Feeling So Sick I Was Unable to Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Virtually Carried Me to the Toilets.

During my nineteenth year, my daily commute was on an express bus. It was perpetually full and would always be without any seats once I boarded.

One particular morning, I began feeling incredibly sick when the coach swayed around each corner. I continuously reassured myself to endure just a little longer until the bus arrived at my destination, at which point I could sprint quickly to the closest washroom to vomit.

The bus was approaching the street towards my stop and it dawned on me I wasn’t going to make it. Suddenly, it seemed a veil came over me. The world became white and really quiet; like someone had muted everything. I thought, “I will lose consciousness”.

Fortunately, I stood near the front of the bus, 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 get ill. The driver opened the doors and I hurriedly stepped out onto the street.

I was resolved not to vomit in front of multiple lanes of cars, so I picked myself up and endeavored to stumble toward the green space on the other side, thinking I could I’d at least be able to discreetly hide among some shrubs to throw up. However I likely blacked out. I could feel my limbs, but I couldn’t walk or see clearly, so I started crawling towards my intended destination.

“Everything alright, love?”

At that moment, I got scooped up. I felt an arm around my waist and a man’s voice asked, “Everything alright, love?” I told this mysterious stranger that I required to get to a bathroom. Therefore, he almost helped me walk into a close-by structure and put me into the female bathroom. He inquired whether I required him to wait for me but I said no.

A few minutes later, I had recovered enough to sit on the restroom floor when from beyond the stall I heard him inquire, “Do you need anything, love? Can I get you something?” I was incapable to get up just then but I did succeed to thank him and shortly thereafter was able to move my legs. I got myself home and then spent the next few days recovering from what was later diagnosed as a horrible case of gastroenteritis.

I never saw the stranger’s face – only his legs and a large metal toolbox he held – yet he rescued me, during a time when I was in my weakest state.

Often this world can make you defensive, aggressive and competitive. What he did was the kind of action that undoes that emotional callousness. He was proof that our default setting is towards kindness, a trait I cherish in other people.