I Was So Ill I Was Unable to Walk When a Man Practically Supported Me to the Toilets.

Back when I was my late teens, my daily commute was on an express bus. It remained crowded and was consistently without any seats by the time I stepped aboard.

On one specific day, I was feeling terribly ill when the coach lurched around the bends. I continuously reassured myself to persevere another few kilometres before the bus reached my destination, so I could then sprint quickly toward the most convenient washroom to vomit.

The bus was approaching the street towards my stop and it dawned on me I wasn’t going to hold on. All of a sudden, it was like a curtain fell over me. The world became white and really quiet; as if someone turned off the audio. My mind raced, “I will lose consciousness”.

Luckily I was near the front on the bus, so I took several steps to ask the driver and told the operator to pull over, telling him I needed to be sick. The driver opened the bus doors and I stumbled out out onto the street.

I was determined not to vomit in front of six lanes of traffic, so I gathered myself and endeavored to walk to the park across the road, thinking I could I’d at least be able to find some privacy behind a bush to vomit. But then I likely fainted. I sensed my limbs, but I couldn’t walk or see properly, leading me to start dragging myself toward my intended destination.

“You right, love?”

Right then, I was lifted up. There was someone holding me and heard a man say, “Are you okay, dear?” I told this kind passerby that I needed to get to a bathroom. Thus, he practically helped me walk down into a close-by structure and guided me inside the women’s restroom. He inquired whether I required him to remain with me but I declined.

After a short while, I had recovered to the point of sitting on the toilet and from the other side of the door came his voice asking, “Do you need anything, love? Is there anything you require?” I could not to get up at that moment but I did succeed to say thank you and after a few more minutes was able to move my limbs. I made my way home passing the following days getting over which was a nasty tummy bug.

I never glimpsed the stranger’s face – only his legs and the big metal toolbox he held – but he helped me, at a moment I was at my most vulnerable.

Often this world can make you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. What he did was the kind of action that undoes that protective shell. He was proof that people’s natural inclination is towards kindness, a quality I adore about humanity.