In Such Poor Health I Was Unable to Walk When a Man Virtually Carried Me to a Restroom.

During my my late teens, my morning travel was on an express bus. The vehicle was always full and was consistently completely full when I stepped aboard.

During a certain commute, I started experiencing quite nauseous while the vehicle swayed around the bends. I repeatedly told myself to persevere just a little longer before the bus arrived at where I needed to get off, so I could then rush hurriedly toward the most convenient public toilet to be sick.

The bus was approaching the road leading to my stop and it dawned on me I wasn’t going to hold on. All of a sudden, it was like a fog descended upon me. My vision turned hazy and muffled; similar to when one cut the sound. My mind raced, “I’m going to faint”.

Thankfully, I was positioned toward the front on the bus, so I took a couple of steps to ask the driver and asked the driver to open the doors, explaining to him I needed to vomit. He promptly opened the bus doors and I stumbled out onto the sidewalk.

My intention was not to vomit in front of multiple lanes of cars, so I gathered myself and began attempting to stumble across to the park opposite the street, where I believed it would allow me to discreetly hide behind a bush to vomit. But then I must have lost consciousness. I could feel my body but I was unable to walk and my vision was blurry, so I began inching my way to the grassy area.

“Are you okay, dear?”

At that moment, I got scooped up. There was someone holding me and a man’s voice asked, “Everything alright, love?” I told this kind passerby that I required to be sick. Thus, he practically supported my weight down into an adjacent building and put me in the ladies’ toilets. He wanted to know if I wanted him to wait for me but I declined.

Not long after, I had recovered sufficiently to sit down and from the other side of the door came him inquire, “Do you need anything, love? Can I get you something?” I could not to get up right away but did manage to express my gratitude and following a brief period was able to move my legs. I returned home and then spent the next few days healing from what turned out to be a horrible case of gastroenteritis.

I did not see the stranger’s face – merely his legs and the big steelwork tools container he had with him – yet he rescued me, during a time when I was at my most vulnerable.

Often this world can make you guarded, hostile, and combative. His was the sort of gesture that melts away that hardening of the heart. He demonstrated that humanity’s innate tendency is towards kindness, something I love in other people.