Feeling So Sick I Was Unable to Walk As a Stranger Virtually Carried Me to the Toilets.

During my nineteenth year, my morning travel meant taking an crowded coach. The vehicle was always full and was consistently without any seats once I stepped aboard.

During a certain commute, I was feeling incredibly sick while the vehicle lurched around each corner. I continuously reassured myself to persevere just a little longer until the bus reached my destination, and then I could make a mad dash toward the most convenient public toilet to vomit.

As we neared the road leading to the stop when it dawned on me I wasn’t going to hold on. All of a sudden, it seemed a veil came over me. My vision turned hazy and muffled; similar to when one turned off the audio. My mind raced, “I’m going to faint”.

Luckily I was near the front inside the vehicle, so I managed a few steps forward and requested that the driver to open the doors, telling him I needed to get ill. He promptly opened the bus doors and I stumbled out out onto the street.

I was resolved not to vomit before a busy multi-lane road, so I picked myself up and endeavored to stumble toward the green space across the road, thinking I could I’d at least be able to secretly conceal myself among some shrubs to be sick. Yet I apparently lost consciousness. I was aware of my physical self, yet I was unable to walk or see clearly, so I started crawling towards the park.

“Are you okay, dear?”

In that instant, I got scooped up. There was someone holding me and heard a man say, “Everything alright, love?” I managed to tell the kind passerby that I needed to get to a bathroom. So he virtually supported my weight over to an adjacent building and put me in the ladies’ toilets. He wanted to know if I wanted him to stay with me but I said no.

After a short while, I felt better sufficiently to sit down and from the other side of the door came him inquire, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I wasn’t able to get up right away but I did succeed to say thank you and shortly thereafter was able to move my legs. I returned home passing the following days getting over what was later diagnosed as a severe stomach virus.

I never saw the stranger’s face – only his legs along with a sizable steelwork tools container he was carrying – but he helped me, at a moment I was at my most vulnerable.

Often this world has a way of making you defensive, aggressive and competitive. What he did was the kind of action that melts away that emotional callousness. He was proof that people’s natural inclination is towards kindness, a trait I cherish about my fellow humans.