Feeling So Sick Walking Was Impossible Until a Fellow Passenger Essentially Lifted Me to a Restroom.
During my my late teens, my regular journey to work meant taking an express bus. It was perpetually full and was consistently standing room only by the time I boarded.
One particular morning, I was feeling terribly ill while the vehicle lurched around the bends. I continuously reassured myself to persevere another few kilometres until the bus reached my destination, and then I could rush hurriedly for the nearest public restroom to throw up.
The bus was approaching the street towards the destination as it dawned on me I was unable to make it. Suddenly, it was like a curtain fell over me. Everything just went blank and silent; like someone had turned off the audio. I thought, “I am about to pass out”.
Fortunately, I stood toward the front of the bus, so I managed several steps forward and told the operator to open the doors, explaining to him I was going to be sick. He opened the entrance and I weakly exited onto the sidewalk.
I was determined to not get sick in view of a busy multi-lane road, so I forced myself up and started trying to make my way to the park opposite the street, where I believed I could at least discreetly hide near some foliage to vomit. Yet I must have fainted. I could feel my body but walking was impossible or see properly, so I started inching my way to my intended destination.
“Are you okay, dear?”
Right then, someone picked me up. There was an arm around my waist and heard a man say, “Everything alright, love?” I explained to this kind passerby that I needed to get to a bathroom. Thus, he practically carried me into a nearby building and placed me inside the women’s restroom. He inquired if I wanted him to wait for me but I refused.
A few minutes later, I regained my composure to the point of sitting down and from the other side of the stall I heard him inquire, “Do you need anything, love? Is there anything you require?” I was incapable to rise right away but I did succeed to say thank you and shortly thereafter regained the function of my feet. I returned home and then spent the following days healing from what turned out to be a severe stomach virus.
I never glimpsed the stranger’s face – merely his legs and the big metal toolbox he was carrying – but he helped me, at a moment I was in my weakest state.
Often this world tends to make people defensive, aggressive and competitive. His act was the type of kindness that reverses that hardening of the heart. He was proof that humanity’s innate tendency is to be kind, a quality I adore about my fellow humans.
