In Such Poor Health I Was Unable to Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Virtually Carried Me to the Toilets.

Back when I was nineteenth year, my regular journey to work meant taking an express bus. It was perpetually crowded and invariably became standing room only when I stepped aboard.

On one specific day, I was feeling quite nauseous as the bus lurched around every turn. I kept telling myself to hold on just a little longer so the bus could arrived at my destination, at which point I could rush hurriedly for the nearest public toilet to throw up.

As we neared the road leading to the destination as I understood I wasn’t going to last. In an instant, it felt as if a veil came over me. My vision turned blank and silent; like someone had cut the sound. I said to myself, “I am about to pass out”.

Thankfully, I was positioned near the front of the bus, so I took several steps toward the driver and requested that the driver to stop, explaining to him that I was about to be sick. The driver opened the bus doors and I stumbled out onto the sidewalk.

I was resolved to not get sick in front of six lanes of traffic, so I gathered myself and began attempting to make my way to the park opposite the street, thinking I could I could at least discreetly hide among some shrubs to vomit. But then I likely lost consciousness. I sensed my physical self, yet walking was impossible or see clearly, so I began inching my way to the park.

“Everything alright, love?”

At that moment, I got scooped up. There was an arm around my waist and heard a man say, “You right, love?” I told this unknown man that I required to get to a bathroom. So he virtually carried me into an adjacent building and put me inside the women’s restroom. He asked me if I wanted him to remain with me but I declined.

Not long after, I had recovered enough to sit down when from beyond the stall I heard him ask, “Do you need anything, love? Is there anything you require?” I was incapable to stand up just then but did manage to say thank you and shortly thereafter was able to move my limbs. I returned home passing the following days getting over what was later diagnosed as a horrible case of gastroenteritis.

I never glimpsed that man’s face – only his legs and the big metal toolbox he was carrying – but he saved me, at a moment I was in my weakest state.

Frequently, society can make you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. What he did was the kind of action that melts away that hardening of the heart. He demonstrated that people’s natural inclination is to be kind, something I love in other people.