hand on my back when I’m wavering.
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When my 2 year old air kissed my skinned knee to make it better, even though I could tell that the site of it grossed her out and made her want to run away.
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I’ve been so surrounded by kindness in my life I don’t know that I’d recognize someone really mean until I was smacked by it. I’ve been incredibly lucky.
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My husband I had moved to a new place and did not have very many friends. I was 34 weeks pregnant and had an 18 month old son. I was put on bedrest and we did not know what we were going to do. My mother in law got on a plane the next morning and stayed 7 weeks until the baby was born. She took care of everything. I could never repay her for all she did for us.
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I’m moving this weekend, so, really, any friends that are willing to help me move or paint. They will deserve all of the pizza and beer in the world.
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Not the absolute nicest, but this one has stuck with me for years:
When I was 22 I flew halfway across the world to visit a boy I was in love with for three years but who couldn’t decide if he was stringing me along or otherwise. It ended up a terrible trip. When the painful ordeal was over and it was time to leave, I endured an exhausting six-hour coach ride to the big city, battled the traffic to finally get on another bus to the airport, and then arrived starving and exhausted at the airport only to realize our flight was delayed another couple of hours.
By the time I got on the plane I had a raging migraine and was completely emotionally exhausted. The lady sitting next to me noticed that I was in pain (I had asked the stewardess for painkillers) and probably also saw that I had been crying through re-runs of The English Patient, which is probably one of the worst films you can watch when you’re heartbroken. She took care of me the whole trip, getting me more meds, water, even clearing my trash for me. She did it all silently and without comment. I will always remember her kindness.
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Gave me a second chance.
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Great offering – thanks
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My grandfather is dying and I am handling all of his financial affairs for my grandmother, from 150 miles away. Besides losing my beloved role model, I’md ealing with a ton of paperwork and being a single mother. My boyfriend knows this and every single chance he can makes me a fire in the backyard, pours me some wine and listens to me until the wee hours.
Add in my best friends being on the other end of the phone and my job making me feel like it’s okay to grieve, I am eternally grateful right now for kindness.
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after i gave birth to my second baby, i didn’t feel very good about my body and lived in baggy sweats and jeans for awhile. i still don’t feel great about my body, but the cloud lifted and the first time i felt inspired to put on real clothes, i wore a long skirt. my 4 year old exclaimed “WOW MAMA, YOU LOOK LIKE A PRINCESS!” when i walked out. (poor kid had forgotten that i could look human).
that was pretty nice.
thanks for this, miss maggie. 🙂
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When my first child was 10 weeks old, she developed near-fatal bacterial meningitis. We had just moved across the country and I didn’t know anyone in town. My husband was at a conference 3,000 miles away when the pediatrician told me to take my baby to the ER for a spinal tap late one night. One of my besties from college, who had a 4-week old, lived 30 miles away and couldn’t leave her newborn. She sent her husband, also a good friend of ours, up to be with me at the ER. He was crucial support throughout that night and the next day until my hubby could get there. That was 14 years ago, and I still feel tremendous gratitude and connection for it as strongly as I did the night it happened.
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One day I was leaving the doctors office with my newborn son in his stroller; I was struggling to get through the door and hold it open. A little boy about 6 (with NO prodding from his mother) ran over to hold it open for me while several adults just watched.
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Complete strangers told me to go ahead and cry when my Dad was in the hospital fighting cancer. They knew I was holding it in – and that I’d feel better if I let go of foolish pride and let it out.
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saying “i love you”
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My husband snuck outside one Christmas Eve (in the snow) to finish installing the bird feeder he had painted for me so when the sun came up on Christmas morning he and the kids could surprise me with my gift.
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My parents made my education their priority, and on one (professor’s) salary, they did everything in their power to send me to the most extraordinary schools. A life long gift for which I have infinite gratitude.
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The nicest thing…It shouldn’t be hard, but it is! For my birthday last year, when we almost no money, my husband took 5 pairs of shoes that I could no longer wear and got the heels repaired so that I basically had new shoes for a total of $30. Best gift ever.
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I was chatting with my son, who had just come home from work, when he suddenly announced that he had something for me. It was a bottle of Coco Chanel perfume. It wasn’t my birthday; there was no occasion at all. I was really touched.
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When I left my last place of work to move on to greener pastures, my colleagues presented me with a notebook signed by everyone with personal farewell messages. One of those messages was from a ‘junior’ employee who thanked me for actually knowing his name and saying hello to him. 🙂
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It’s hard to chose just one! I think, though, I would have to go with the day I got laid off at my last job right at the end of my shift and my then-fiance magically appeared to walk me home. The fact that he’d just stopped by to spend time with me was sweet, but that day was even more special.
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The nicest things any one has ever done for me is my sister took out a loan at just 21 years old to send me to theatre school to pursue my dreams and leave a school that was awful. My mum also made this happen but it was my sister who took out the loan and my dad eventually didnt pay his part at all I know she probably ended up spending the most and at such a young age it was such a selfless thing to do….
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A few days after my daughter was born, my in-laws asked if they could pick up some groceries for us. Usually, I’m reluctant to accept help, but I was terrified of trying to figure out how to take a brand new baby shopping, and said, “yes please!”. They ended up completely stocking our fridge and cupboards with anything and everything we could need. They even got us a huge box of diapers and wipes. It couldn’t have been a cheap shoping trip, and I know that they were facing huge medical bills after my father in law had been hospitalized with cancer complications. It was the greatest, most heartfelt gift anyone could’ve given me. It was probably very impractical for them, but it meant everything to me to just be able to focus on my newborn baby and not worry about things like groceries. I hope to do the same thing for my daughter if she has her own children someday.
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My best friend and business partner sent me a simple gift via mail. She ordered it the day before she went into labor to thank me for all I had done for her in during the last few months. With much tragedy, the baby did not survive the birth. While she was deep in her own sorrow and I was struggling through my own grief and wondering how to comfort her through such despair, I received the package. I know she couldn’t have known, but that love from her, and the note that perfectly summed up our friendship, received when she was so deep in her own pain meant/s the world.
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My friends watched my 2yo and encouraged me to use the time to read & enjoy a cocktail instead of grocery shopping.
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I went through a break up recently, and my friends really went out of their way to do little things to make me feel better. The calls, the meals, the going out to silly movies with me, and just listening to my crazy made me feel so much better. I’m really lucky.
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We expect our friends and family to be nice. I love the niceness from unexpected places.
When I was living in Austin, going to school, I had missed the last bus of the night, so about 10 pm. This was before cell phone and I didn’t know anyone’s phone number so I had no choice but to walk home. I lived on 17th street off the Drag and my work was on 48 street, by the high way. It was a long walk. I didn’t get two blocks until a cab van pulled up beside me and asked if I needed a ride home. I told him Yes, but I had no cash on me to pay him. He replied, It’s ok. I’ll take you home.
That touched me deeply. As someone alone in a large city knowing a few people, it was a much needed kindness and one that was a true selfless act.
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When my husband died unexpectedly about a year and a half ago, I had a full-time job and three young kids that required all of my time, attention and energy. My dad stepped in and handled all of the legal affairs, sold my husband’s truck, an investment property, sold my house and helped me buy a new house. Those things were a logistical nightmare and I could have never gotten them done in 10 years and he managed it all in one year. He allowed me to focus on the things that were most important in that first year–my kids, keeping my job, and myself.
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