Feeling So Sick I Was Unable to Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Essentially Lifted Me to a Bathroom.
At the age of nineteenth year, my morning travel was on an crowded coach. The vehicle was always full and invariably became without any seats by the time I boarded.
During a certain commute, I started experiencing incredibly sick as the bus lurched around the bends. I kept telling myself to persevere for a few more stops until the bus reached my stop, at which point I could sprint quickly toward the most convenient washroom to be sick.
The bus was approaching the street towards the stop when it dawned on me I was unable to make it. Suddenly, it seemed a fog descended upon me. Everything just went white and really quiet; like someone had cut the sound. My mind raced, “I am about to pass out”.
Luckily I was close to the driver on the bus, allowing me to take several steps toward the driver and requested that the driver to open the doors, telling him that I was about to vomit. He opened the bus doors and I weakly exited out onto the street.
My intention was to avoid being sick before a busy multi-lane road, so I forced myself up and started trying to stumble to the park opposite the street, where I believed I could at least find some privacy among some shrubs to throw up. However I apparently lost consciousness. I sensed my limbs, but walking was impossible or see clearly, so I began dragging myself toward my intended destination.
“Everything alright, love?”
Right then, I was lifted up. I felt an arm around my waist and heard a man say, “You right, love?” I managed to tell the mysterious stranger that I required to be sick. Thus, he practically helped me walk into an adjacent building and guided me inside the women’s restroom. He asked me if I wanted him to wait for me but I refused.
A few minutes later, I felt better sufficiently to sit on the toilet and from outside the door I heard him ask, “Do you need anything, love? Can I get you something?” I could not to rise right away but I did succeed to express my gratitude and after a few more minutes regained the function of my legs. I made my way home and spent the following days getting over what turned out to be a horrible case of gastroenteritis.
I did not see that man’s face – only his legs along with a sizable metal toolbox he held – yet he rescued me, at a moment I was at my most vulnerable.
Often this world tends to make people guarded, hostile, and combative. His act was the type of kindness that reverses that hardening of the heart. He demonstrated that our default setting is to be kind, a quality I adore about my fellow humans.