Feeling So Sick Walking Was Impossible As a Stranger Essentially Lifted Me to a Bathroom.

During my my late teens, my daily commute involved an express bus. It remained full and invariably became completely full when I got on.

During a certain commute, I was feeling terribly ill while the vehicle swayed around every turn. I repeatedly told myself to persevere for a few more stops until the bus reached where I needed to get off, at which point I could rush hurriedly for the nearest washroom to be sick.

The bus was approaching the road leading to the stop when I realised I would not be to make it. Suddenly, it felt as if a curtain fell over me. Everything just went white and really quiet; as if someone turned off the audio. I thought, “I will lose consciousness”.

Fortunately, I stood close to the driver of the bus, so I managed a few steps to ask the driver and asked the driver to pull over, explaining to him that I was about to get ill. The driver opened the entrance and I hurriedly stepped on to the pavement.

I was resolved not to vomit in view of six lanes of traffic, so I gathered myself and endeavored to walk toward the green space opposite the street, where I believed it would allow me to discreetly hide near some foliage to throw up. Yet I apparently lost consciousness. I could feel my body but I couldn’t walk or see properly, so I began dragging myself toward the park.

“Are you okay, dear?”

In that instant, I got scooped up. I sensed someone holding me and heard a man say, “Everything alright, love?” I told this kind passerby that I required to be sick. Therefore, he almost helped me walk over to a close-by structure and put me inside the women’s restroom. He asked me whether I required him to remain with me but I declined.

A few minutes later, I felt better sufficiently to sit on the restroom floor when from beyond the door I heard him ask, “Do you need anything, love? Can I get you something?” I wasn’t able to stand up just then but I was able to express my gratitude and shortly thereafter was able to move my feet. I returned home and then spent several days recovering from which was a severe stomach virus.

I did not see the stranger’s face – just his lower half along with a sizable container for tools he had with him – yet he rescued me, at a moment I was at my most vulnerable.

Many times, life 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 towards kindness, something I love about my fellow humans.