Feeling So Sick Walking Was Impossible As a Stranger Practically Supported Me to a Restroom.
At the age of nineteenth year, my daily commute meant taking an packed public transport. The vehicle was always crowded and would always be without any seats when I stepped aboard.
On one specific day, I began feeling terribly ill while the vehicle lurched around each corner. I repeatedly told myself to hold on another few kilometres before the bus reached where I needed to get off, at which point I could make a mad dash toward the most convenient public restroom to be sick.
The bus was approaching the street towards my stop and it dawned on me I was unable to last. In an instant, it seemed a veil came over me. Everything just went blank and silent; as if someone cut the sound. I said to myself, “I will lose consciousness”.
Thankfully, I was positioned close to the driver inside the vehicle, allowing me to take several steps to ask the driver and requested that the driver to pull over, telling him I needed to get ill. He promptly opened the bus doors and I weakly exited onto the sidewalk.
My intention was to not get sick before six lanes of traffic, so I gathered myself and endeavored to make my way to the park on the other side, where I believed I could at least discreetly hide behind a bush to vomit. Yet I likely lost consciousness. I was aware of my body but I was unable to walk and my vision was blurry, so I began dragging myself toward the grassy area.
“You right, love?”
Right then, I got scooped up. I felt an arm around my waist and a man’s voice asked, “Are you okay, dear?” I managed to tell the unknown man that I needed to be sick. Therefore, he almost supported my weight into an adjacent building and placed me in the ladies’ toilets. He inquired if I wanted him to stay with me but I declined.
After a short while, I felt better to the point of sitting down and from outside the door came him ask, “Do you need anything, love? Can I get you something?” I could not to rise at that moment but I did succeed to express my gratitude and shortly thereafter regained the function of my feet. I made my way home and spent the following days recovering from what turned out to be a horrible case of gastroenteritis.
I never saw the stranger’s face – just his lower half and a large container for tools he held – yet he rescued me, at a moment I was at my most vulnerable.
Often this world tends to make people self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. His act was the type of kindness that reverses that hardening of the heart. He was proof that our default setting is to be kind, a trait I cherish in other people.
