Stranger On Train Waits For Boy To Fall Asleep, Then Hands His Mom A Note
This is every parent's dream!
Single mom Samantha was trying to keep her toddler as occupied and settled as possible while they were aboard a crowded train together. Before exiting the train, a man sitting in her carriage left her a note.
What it said brought tears to Samantha's eyes, and prompted her to ignite a local search to track him down.
23-year old Samantha Welch was on the train with her son, Rylan, in January 2015. The train was jam-packed with people, but Samantha did all she could to make room for a man wearing a hat and glasses to fit in beside her.
Trying to keep her little boy occupied, Samantha played games with him, chatted with him and even took a moment to teach him about manners. He finally fell asleep, and so she settled him on her lap.
When the man beside her reached his stop, he tapped her on the shoulder and said, "I think you've dropped this out of your bag." After handing her a folded piece of paper, he left the train.
Looking puzzled at the paper, Samantha quickly realized that the man was lying. It was really a handwritten note, with a £5 bill attached to it.
Signed from "man on train at table with glasses and hat", this is what it said:
"Have a drink on me, you're a credit to your generation, polite and teaching the little boy good manners.
"P.S. I have a daughter your age, someone did the same for her once. Hope when she has children she is as good a mother as you."
The kind gesture shook Samantha up and just about humbled her to tears, right there in her seat. As soon as she arrived home, she took to Facebook to search for the mystery passenger. She even appeared on television, telling her story to local talk shows in the hopes of finding him and repaying his kindness.
She found the man who'd made her day about a week later. Ken Saunders, 50, is a family man himself, and was returning from his job at the National Health Service in England.
Seeing the strong bond and loving relationship between Samantha and Rylan brought back memories of Ken's own daughter at that age, and brightened his evening. He was impressed with Rylan's manners, and the effort Samantha had taken to instill such values in her son.
"I thought, ‘She's lightened up my night, I'm going to lighten up her night,'" Ken said.
Samantha made him smile, so he repaid the favor to her. These two are living proof that positivity is infectious, and a little kindness might just make someone's day!
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