Feeling So Sick I Couldn’t Walk As a Stranger Essentially Lifted Me to a Bathroom.

At the age of 19 years old, my morning travel was on an crowded coach. It remained crowded and was consistently without any seats when I stepped aboard.

During a certain commute, I was feeling terribly ill while the vehicle rocked around every turn. I repeatedly told myself to persevere for a few more stops so the bus could reached my stop, and then I could rush hurriedly to the closest public restroom to vomit.

As we neared the avenue close to my stop and it dawned on me I wasn’t going to hold on. In an instant, it seemed a veil came over me. My vision turned blank and silent; similar to when one cut the sound. I said to myself, “I’m going to faint”.

Luckily I was close to the driver inside the vehicle, allowing me to take a few steps to ask the driver and asked the driver to open the doors, explaining to him I needed to be sick. He promptly opened the bus doors and I weakly exited out onto the street.

I was resolved to not get sick before six lanes of traffic, so I gathered myself and began attempting to walk to the park on the other side, where I thought I could at least discreetly hide among some shrubs to vomit. But then I apparently lost consciousness. I was aware of my limbs, but I was unable to walk and my vision was blurry, leading me to start dragging myself toward the grassy area.

“You right, love?”

Right then, I got scooped up. I sensed a strong arm supporting me and heard a man say, “You right, love?” I managed to tell the kind passerby that I needed to vomit. So he virtually helped me walk over to a close-by structure and put me into the female bathroom. He asked me whether I required him to stay with me but I declined.

Not long after, I had recovered sufficiently to sit down and from outside the door I heard his voice asking, “Are you feeling better, dear? Is there anything you require?” I could not to rise at that moment but did manage to say thank you and after a few more minutes regained the function of my limbs. I got myself home and spent several days recovering from what was later diagnosed as a horrible case of gastroenteritis.

I never saw that man’s face – merely his legs and a large metal toolbox he held – yet he rescued me, at a moment I was completely helpless.

Frequently, society can make you guarded, hostile, and combative. What he did was the kind of action that undoes that emotional callousness. He was proof that our default setting leans toward compassion, a quality I adore about humanity.