In Such Poor Health I Couldn’t Walk As a Stranger Practically Supported Me to a Restroom.
At the age of my late teens, my daily commute was on an packed public transport. It remained full and invariably became completely full when I got on.
During a certain commute, I started experiencing terribly ill as the bus swayed around every turn. I repeatedly told myself to hold on another few kilometres until the bus got to where I needed to get off, and then I could sprint quickly for the nearest public toilet to throw up.
The bus was approaching the avenue close to my stop and I understood I would not be to make it. In an instant, it felt as if a curtain fell over me. The world became hazy and muffled; similar to when one turned off the audio. I thought, “I will lose consciousness”.
Luckily I was close to the driver on the bus, allowing me to take a couple of steps to ask the driver and asked the driver to open the doors, informing him that I was about to vomit. The driver opened the bus doors and I stumbled out out onto the street.
I was determined not to vomit in front of a busy multi-lane road, so I forced myself up and started trying to stumble to the park on the other side, where I thought I could at least find some privacy near some foliage to vomit. But then I must have lost consciousness. I could feel my physical self, yet I couldn’t walk or see properly, leading me to start dragging myself toward the park.
“Are you okay, dear?”
In that instant, someone picked me up. I sensed an arm around my waist and a man’s voice asked, “Everything alright, love?” I explained to this kind passerby that I needed to be sick. Therefore, he almost carried me over to an adjacent building and put me into the female bathroom. He asked me whether I required him to wait for me but I declined.
A few minutes later, I regained my composure to the point of sitting on the toilet and from outside the stall I heard him ask, “Are you OK, love? Is there anything you require?” I was incapable to rise at that moment but did manage to say thank you and following a brief period recovered the use of my legs. I got myself home passing the next few days healing from which was a nasty tummy bug.
I never saw the stranger’s face – just his lower half along with a sizable steelwork tools container he had with him – yet he rescued me, at a moment 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 melts away that protective shell. He was proof that humanity’s innate tendency is towards kindness, something I love about humanity.
