Columnist Alun Newman: Acts of kindness are truly selfless

Have you ever let someone out at a junction? They’ve thanked you, then someone else needs to be released from a side road, and the person you blessed with your traffic decision-making doesn’t pass the blessing on, they drive on past.

Tough luck mate, you’re in the wrong queue.

You’d think that if something nice was done to me, I’d be in just the right frame of mind to pay it forward, but that’s not always the case.

Fabulous acts of kindness tend to get very little press, when they do, they stand out by a country mile.

There were some young people recently on BBC Radio Solent who tracked down a man who’d dropped hundreds of pounds out of his back pocket in Eastleigh. It was so nice to hear how they fought to make sure the money was returned. It would have been easy to become the Sheriff of Nottingham and squirrel the money away.

Recently, I had a really sad event to attend at a crematorium in Bournemouth. It was getting close to the time of the service, and we were messaging some elderly parents, to whom this event was of deep significance and importance. I kept checking where they were, they kept replying that they were at the right location.

Eventually, I got a phone call. They were indeed at a crematorium, albeit one that was no longer in use.

I tried to send a pin location via WhatsApp, usually quite straightforward, but under the pressure of the ticking clock and unfamiliar technology, we were getting nowhere fast.

They were on the other side of town, and collecting them would take too long. To navigate by phone would have been impossible. The crematorium gave us a 15 minute extension, but after that, the service had to begin.

It was a desperate situation.

I suggested they get out of the car and ask for help. That was the plan, but it was followed by radio silence.

Twelve minutes later we had to start the service. Then, in the distance, driving down the manicured lawns of ‘the right crematorium', came their car.

They’d made it!

In the back of the car was a man in a tracksuit. As we all walked over, delighted, the man was already on his way, back down the long driveway.

The couple were overwhelmed. We were overwhelmed.

They had asked a stranger, who saw their distress, and he immediately said he’d stop what he was doing, ride in the back of their car, and navigate them to the crematorium as that would be the quickest solution.

We never had the chance to thank him. He waved at us all, from some way off in the distance. He didn’t want thanks, adoration, or praise, it was a beautiful, selfless act of love.

That’s just one example, but I think they must be happening all the time.

Here’s to all of those that never make the news.