10 times quick-witted and humble strangers acted like superheroes for distressed people

Trigger warning: This article contains themes of assault, abuse and suicide that some readers may find distressing.

Good cannot die as long as it lives within you. Some souls with good intent help others, probably not knowing that they are saving lives or preventing something bad from happening. You might feel helpless and alone, but there are times an altruistic work by a stranger makes you believe in good all over again. To restore our faith in humanity, here are times some strangers acted like superheroes. All we can do is learn from these examples and try to help others selflessly. 

1. Pretend boyfriend

"I was 14 and two girlfriends and I had gone to the theatre in my neighbourhood to see 'Ghost Rider.' I was the only one in the hallway which made me a target for an extremely large, homeless/cracked-out-looking 40+ year old man. An overwhelming sense of fear washed over me. He approached and asked me if I had any cigarettes. I said no and that I didn't smoke, when he suddenly reached out and grabbed my hand. He kept closing the distance between us while strangling my hand and eventually he had me backed into a corner. Every single person passed by without so much as a second glance. I thought I'm gonna get kidnapped. A group of three guys (probably only around 15 or 16 years old) came out of the theatre. One of them turned around and stared at me oddly. He mouthed 'do you need help?' and I nodded as discreetly as I could. The guy came running up and threw his arm around my shoulders, saying things along the lines of 'thanks for waiting, babe. You ready to go?' The guy escorted me outside, and I was in such a state of shock that I think I just hugged him and ran away to my mom." - u/aphrodite_whities

2. Disappearing samaritan

"A good samaritan pulled my unconscious body out of my flaming car wreck, waited for the ambulance to arrive, then disappeared. I will never know who saved my life, but rarely a day goes by that I don't think about them." -u/anon

3. The jawbreaker 

"19 years old and I was with my best friend on a trip to New York from Vancouver, Canada. We were staying in Times Square but we went to a concert in Long Island and ended up taking really late transit home. A man and a woman clearly addicted to drugs get on the train and sit across from my friend and my pale self and start to inexplicably pick a fight with us, accusing us of making fun of them, probably just an excuse to beat us and maybe take whatever we have on us. An exceptionally large black man with a thick New York accent says 'Out of the way, fatty needs a seat' to me, temporarily defusing the situation. He then proceeds to pull jawbreakers out of his pocket and hands them to my friend and I while telling stories about his current bodyguard job and smashing people's faces into cement walls and putting bad people into the hospital. The crackhead shut up and got his girlfriend off of the train at the next stop." -u/webwipe

4. Warmest blanket 

"When I was younger I had abusive parents. One night in the middle of a snowstorm they threw me outside in the snow with no shoes or socks and in a tshirt. It was freezing cold. I was wandering around the neighborhood behind the houses because I was too embarassed. A neighbor of mine was sitting on his window smoking and looking at the snow. He saw me, asked what I was doing and hauled me up into his window. He gave me some blankets and let me sit there in the warmth for awhile and we just small talked and he put on a movie. A little while later my mother came by, saw him and asked if he had seen me. He instantly, without hesitating told her no, and watched until she left before helping me back home. At the time, it was the kindest thing anyone had ever done for me, the only person who had ever protected me from my abusive parents." -u/beliefinphilosophy

5. Unforgettable hug 

"When I was in 8th grade, my mother tried to self harm for the first time and I was too ashamed to tell anyone. What I did do was write what happened into the last paragraph of an English essay I turned in later that year. My teacher, who I wasn't particularly close to, pulled me aside after reading the essay and held me as I cried for about an hour. It was extremely cathartic. I never told her anything more that happened and she never asked. She moved away from my school district the next year and I have always regretted not staying in touch with her because she saved me from what could have been a very dark spiral." -u/123ohsnap

6. Someone cares

"I didn't have the best childhood. My adoptive father has some unconventional parenting methods, and so I used to cry a lot. On one such occasion I was sitting on a park bench, crying softly to myself. I was trying to be discreet but I couldn't have been more than 11 or 12 at the time. An old lady sat at the other end of the bench and we sat in relative silence for a few minutes (I would sniffle occasionally but I was trying to be quiet). She clearly noticed me wiping my eyes and asked me if I was ok. I told her I was, but she insisted on taking me to a nearby coffee cart and buying me a cup of hot chocolate (it was winter). It was the nicest thing she could have done for me and it was really nice to know that someone cared." -u/BeyondAddiction

7. Umbrella better than a T-shirt 

"I was in a foreign country so I didn't have a car and it was a weekend of a public holiday so there was very little public transportation. A friend and I had gone to explore the city managed to walk quite a distance from our hotel. While we were out it started raining harder than I remember seeing. My buddy had brought a coat, but I was in a t-shirt. A lady walking down the street towards us with her umbrella stopped me and insisted I take her umbrella. I tried to refuse, but she insisted, telling me that her place was just around the corner. I was already drenched, but it sure did help to walk the remaining several miles with an umbrella instead just my t-shirt." -u/mlephotographe

8. Just pay it forward

"One grocery week when I was in college I had my card declined. This was a bit of a problem as the kitchen was entirely out of food and I wasn't going to be payed for another week. It was a really awkward being at the front of the line with $100 worth of groceries having a hasty conversation with my girlfriend about how we were going to deal with this. Well the guy behind us in line offered to pay for our groceries. I tried to talk him down but he insisted and I was feeling really awkward holding up the line. I thanked him profusely and he told me word for word 'Just pay it forward if you ever get the chance.'" -u/synthesizerToady

9. Safest walk home

"My first weekend of college, my friends and i ended up at a party in an apartment. I made a dumb move and took a drink from a guy I'd just met - a few minutes later, I was sitting on the stairs starting to fall asleep. A nice jewish boy saw that something was wrong with me, gave his number to my roommate and walked me home. He said that he recognized what was happening to me as a sign of a possible date drugging, and he didn't want me to be a victim because it had happened to his sister." -u/pamplemoussent

10. Huskies to the rescue 

"It was a dark, cold and damp thursday night when I was taking a walk in my suburban neighborhood when I was 13 year's old. I often go for walks, especially during night because it feels refreshing and I like not being able to be seen by people when I walk. A dark truck pulls up to me and the man roles down the window, inside is a middle aged man who made eye contact with me before saying anything. He made a crude remark. I felt the situation was getting pretty sketchy so I started to walk forward. As I tried to cross the street, he sped up and pulled over to block my way. This was when I realized he was up to no good. His headlights were blaring perpendicular to where I was while I was in the complete dark. Out of nowhere, two neighborhood dog's come running towards me. They were two huge half huskies. They came dashing towards me barking so loudly not a ear in the entire street could have ignored them. That's when the driver pressed his gas pedal full force and tried to get out of there. He thought that the dog's meant that there must have been an owner with them coming to check up on me. They had perhaps saved me from being kidnapped or injured by this strange man in his truck." u/AnonymousJimmy