5 Ways My Boyfriend Has Surprised Me

There are definitely more than five ways that my boyfriend (John) has surprised me, one of the more recent moments being the day he proposed to me (read about that one here). However, I wanted to used this article to highlight some of the ways in which he has surprised me with small moments of kindness.

Now, I worry that this very much reads as if John comes across as a not nice person, which is not true, its more moments where he has helped people out in unexpected ways without being asked and normal emerging from out of nowhere. So here it goes...

1. Helping a stranded car...

This one is fairly self-explanatory, but he helped out a guy who's car had broken down in the middle of the road. It had occurred in the middle of a busy intersection near where we live. We pulled up to the usual traffic lights where we're stopped and in the middle of the road was this car, with a poor bloke trying to push his car out of the way of any oncoming traffic.

John's involvement took me by surprise when he dashed out the car to help the guy move his car out the way. I wasn't even aware of John's heroism until I saw him running to the middle of the road and pushing against the car.

Once the car was at the side of the road John told me to head home while he helped the guy figure out what was wrong with the car and then ring a breakdown service. Seeing as he had just finished a very long day at work I was surprised to see him take so much more time out away from getting home quicker.

2. The Old Woman and The Bus...

The difference between myself and John is that he is a much more social person than I am. It is not that rare for me to find John striking up a conversation with someone completely random in most social situations.

One of the sweetest I saw was when we both got the bus into town (remember getting the bus into town before lockdown). Basically, we were both just sat having a good chat when this little old woman in front of us turned around; she looked rather upset and held out her phone. She asked if either of us were able to help get her phone to work so she could ring her Granddaughter who she was meeting in town. From there John proceeded to help her get her phone working while also having a good conversation with her for the rest of the bus journey.

What made this interaction even cuter was that we all got off the bus at the same time. John then let her hold his arm and we walked her across the road to the spot she was meeting her Granddaughter, then waving her off to enjoy her day. It was such a heartwarming moment that made us both smile at how cute this woman was.

3. The Perfect Babysitter...

When it comes to his friends John has always been there for those he really cares for. He is very much a person who will stop everything he is doing in order to help out friends when they ask for help. One of these came in the form of babysitting when one of his close friends had no one else to turn to.

John has never been completely comfortable with children and was very much looking forward to his first day off in two weeks. It was then that one of his friends desperately asked him to look after her child as she needed to work (she is an at-home hairdresser). So, he spent his day off looking after a young child, keeping him occupied for the day while his friend managed to complete a day's work.

4. The Lost Dog...

If there is one thing that John loves, its dogs - he is absolutely obsessed with them. This came in handy one day when he noticed a dog wandering around the estate we live in without an owner. He immediately went to go and check if the dog was ok. I was thankful that it was a friendly dog as my internal alarm bells were going bonkers about this random dog.

From there John proceeded to wander round the area hoping to come across someone looking for their dog. It was rather entertaining watching him trying to coax this dog into following him without a lead when it clearly just wanted to go on it's own path.

As I was unable to see where they had gone, John told me that he found the owner a couple of streets from our house looking rather upset. It was a young girl who had been taking her dog for a walk when he made a run for it. John soon returned now talking about wanting a dog of our own.

5. In my Nan's and Family's time of need...

A couple of years back my family and I were faced with the daunting knowledge that my nan was about to pass away. What ensued was a couple months where we were all coming together over the summer to hang out with Nan in her final moments. During this time John was really there for the rest of the family, doing little things to make everyone feel a little more at ease.

As a former hairdresser he was taking the time to cut my Aunt's and my Mother's hair. Both of them had been working tirelessly to keep Nan as comfortable as possible while coping with the grief they felt for their Mother's fading health.

For Nan John was there to make her smile. She wasn't enormously full of energy, but it was really nice to see her crack into laughter at something John had said or to use him as a walking stick when she wanted to get around the house.

When it finally happened and Nan passed away, John took it upon himself to keep the rest of us from falling apart. As sad as he was at Nan's passing - he wanted to make sure that the rest of us were doing as ok as could possibly be. It really helped with my grieving process over the next few months.