Feeling So Sick I Couldn’t Walk As a Stranger Practically Supported Me to the Toilets.
During my my late teens, my regular journey to work was on an crowded coach. It remained full and was consistently without any seats once I got on.
During a certain commute, I started experiencing terribly ill as the bus lurched around each corner. I continuously reassured myself to hold on just a little longer before the bus reached my destination, at which point I could make a mad dash to the closest public restroom to be sick.
As we neared the road leading to the stop when it dawned on me I would not be to make it. Suddenly, it felt as if a curtain fell over me. The world became white and really quiet; as if someone muted everything. I said to myself, “I will lose consciousness”.
Luckily I was near the front on the bus, allowing me to take a couple of steps toward the driver and requested that the driver to stop, informing him I was going to get ill. He opened the entrance and I stumbled out on to the pavement.
My intention was to not get sick before a busy multi-lane road, so I forced myself up and began attempting to make my way toward the green space opposite the street, where I believed it would allow me to find some privacy near some foliage to vomit. Yet I must have lost consciousness. I was aware of my limbs, but walking was impossible or see clearly, so I began crawling towards the park.
“You right, love?”
In that instant, I was lifted up. I sensed an arm around my waist and a man’s voice asked, “Everything alright, love?” I told this kind passerby that I had to to vomit. Therefore, he almost carried me down into a close-by structure and guided me into the female bathroom. He asked me if I needed him to wait for me but I refused.
After a short while, I had recovered to the point of sitting on the restroom floor and from outside the door I heard him ask, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I was incapable to stand up right away but did manage to say thank you and after a few more minutes recovered the use of my limbs. I got myself home passing the following days getting over which was a nasty tummy bug.
I did not see that man’s face – only his legs and the big metal toolbox he held – but he saved me, when I was at my most vulnerable.
Many times, life can make you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. His act was the type of kindness that undoes that protective shell. He demonstrated that our default setting is towards kindness, a trait I cherish about my fellow humans.
