In Such Poor Health I Was Unable to Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Essentially Lifted Me to a Restroom.

At the age of my late teens, my morning travel involved an packed public transport. The vehicle was always jammed and invariably became without any seats once I stepped aboard.

One particular morning, I started experiencing terribly ill when the coach swayed around the bends. I continuously reassured myself to endure another few kilometres until the bus reached my destination, so I could then rush hurriedly toward the most convenient public toilet to throw up.

As we neared the road leading to the destination as I understood I would not be to hold on. Suddenly, it seemed a curtain fell over me. The world became white and really quiet; like someone had cut the sound. My mind raced, “I will lose consciousness”.

Fortunately, I stood toward the front inside the vehicle, so I took several steps toward the driver and asked the driver to pull over, informing him I was going to get ill. He promptly opened the bus doors and I weakly exited on to the pavement.

My intention was to not get sick in front of six lanes of traffic, so I gathered myself and endeavored to walk across to the park across the road, where I thought it would allow me to secretly conceal myself behind a bush to vomit. But then I apparently fainted. I could feel my body but I couldn’t walk and my vision was blurry, leading me to start dragging myself toward the park.

“You right, love?”

Right then, someone picked me up. I felt an arm around my waist and a stranger inquired, “You right, love?” I managed to tell the unknown man that I had to to vomit. Thus, he practically carried me down into an adjacent building and guided me into the female bathroom. He inquired if I wanted him to stay with me but I declined.

After a short while, I regained my composure sufficiently to sit on the restroom floor when from beyond the door I heard him ask, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I could not to stand up at that moment but I did succeed to say thank you and following a brief period was able to move my limbs. I got myself home and spent the following days recovering from what turned out to be a severe stomach virus.

I never glimpsed the stranger’s face – only his legs along with a sizable metal toolbox he was carrying – but he helped me, at a moment I was at my most vulnerable.

Often this world has a way of making you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. What he did was the kind of action that reverses that emotional callousness. He served as evidence that people’s natural inclination leans toward compassion, a quality I adore in other people.