There is a homeless (or at least very poor) woman who sometimes is sitting near where I am living. begging for money. Unfortunately, the “inner city places” are often being “strongly requested” by younger men and women who take over the space.

Whenever I see her, I make sure to give her something, and if I am out of money, at least I talk to her for a few seconds. When younger people are around, I often make sure to drop a few coins into her cup while passing her a note without anybody seeing it in the hope that they will leave her alone.

Today she surprised me. I was passing her again, giving her some money, and asked her how she was. She surprised me by saying that she wanted to thank me. Not for the money. Well, for that too, but for always taking the time to talk to her.

She mentioned how hard it is for her to have so little money that she has to beg. She often feels ashamed, but she now has prepared for several days to talk to me, and to thank me for treating her as a human being. Some people only walked by or sometimes dropped some money. But they never made eye contact or talked to her. which made her feel even more ashamed, almost non-human. She said she was looking forward to my walking by because she knew I would look at her and see a person. On hearing all this, I had tears in my eyes, and still do, when thinking of this.

I still don’t know why she is on the street. Maybe one day she will open up, but I will not ask her right away. But I will be even more on the lookout for her, making sure to talk to her as often as possible!

When most of us get a text message on our cellphone from an unknown person, we usually say “sorry, wrong number!” and move on. But when Dennis, a photographer who has recorded countless touching moments for thousands of customers, received a text that clearly wasn’t intended for him, he did something special. This is how the story goes.

On March 19, Dennis got a group text informing him that a couple he didn't know were at the hospital, waiting for the arrival of a baby.

“Congratulations! But I think someone was mistaken,” Dennis responded politely. The baby was born and update texts were coming in quickly from the overjoyed grandmother, Teresa. In her excitement, she didn't seem to realize that she was sharing the baby's photos with a complete stranger. And seconds later in came the photos of the baby and the new parents, wearing perhaps the happiest expression in the world. Dennis was about to ignore the coming messages when here called those touching moments that he recorded with his camera and the similar shining faces from his customers. “Well, I don’t know you all but I will get there to take pictures with the baby,” replied Dennis. He even forgot to ask which room the new parents were in.

When I was a teenager, I got lost in a foreign country. I was in Berlin, Germany, only month-long trip in Europe. My team and I had one night there to spend however we pleased. Most of my teammates decided to stay indoors and relax. But I did not want to pass up the chance to explore Berlin.

I visited lots of major attractions around the city that night. When the exhaustion began to set in, I checked the time on my watch. I was surprised to see that it was two o'clock in the morning.

As I walked to a subway station, I realized that it was my dad’s birthday. This would be the first birthday I couldn’t celebrate with him because he died a few months earlier. Before I could begin thinking of my dad, I heard train wheels stop.

I rushed onto the train. At first, I was thankful to have made it onto the train. But that joy quickly turned to panic when I noticed that the train was heading in the wrong direction!

I looked around the nearly empty train. I saw a young woman sitting quietly by the window and approached her.

“Hi, do you speak English? I’m lost. Can you help me?” I asked.

The woman understood. She told me how to return to where I had first gotten on the train. But my anxious mind couldn’t follow her guidance.

Without thinking, I asked, “Can you come with me?”

Her face froze at my stupid request. After a long second of hesitation, she agreed to help me. At that moment, I was grateful for the kindness from a stranger.

On the journey back to the train station I got on, she and I chatted.

Finally, we reached my stop.