Alex Buscemi
Words have a way of sticking with us, especially when they come from the heart.
On Reddit, people are sharing the most touching things anyone has ever told them, and the responses are a beautiful mix of warmth, love, and humanity.
These wholesome stories show just how much a kind word or heartfelt sentiment can mean, and they might even inspire you to share a few meaningful words of your own.
Take a moment to read through these emotional highlights—it’s worth it.
1.
“I’m not letting you do this alone. I’m coming with you.” – My girlfriend and soon-to-be fiancé when I had to put down my elderly cat three days before Christmas.
We went to the vet, and she watched me bawl. We both cried our eyes out, and even still, she let me grieve at home for an hour. She brought me coffee and everything to make sugar cookies from the store. She came back and said she couldn’t fix it, but she didn’t want me to be alone.
So we played Christmas music, made terribly ugly cookies, and we weren’t okay; but we were together.
That’s when I saw what real, unconditional love looked like.
2.
A friend who was dying of chronic kidney failure said to me his last night alive, “If there is a way to look out for you from the other side, I will.” I still think about that all the time.
3.
One of my students wrote me a letter on graduation that said he was severely depressed (and I suspect suicidal though he didn’t say it), and my talk with him about why he failed my exam changed his life, because no one had ever told him he was brilliant before. We later worked on research together, and he said it was the best time in his life.
We’re still in touch, he’s working on a master’s and plans to get a PhD.
I’m so humbled by him and proud of him.
4.
Last year, my (56M) daughter (13F) told me that she thinks if I were her age, we’d be best friends.
5.
I work in a homeless shelter in a very red state. I’d just got done checking in a new person I’d just met. We were talking afterward, and they told me that they were trans but not out. Later, I asked what made them feel like they could tell me that since it’s a very red state, at a shelter run by evangelicals. They said, “I don’t know. Something about you. I just knew you were safe.” That’s the greatest compliment I’ve ever received.
6.
When I was a teenager, I was sent to military school. I’d always been a bit rough around the edges—kind of a troublemaker—but never a bad person at heart. I never finished high school because of some family issues, and later in life, I found out I had bipolar disorder type 2 and ADHD. I didn’t even realize it at the time, but my dad told me that my younger sister had been diagnosed with the same conditions, and he thought I should get evaluated too. He said she reminded him so much of me, and he wanted me to know because, being the old-school guy he is, he never really talked about emotions or apologized much.
Then he told me:
“Hey man, I’m sorry.
I didn’t know.
I thought you needed discipline.
You just needed my help.”I didn’t think much of it at first, but when I was alone later, I broke down and cried for a few minutes. I didn’t even realize how much I’d been carrying all my life until that moment. It was a relief I can’t really describe, like a weight was finally lifted off my shoulders. I felt lighter, like I physically weighed less.
7.
Someone once told me, “You make people feel seen.” It hit me because it’s easy to go through life unnoticed, but knowing I could make someone feel valued—it stuck with me.
8.
My father-in-law has had 5 surgeries in the last 2 years, and it has been a long recovery. Because of that, I have been doing my best to help out by doing their yard work, loading up his wheelchair, etc.—just stuff you do for family.
Well, one day out of the blue, my mother-in-law texted me and just said, “You’re our hero,” and that has stuck with me.
9.
This is stupid, but I stopped relaxing my hair 17 years ago, at a time when you’d catch grief from all sides for doing so. Everyone is telling you that you’re only pretty/acceptable/presentable when your hair has been chemically straightened, and your job is telling you that your natural hair is “unprofessional” (I was enlisted). One day I was rocking a straight lion’s mane at this gas station in some small-town pocket of Arkansas, the kind where I could have been the only Black woman within an hour of any direction. This burly, tatted-up Hell’s Angels-looking biker dude walked past me and very genuinely said, “Damn sister, I like your hair!” and I really appreciated it. Didn’t expect it coming from him, is all, especially since it was coming from nowhere else.
10.
I worked the front desk at a yoga studio/spa for a while. I loved it; interacting with all of the people that would come in gave me life. I didn’t realize how extroverted I actually was until I started working there. I got to know all the regulars, remembering everyone’s name and trying to make them all feel warm, welcome, and special. One day, one of the older regulars came in and handed me an envelope. He had typed me a letter that brought me to absolute tears, talking about how big my light was and how truly transformative my weekly welcome to him had been, as a person who had rarely felt welcome anywhere his whole life. At the time, I was struggling with a lot of my own darkness, and the fact that I had any ounce of light was genuinely news to me. My heart needed that.
11.
One night while in the newborn trenches with my son, I was struggling and crying. Just really emotional. I can’t remember exactly what I said, something about feeling ugly, and my husband, who I had been with for 10 years at that point, told me, “I have never been more attracted to you. Watching you be a mom to our son is beautiful. You are beautiful.” It plays in my head still on hard days.
12.
My mom told me I was her lottery win in life.
13.
I’m a Filipina, and there was an elderly man in Miami with whom I struck up a conversation.
He was gazing at my face, and he said: “So this is what your people look like. It’s like all the world combined.”
14.
“I think you’re going to be the reason a lot of people find hope again.”
15.
