In Such Poor Health I Was Unable to Walk As a Stranger Virtually Carried Me to the Toilets.

At the age of my late teens, my regular journey to work meant taking an express bus. It remained jammed and would always be without any seats when I got on.

During a certain commute, I was feeling incredibly sick as the bus lurched around every turn. I continuously reassured myself to hold on just a little longer until the bus got to my destination, at which point I could rush hurriedly to the closest public toilet to throw up.

The bus was approaching the avenue close to my stop and I realised I wasn’t going to make it. Suddenly, it felt as if a veil came over me. The world became white and really quiet; similar to when one cut the sound. My mind raced, “I’m going to faint”.

Thankfully, I was positioned close to the driver of the bus, so I took a couple of steps to ask the driver and asked the driver to pull over, telling him I needed to vomit. The driver opened the entrance and I hurriedly stepped onto the sidewalk.

I was determined to avoid being sick before a busy multi-lane road, so I picked myself up and started trying to make my way across to the park on the other side, where I believed I could at least secretly conceal myself behind a bush to throw up. Yet I apparently fainted. I could feel my physical self, yet walking was impossible or see properly, leading me to start crawling towards my intended destination.

“You right, love?”

Right then, I was lifted up. I felt someone holding me and heard a man say, “Are you okay, dear?” I managed to tell the kind passerby that I required to vomit. Therefore, he almost supported my weight into a nearby building and put me inside the women’s restroom. He asked me if I wanted him to stay with me but I refused.

After a short while, I regained my composure sufficiently to sit on the restroom floor and from the other side of the door I heard him ask, “Do you need anything, love? Can I get you something?” I wasn’t able to get up just then but I was able to say thank you and shortly thereafter recovered the use of my limbs. I returned home passing the following days healing from which was a severe stomach virus.

I never saw that man’s face – only his legs along with a sizable metal toolbox he was carrying – but he saved me, at a moment I was at my most vulnerable.

Often this world has a way of making you defensive, aggressive and competitive. His act was the type of kindness that melts away that emotional callousness. He was proof that our default setting is to be kind, a trait I cherish about my fellow humans.