I Was So Ill I Was Unable to Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Virtually Carried Me to the Toilets.

During my my late teens, my daily commute was on an crowded coach. It remained crowded and would always be standing room only when I got on.

On one specific day, I began feeling quite nauseous as the bus swayed around each corner. I repeatedly told myself to hold on another few kilometres so the bus could reached my stop, and then I could make a mad dash toward the most convenient public toilet to be sick.

As we neared the road leading to my stop and I understood I wasn’t going to hold on. All of a sudden, it was like a curtain fell over me. The world became hazy and muffled; similar to when one cut the sound. My mind raced, “I will lose consciousness”.

Fortunately, I stood toward the front inside the vehicle, so I managed several steps to ask the driver and told the operator to stop, informing him that I was about to vomit. He opened the entrance and I hurriedly stepped out onto the street.

I was resolved not to vomit in front of six lanes of traffic, so I gathered myself and endeavored to stumble across to the park on the other side, where I believed I could at least discreetly hide among some shrubs to vomit. Yet I apparently lost consciousness. I sensed my limbs, but walking was impossible or see properly, leading me to start inching my way to the park.

“Everything alright, love?”

In that instant, I got scooped up. I felt someone holding me and a stranger inquired, “Everything alright, love?” I managed to tell the unknown man that I needed to be sick. Thus, he practically carried me into a nearby building and placed me in the ladies’ toilets. He wanted to know if I wanted him to wait for me but I refused.

After a short while, I felt better to the point of sitting down and from outside the door I heard his voice asking, “Do you need anything, love? Is there anything you require?” I wasn’t able to get up right away but I did succeed to thank him and shortly thereafter was able to move my feet. I made my way home and then spent the following days recovering from what was later diagnosed as a nasty tummy bug.

I did not see the stranger’s face – merely his legs along with a sizable steelwork tools container he was carrying – yet he rescued me, when I was at my most vulnerable.

Many times, life tends to make people defensive, aggressive and competitive. His act was the type of kindness that undoes that emotional callousness. He served as evidence that our default setting is to be kind, something I love about humanity.