I’m a mental health nurse. I was with my brother in a mall one time when an ex-patient walked up to me and greeted me warmly. We chatted about how his life was going. He seemed to be doing well. He said to me, “Hey, do you remember that time when you had to restrain me and put me in seclusion? You were really gentle with me and got everyone to calm down and go easy on me.” He turned to my brother and said, “Your brother is one of the good ones.”
16.
A couple of weeks ago, I was alone in a city I didn’t know, and I had my heart broken in a café. The waiter saw that I was upset and asked if I was okay. I wept, and she sat with me and talked to me while I had my coffees and ordered something to eat. When I went to pay, I found out she had paid for all of it. It was nice to have someone to sit with.
17.
“I want my daughter to grow up and be like you.”
I was living/teaching in the Emirates in the UAE. My class was all men. So for a man in a patriarchal society to say that to an independent, unmarried, educated, Western woman was a wow moment. I felt like I contributed to women around the world being seen, respected, and valued.
18.
The boys in high school rated us girls, and I was a 7/10. It’s always affected me. About 6 years later, it came up at my workplace for whatever reason, and I said I was a 7. A sweetheart of a guy instantly, without missing a beat, said, “Out of 7 though, right?!”
I went to the bathroom and cried. He has no idea how much he healed me with those words.
19.
“Wow, he’s a human angel!” I fostered a puppy who was given up for adoption because she was apparently a bad dog. I took her in and just treated her like she was my own dog. She was adopted two weeks later, and the pet adoption agency was shocked at her (positive) change of behavior.
20.
It was a small thing:
I gave the lunch I had brought with me one winter weekday to a destitute man huddled near the locked front doors of a church. (I’d gone there to practice for a forthcoming organ recital.)
He simply said, “Thank you—I haven’t had any food for about three days.”
It seemed as though he was as starved for someone—anyone—to care about him as for the food itself.
21.
My grandpa, on his deathbed, whispered, “You were my favorite.”
22.
I was out with my kids at a restaurant on some daddy daycare vibe. Wife needed a break. Kids were 1 and 3. We were just having fun like we normally do. I’m running around feeding my daughter, and my son is helping.
An older lady comes up to the table and says, “She needed a break, huh?”
I laughed and said yes.
She put her hand on my shoulder and said, “Thank you.”
I said, “For what?”
She said, “For reminding me what happiness looks like.”
That messed me up.
23.
My boyfriend once asked me to help him understand a certain topic, and it was a busy time for both of us. I had long hours of school, and so did he. I could only teach him a very little portion, which wasn’t even countable in a span of two hours. I apologized to him, saying I couldn’t help him (he had a test on it the next day). He said, “You tell me what’s better? A person giving the 1K out of the 1K they had to someone in need, or a person who gives 1K out of the 1M they have?” I said I didn’t know since I didn’t understand what he meant. He said, “It’s the former since the person gave away all they had. In the same way, you had two free hours which you could have used to sleep (we were sleep-deprived), but you chose to help me, and that’s all that matters to me.” It’s the best thing I’ve ever heard.
24.
After a year of dating, my girlfriend (we’re both in our 50s, both lost our spouses to cancer a few years ago) said, “I love you.” I never thought I’d hear that again.
25.
My good friend told me a few weeks before he succumbed to cancer that he was glad he knew me because I was “one of life’s good guys.”
That was six years ago now, and I still think about it.
26.
I used to live with a family where one of the kids was autistic. We’ll call her Gigi.
Gigi had limited vocabulary and was truly a special-needs child. She wouldn’t respond if people spoke to her and just seemed lost in her own little world.
The reason why I lived with the family is because, for some reason, Gigi acknowledged me, and it was a rare thing for her to do. The mother asked me if I would be open to living with them to help with Gigi, and I accepted because I knew how difficult it was for anyone to be accepted into Gigi’s world.
Eventually, they found a nice house and decided to move. I wasn’t able to go with them due to the location of the house, so I found new living arrangements.
The day before the move, I sat Gigi down to say goodbye because she had become very attached to me. I told her in the simplest way I could by saying, “Gigi go. Couch potato stay.” She kept insisting, “Gigi go. Couch potato go,” but I had to remain adamant so she understood I could not go with her.
Finally, after a few minutes of going back and forth, she realized I wasn’t going to live with her family anymore and said, “Gigi cry. Gigi cry.” She then wandered off to watch a Disney movie.
It tore me up and was one of the most touching things I ever experienced.
27.
Someone once told me, “No one else is going to live your life for you. Make the choices that YOU want because only YOU are going to live with those choices.” That is now a core value in my life. It resonates so deeply I can’t explain how much those simple words touched me.
28.
I almost failed out of a semester once but spoke with my professor about my situation. I had a very, very unfortunate semester, and he didn’t realize the grade given meant I couldn’t move forward.
He adjusted it and told me, “I can’t wait for you to show everyone what you’re capable of,” and it’s always stuck. He saw past a mentally bad semester and now shows up to all my final presentations!
29.
“How can you be Icarus when you are the sun?”
I welled up reading this when she sent it. It is the most kind and beautiful thing anyone has ever said to me, and I cherish the memory.
30.
“We’re very proud to have you as a grandson.”
I miss them both so much. Go hug your grandparents, folks.
Read more: 25 Amazing Posts That Gave Us All The Feels Today