RANDOM ACTS

More and more these days, the notion of "paying forward" a kindness has surfaced in the stories that have been coming our way.

In Debt to Runner's Keen Eye

Several weeks ago, my husband, who has diabetes, left to do some manly errands: Lowe's, Wal-Mart, Home Depot.

Two hours later, I got home from a more traditional domestic run and was pouring some coffee when the phone rang. It was the emergency room. Allen had been scooped up by paramedics from his car, which was off to the side of a road. He was unconscious. His blood sugar had fallen precipitously; he was in a perilous state. A runner who spotted him on the way out and saw him on the return had called 911. To this person I extend thanks for a random act that was a lifesaver. I have been paying it forward since.

-- Susan Mullee Herbert, Alexandria

Cellphone Saint Pays in Kind

I didn't realize I'd dropped my cellphone in the laundromat parking lot until my home phone began ringing persistently. I had trouble understanding the gentleman, whose thick accent made it difficult to convey that he had found my cellphone, but he never lost patience. As he had headed back to his temporary home in Silver Spring, he had gone through my directory and called several numbers until he hit on "home phone" and reached me.

By then it was going on 9 p.m. He very kindly waited at an Office Depot three miles from my home while I drove to meet him. His name was Steven; he lived in Massachusetts and was at the end of a long day of supervising a local hotel renovation.

When I tried to reward him, he refused, explaining that he had once lost his wallet and worried all night about identity theft and unauthorized charges. But a kind woman who had found it had painstakingly gone through the wallet looking for some ID, found a little piece of paper with his phone number on it and called it. He was so grateful to her that he had wanted to do the same for me. He made my day with his kind gesture, and I will certainly pay it forward next time I have a chance.

-- Linda Gordon, Silver Spring

The King of Cabbies

It was a bitterly cold morning, and I was in a taxi on my way to my doctor's office not far from the Kennedy Center. My conversation with the cabdriver turned quickly to the weather, and we talked about the remaining beautiful leaves and wondered when the first snow would fall. I mentioned that I had just made a trip to Upstate New York to see my 19-year-old granddaughter who is a sophomore at Colgate University.

He asked me what town was near the university, and I answered, "Hamilton." Then he wondered if Colgate was a football school, and I said they used to be a football powerhouse, but no more. I said it had become a beautiful campus with a heavy dose of academics.

We talked a little more about the weather, and suddenly, there I was at my doctor's doorstep. I paid my fare with a $10 bill.

Immediately, he handed the $10 back to me and I protested, but he said gently: "Please give this to your granddaughter, and tell her it's a gift from an old cabbie in Washington." I agreed to do so because, in all truth, he was one of the nicest people I had ever known or met.

-- Robert M. Smalley, Washington