Feeling So Sick I Was Unable to Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Practically Supported Me to the Toilets.

At the age of 19 years old, my regular journey to work involved an packed public transport. The vehicle was always crowded and would always be completely full once I got on.

On one specific day, I began feeling terribly ill as the bus lurched around the bends. I kept telling myself to endure for a few more stops before the bus got to my stop, and then I could make a mad dash for the nearest washroom to vomit.

As we neared the street towards the destination as I realised I would not be to last. All of a sudden, it seemed a fog descended upon me. The world became blank and silent; as if someone muted everything. My mind raced, “I’m going to faint”.

Luckily I was toward the front inside the vehicle, so I took several steps toward the driver and asked the driver to stop, explaining to him I was going to vomit. The driver opened the entrance and I hurriedly stepped on to the pavement.

My intention was not to vomit in front of a busy multi-lane road, so I gathered myself and endeavored to make my way to the park across the road, thinking I could I’d at least be able to find some privacy near some foliage to throw up. Yet I likely fainted. I sensed my body but I couldn’t walk and my vision was blurry, so I started inching my way to the park.

“Are you okay, dear?”

At that moment, I got scooped up. I felt a strong arm supporting me and a stranger inquired, “You right, love?” I explained to this unknown man that I needed to be sick. Thus, he practically helped me walk into a nearby building and placed me into the female bathroom. He asked me whether I required him to stay with me but I declined.

After a short while, I had recovered enough to sit on the restroom floor when from beyond the stall I heard him ask, “Do you need anything, love? Do you need anything?” I wasn’t able to get up at that moment but I was able to express my gratitude and shortly thereafter regained the function of my feet. I made my way home passing several days getting over what was later diagnosed as a severe stomach virus.

I never glimpsed the stranger’s face – only his legs along with a sizable container for tools he held – yet he rescued me, during a time when I was in my weakest state.

Frequently, society has a way of making you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. His was the sort of gesture that undoes that hardening of the heart. He was proof that our default setting is towards kindness, a trait I cherish about my fellow humans.