Feeling So Sick Walking Was Impossible When a Man Essentially Lifted Me to the Toilets.

Back when I was 19 years old, my morning travel meant taking an express bus. It remained crowded and invariably became standing room only once I got on.

One particular morning, I started experiencing incredibly sick while the vehicle swayed around every turn. I continuously reassured myself to endure for a few more stops until the bus arrived at my destination, at which point I could sprint quickly to the closest washroom to vomit.

We were coming down the avenue close to my stop and I understood I wasn’t going to last. Suddenly, it was like a fog descended upon me. My vision turned white and really quiet; like someone had cut the sound. My mind raced, “I am about to pass out”.

Fortunately, I stood near the front inside the vehicle, so I managed several steps toward the driver and asked the driver to pull over, explaining to him that I was about to get ill. He promptly opened the bus doors and I stumbled out on to the pavement.

I was determined to avoid being sick before a busy multi-lane road, so I picked myself up and endeavored to stumble to the park across the road, where I believed it would allow me to secretly conceal myself near some foliage to vomit. But then I likely blacked out. I sensed my physical self, yet I couldn’t walk and my vision was blurry, so I began crawling towards the park.

“Everything alright, love?”

At that moment, someone picked me up. I sensed someone holding me and a man’s voice asked, “Everything alright, love?” I explained to this unknown man that I had to to get to a bathroom. Thus, he practically supported my weight down into an adjacent building and guided me in the ladies’ toilets. He wanted to know whether I required him to stay with me but I said no.

After a short while, I felt better enough to sit on the toilet and from the other side of the door came him inquire, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I could not to stand up just then but I was able to thank him and following a brief period regained the function of my limbs. I made my way home and spent the following days healing from what turned out to be a nasty tummy bug.

I never saw the stranger’s face – just his lower half and a large container for tools he had with him – yet he rescued me, during a time when I was completely helpless.

Many times, life tends to make people self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. His was the sort of gesture that reverses that emotional callousness. He served as evidence that our default setting leans toward compassion, a quality I adore about my fellow humans.