In Such Poor Health I Couldn’t Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Essentially Lifted Me to the Toilets.

Back when I was nineteenth year, my daily commute involved an crowded coach. It was perpetually jammed and would always be standing room only once I got on.

One particular morning, I began feeling quite nauseous as the bus lurched around each corner. I kept telling myself to persevere just a little longer until the bus got to where I needed to get off, and then I could sprint quickly for the nearest public restroom to be sick.

As we neared the avenue close to the stop when I realised I wasn’t going to last. In an instant, it seemed a curtain fell over me. Everything just went white and really quiet; like someone had turned off the audio. I said to myself, “I am about to pass out”.

Luckily I was near the front on the bus, so I took a few steps forward and requested that the driver to stop, telling him that I was about to be sick. The driver opened the doors and I hurriedly stepped out onto the street.

I was determined to not get sick before six lanes of traffic, so I forced myself up and endeavored to walk to the park opposite the street, thinking I could it would allow me to discreetly hide among some shrubs to vomit. But then I likely fainted. I could feel my physical self, yet walking was impossible and my vision was blurry, so I began crawling towards the park.

“You right, love?”

Right then, someone picked me up. I sensed someone holding me and heard a man say, “You right, love?” I managed to tell the kind passerby that I needed to vomit. Therefore, he almost carried me into a close-by structure and placed me inside the women’s restroom. He wanted to know if I wanted him to remain with me but I refused.

After a short while, I regained my composure sufficiently to sit on the toilet and from the other side of the door came his voice asking, “Are you feeling better, dear? Can I get you something?” I wasn’t able to get up just then but I did succeed to thank him and after a few more minutes recovered the use of my limbs. I got myself home and spent the following days recovering from what was later diagnosed as a severe stomach virus.

I never glimpsed his features – merely his legs and the big container for tools he held – but he helped me, during a time when I was at my most vulnerable.

Many times, life tends to make people self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. What he did was the kind of action that reverses that protective shell. He demonstrated that people’s natural inclination is to be kind, a trait I cherish in other people.