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

Back when I was my late teens, my regular journey to work involved an crowded coach. It was perpetually crowded and was consistently standing room only when I boarded.

On one specific day, I began feeling quite nauseous while the vehicle rocked around every turn. I continuously reassured myself to hold on another few kilometres until the bus arrived at my stop, so I could then rush hurriedly to the closest public restroom to vomit.

The bus was approaching the street towards my stop and I realised I was unable to make it. All of a sudden, it seemed a veil came over me. Everything just went blank and silent; similar to when one cut the sound. My mind raced, “I am about to pass out”.

Luckily I was toward the front on the bus, so I managed several steps to ask the driver and told the operator to stop, explaining to him I needed to get ill. He opened the bus doors and I hurriedly stepped on to the pavement.

I was resolved to not get sick before six lanes of traffic, so I forced myself up and started trying to walk to the park opposite the street, where I thought it would allow me to secretly conceal myself among some shrubs to be sick. But then I likely lost consciousness. I was aware of my limbs, but I was unable to walk or see clearly, leading me to start inching my way to the park.

“You right, love?”

Right then, I got scooped up. There was someone holding me and a stranger inquired, “You right, love?” I told this mysterious stranger that I needed to get to a bathroom. Therefore, he almost supported my weight down into a nearby building and placed me in the ladies’ toilets. He asked me if I wanted him to remain with me but I refused.

Not long after, I regained my composure sufficiently to sit down when from beyond the door came his voice asking, “Are you feeling better, dear? Do you need anything?” I wasn’t able to get up right away but I was able to express my gratitude and after a few more minutes recovered the use of my feet. I returned home and spent the following days healing from which was a horrible case of gastroenteritis.

I never saw the stranger’s face – just his lower half and the big steelwork tools container he had with him – but he saved me, when I was at my most vulnerable.

Frequently, society has a way of making you guarded, hostile, and combative. What he did was the kind of action that reverses that hardening of the heart. He served as evidence that our default setting is to be kind, something I love about humanity.