I Was So Ill Walking Was Impossible As a Stranger Virtually Carried Me to the Toilets.

Back when I was 19 years old, my morning travel was on an express bus. It was perpetually full and invariably became without any seats by the time I boarded.

One particular morning, I was feeling terribly ill as the bus lurched around every turn. I repeatedly told myself to persevere another few kilometres so the bus could got to my stop, and then I could sprint quickly toward the most convenient washroom to be sick.

The bus was approaching the avenue close to the stop when it dawned on me I was unable to make it. Suddenly, it was like a curtain fell over me. The world became white and really quiet; as if someone muted everything. My mind raced, “I’m going to faint”.

Fortunately, I stood toward the front of the bus, so I took a few steps forward and requested that the driver to pull over, informing him that I was about to get ill. The driver opened the entrance and I weakly exited on to the pavement.

I was determined not to vomit in view of six lanes of traffic, so I gathered myself and started trying to make my way across to the park across the road, where I believed it would allow me to discreetly hide among some shrubs to throw up. Yet I apparently blacked out. I sensed my limbs, but I was unable to walk and my vision was blurry, so I started crawling towards the grassy area.

“Everything alright, love?”

Right then, I got scooped up. I sensed someone holding me and a stranger inquired, “Everything alright, love?” I explained to this unknown man that I required to get to a bathroom. Thus, he practically carried me down into an adjacent building and placed me in the ladies’ toilets. He asked me whether I required him to stay with me but I said no.

A few minutes later, I regained my composure to the point of sitting on the restroom floor and from outside the door I heard him inquire, “Do you need anything, love? Is there anything you require?” I could not to rise just then but I was able to thank him and following a brief period regained the function of my feet. I returned home and spent several days healing from what was later diagnosed as a nasty tummy bug.

I did not see that man’s face – just his lower half along with a sizable metal toolbox he had with him – yet he rescued me, when I was in my weakest state.

Often this world tends to make people self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. His was the sort of gesture that undoes that protective shell. He demonstrated that humanity’s innate tendency is to be kind, a quality I adore in other people.