Feeling So Sick Walking Was Impossible As a Stranger Practically Supported Me to the Toilets.
Back when I was 19 years old, my morning travel was on an packed public transport. The vehicle was always jammed and invariably became completely full by the time I boarded.
During a certain commute, I started experiencing terribly ill when the coach lurched around the bends. I continuously reassured myself to hold on another few kilometres until the bus got to where I needed to get off, and then I could make a mad dash to the closest public toilet to vomit.
As we neared the road leading to the stop when it dawned on me I would not be to make it. In an instant, it felt as if a curtain fell over me. Everything just went blank and silent; like someone had cut the sound. I thought, “I will lose consciousness”.
Thankfully, I was positioned close to the driver of the bus, so I took several steps to ask the driver and told the operator to open the doors, explaining to him I needed to get ill. He promptly opened the entrance and I stumbled out onto the sidewalk.
My intention was not to vomit before multiple lanes of cars, so I forced myself up and endeavored to walk to the park on the other side, where I believed I could at least discreetly hide among some shrubs to vomit. But then I must have lost consciousness. I sensed my body but I was unable to walk or see clearly, so I began crawling towards the grassy area.
“Everything alright, love?”
Right then, someone picked me up. I sensed someone holding me and a man’s voice asked, “Are you okay, dear?” I managed to tell the unknown man that I required to get to a bathroom. So he virtually helped me walk over to a close-by structure and guided me into the female bathroom. He wanted to know whether I required him to remain with me but I said no.
A few minutes later, I had recovered to the point of sitting on the toilet when from beyond the door came him inquire, “Are you OK, love? Is there anything you require?” I wasn’t able to get up right away but I did succeed to thank him and following a brief period regained the function of my feet. I returned home and then spent the next few days recovering from what was later diagnosed as a severe stomach virus.
I never saw his features – only his legs along with a sizable steelwork tools container he was carrying – but he saved me, at a moment I was at my most vulnerable.
Often this world has a way of making you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. His was the sort of gesture that reverses that protective shell. He demonstrated that people’s natural inclination is to be kind, something I love about my fellow humans.
