I Was So Ill I Couldn’t Walk As a Stranger Essentially Lifted Me to a Bathroom.
At the age of my late teens, my daily commute meant taking an express bus. It was perpetually jammed and invariably became completely full once I boarded.
On one specific day, I began feeling incredibly sick while the vehicle swayed around every turn. I kept telling myself to endure just a little longer before the bus reached where I needed to get off, so I could then sprint quickly toward the most convenient public toilet to throw up.
We were coming down the street towards the destination as it dawned on me I was unable to hold on. All of a sudden, it was like a fog descended upon me. Everything just went blank and silent; similar to when one turned off the audio. My mind raced, “I’m going to faint”.
Luckily I was toward the front inside the vehicle, so I managed a few steps to ask the driver and told the operator to stop, explaining to him I needed to get ill. He opened the entrance and I hurriedly stepped on to the pavement.
I was determined to not get sick in front of a busy multi-lane road, so I picked myself up and started trying to make my way across to the park across the road, thinking I could it would allow me to secretly conceal myself near some foliage to be sick. However I apparently lost consciousness. I could feel my physical self, yet walking was impossible or see properly, so I started crawling towards the grassy area.
“Are you okay, dear?”
Right then, I got scooped up. I felt a strong arm supporting me and a man’s voice asked, “You right, love?” I told this unknown man that I had to to vomit. Thus, he practically helped me walk into a nearby building and placed me in the ladies’ toilets. He inquired whether I required him to stay with me but I declined.
After a short while, I regained my composure sufficiently to sit on the restroom floor and from the other side of the door came him ask, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I was incapable to get up right away but I was able to thank him and after a few more minutes was able to move my legs. I made my way home passing the following days getting over which was a severe stomach virus.
I did not see his features – merely his legs and a large metal toolbox he had with him – yet he rescued me, when I was at my most vulnerable.
Often this world tends to make people defensive, aggressive and competitive. His was the sort of gesture that reverses that hardening of the heart. He served as evidence that humanity’s innate tendency is to be kind, something I love in other people.
