In Such Poor Health I Was Unable to Walk As a Stranger Virtually Carried Me to the Toilets.

During my my late teens, my regular journey to work was on an express bus. The vehicle was always full and would always be standing room only by the time I boarded.

On one specific day, I was feeling incredibly sick as the bus lurched around every turn. I kept telling myself to hold on just a little longer so the bus could got to where I needed to get off, at which point I could rush hurriedly to the closest washroom to vomit.

We were coming down the street towards the stop when I realised I was unable to last. In an instant, it seemed a curtain fell over me. The world became hazy and muffled; as if someone turned off the audio. I said to myself, “I’m going to faint”.

Luckily I was near the front on the bus, allowing me to take a couple of steps forward and asked the driver to stop, informing him that I was about to get ill. He promptly opened the doors and I stumbled out on to the pavement.

I was determined to not get sick before multiple lanes of cars, so I gathered myself and started trying to walk across to the park across the road, thinking I could it would allow me to discreetly hide near some foliage to be sick. However I likely blacked out. I could feel my physical self, yet I couldn’t walk and my vision was blurry, so I began dragging myself toward the park.

“You right, love?”

In that instant, I was lifted up. There was a strong arm supporting me and a stranger inquired, “Are you okay, dear?” I managed to tell the unknown man that I had to to vomit. Thus, he practically helped me walk over to an adjacent building and put me in the ladies’ toilets. He asked me whether I required him to remain with me but I said no.

After a short while, I regained my composure sufficiently to sit on the toilet and from the other side of the door I heard him inquire, “Are you feeling better, dear? Do you need anything?” I was incapable to stand up just then but I did succeed to thank him and following a brief period regained the function of my limbs. I returned home and then spent several days recovering from what turned out to be a horrible case of gastroenteritis.

I did not see his features – only his legs along with a sizable metal toolbox he held – yet he rescued me, at a moment I was at my most vulnerable.

Often this world tends to make people guarded, hostile, and combative. What he did was the kind of action that melts away that hardening of the heart. He served as evidence that humanity’s innate tendency is to be kind, something I love in other people.