I Was So Ill I Couldn’t Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Virtually Carried Me to a Bathroom.

Back when I was my late teens, my regular journey to work was on an express bus. It remained jammed and was consistently completely full when I boarded.

During a certain commute, I started experiencing terribly ill while the vehicle rocked around the bends. I kept telling myself to persevere for a few more stops before the bus got to where I needed to get off, and then I could make a mad dash to the closest washroom to throw up.

As we neared the avenue close to my stop and I understood I wasn’t going to last. In an instant, it seemed a veil came over me. The world became hazy and muffled; like someone had turned off the audio. I thought, “I’m going to faint”.

Thankfully, I was positioned close to the driver on the bus, so I took a couple of steps to ask the driver and asked the driver to stop, informing him I was going to get ill. He opened the entrance and I weakly exited onto the sidewalk.

I was determined to avoid being sick in front of a busy multi-lane road, so I picked myself up and began attempting to walk to the park opposite the street, thinking I could I could at least secretly conceal myself near some foliage to throw up. However I apparently blacked out. I was aware of my body but walking was impossible or see properly, so I began crawling towards my intended destination.

“You right, love?”

At that moment, I was lifted up. I felt someone holding me and a stranger inquired, “Are you okay, dear?” I told this unknown man that I had to to vomit. Thus, he practically helped me walk over to an adjacent building and guided me into the female bathroom. He inquired if I wanted him to remain with me but I declined.

After a short while, I regained my composure enough to sit on the toilet when from beyond the door I heard his voice asking, “Are you feeling better, dear? Can I get you something?” I could not to stand up right away but did manage to express my gratitude and shortly thereafter regained the function of my feet. I returned home and spent the next few days getting over what turned out to be a horrible case of gastroenteritis.

I never saw his features – only his legs along with a sizable steelwork tools container he held – 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 served as evidence that humanity’s innate tendency is towards kindness, a quality I adore in other people.