Feeling So Sick I Couldn’t Walk As a Stranger Virtually Carried Me to a Restroom.

Back when I was nineteenth year, my daily commute involved an express bus. The vehicle was always full and was consistently standing room only when I stepped aboard.

One particular morning, I started experiencing incredibly sick as the bus rocked around every turn. I kept telling myself to hold on another few kilometres so the bus could arrived at where I needed to get off, and then I could rush hurriedly to the closest washroom to be sick.

The bus was approaching the road leading to my stop and I realised I would not be to make it. All of a sudden, it felt as if a curtain fell over me. My vision turned blank and silent; similar to when one turned off the audio. My mind raced, “I’m going to faint”.

Thankfully, I was positioned close to the driver on the bus, so I took a couple of steps to ask the driver and told the operator to pull over, informing him I needed to vomit. The driver opened the bus doors and I weakly exited on to the pavement.

I was resolved to not get sick in front of six lanes of traffic, so I picked myself up and started trying to walk to the park on the other side, thinking I could I’d at least be able to discreetly hide near some foliage to vomit. But then I must have fainted. I could feel my physical self, yet walking was impossible and my vision was blurry, so I started inching my way to the park.

“Everything alright, love?”

At that moment, I was lifted up. I felt an arm around my waist and a man’s voice asked, “You right, love?” I explained to this kind passerby that I had to to vomit. Thus, he practically helped me walk into an adjacent building and guided me in the ladies’ toilets. He wanted to know if I wanted him to wait for me but I refused.

Not long after, I had recovered to the point of sitting on the toilet when from beyond the stall I heard his voice asking, “Do you need anything, love? Can I get you something?” I could not to stand up just then but I did succeed to thank him and shortly thereafter regained the function of my limbs. I got myself home and then spent the following days healing from which was a nasty tummy bug.

I did not see that man’s face – just his lower half along with a sizable steelwork tools container he had with him – but he helped me, during a time when I was at my most vulnerable.

Frequently, society has a way of making you defensive, aggressive and competitive. What he did was the kind of action that reverses that protective shell. He demonstrated that our default setting is to be kind, a quality I adore in other people.