I Was So Ill I Was Unable to Walk When a Man Practically Supported Me to a Restroom.

At the age of nineteenth year, my regular journey to work involved an express bus. It was perpetually full and was consistently completely full when I got on.

During a certain commute, I started experiencing quite nauseous while the vehicle swayed around each corner. I kept telling myself to endure another few kilometres before the bus arrived at my destination, at which point I could rush hurriedly for the nearest public restroom to vomit.

We were coming down the road leading to the stop when I realised I would not be to make it. Suddenly, it seemed a fog descended upon me. Everything just went hazy and muffled; like someone had turned off the audio. I said to myself, “I am about to pass out”.

Thankfully, I was positioned close to the driver inside the vehicle, so I managed a few steps toward the driver and asked the driver to open the doors, telling him that I was about to vomit. The driver opened the bus doors and I stumbled out onto the sidewalk.

I was resolved to not get sick before a busy multi-lane road, so I gathered myself and began attempting to stumble across to the park across the road, where I believed I could at least secretly conceal myself behind a bush to be sick. Yet I apparently fainted. I was aware of my physical self, yet walking was impossible or see clearly, leading me to start inching my way to the grassy area.

“You right, love?”

In that instant, someone picked me up. I sensed a strong arm supporting me and a man’s voice asked, “You right, love?” I told this mysterious stranger that I had to to get to a bathroom. Therefore, he almost helped me walk over to a nearby building and guided me inside the women’s restroom. He asked me if I needed him to wait for me but I said no.

Not long after, I had recovered sufficiently to sit on the restroom floor and from the other side of the door I heard him ask, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I wasn’t able to rise just then but did manage to express my gratitude and after a few more minutes regained the function of my limbs. I returned home and then spent the next few days recovering from which was a horrible case of gastroenteritis.

I never saw the stranger’s face – merely his legs and the big metal toolbox he was carrying – yet he rescued me, when I was completely helpless.

Frequently, society tends to make people defensive, aggressive and competitive. His was the sort of gesture that melts away that hardening of the heart. He demonstrated that our default setting is to be kind, a quality I adore about humanity.