In Such Poor Health I Was Unable to Walk When a Man Virtually Carried Me to a Restroom.

At the age of my late teens, my daily commute involved an express bus. It remained crowded and was consistently without any seats when I got on.

One particular morning, I began feeling terribly ill while the vehicle lurched around the bends. I kept telling myself to persevere just a little longer until the bus got to my stop, and then I could rush hurriedly to the closest public restroom to be sick.

As we neared the street towards my stop and it dawned on me I was unable to make it. Suddenly, it was like a curtain fell over me. My vision turned hazy and muffled; like someone had turned off the audio. I said to myself, “I’m going to faint”.

Thankfully, I was positioned near the front inside the vehicle, allowing me to take a couple of steps to ask the driver and asked the driver to stop, telling him that I was about to get ill. He promptly opened the entrance and I hurriedly stepped out onto the street.

I was resolved not to vomit in view of a busy multi-lane road, so I gathered myself and began attempting to walk toward the green space on the other side, where I believed it would allow me to secretly conceal myself behind a bush to vomit. However I likely fainted. I was aware of my body but I was unable to walk and my vision was blurry, so I began dragging myself toward the park.

“You right, love?”

In that instant, I was lifted up. I felt someone holding me and a man’s voice asked, “Are you okay, dear?” I managed to tell the unknown man that I needed to vomit. Therefore, he almost helped me walk over to a close-by structure and placed me inside the women’s restroom. He inquired if I wanted him to stay with me but I refused.

After a short while, I regained my composure to the point of sitting on the restroom floor and from the other side of the door came him ask, “Do you need anything, love? Can I get you something?” I wasn’t able to rise at that moment but did manage to thank him and shortly thereafter regained the function of my limbs. I returned home and then spent the following days getting over what was later diagnosed as a nasty tummy bug.

I never saw his features – just his lower half and a large steelwork tools container he was carrying – yet he rescued me, during a time when I was completely helpless.

Often this world tends to make people defensive, aggressive and competitive. His was the sort of gesture that undoes that emotional callousness. He was proof that our default setting is towards kindness, something I love in other people.