In Such Poor Health Walking Was Impossible Until a Fellow Passenger Virtually Carried Me to a Restroom.

During my 19 years old, my daily commute was on an crowded coach. It was perpetually full and was consistently standing room only by the time I boarded.

On one specific day, I began feeling quite nauseous while the vehicle rocked around every turn. I kept telling myself to endure for a few more stops so the bus could got to where I needed to get off, and then I could make a mad dash toward the most convenient public toilet to be sick.

We were coming down the street towards the destination as it dawned on me I wasn’t going to last. In an instant, it seemed a curtain fell over me. My vision turned hazy and muffled; as if someone muted everything. My mind raced, “I will lose consciousness”.

Thankfully, I was positioned close to the driver of the bus, allowing me to take a few steps to ask the driver and requested that the driver to open the doors, explaining to him I was going to get ill. The driver opened the doors and I hurriedly stepped out onto the street.

I was determined to avoid being sick in front of multiple lanes of cars, so I picked myself up and started trying to make my way across to the park opposite the street, where I thought I’d at least be able to discreetly hide among some shrubs to be sick. Yet I likely fainted. I could feel my physical self, yet I couldn’t walk and my vision was blurry, so I started crawling towards my intended destination.

“You right, love?”

Right then, I got scooped up. I felt a strong arm supporting me and heard a man say, “Are you okay, dear?” I explained to this mysterious stranger that I had to to get to a bathroom. So he virtually helped me walk over to a close-by structure and placed me into the female bathroom. He asked me if I wanted him to stay with me but I said no.

A few minutes later, I had recovered enough to sit on the toilet and from outside the door came his voice asking, “Are you OK, love? Can I get you something?” I was incapable to get up just then but I did succeed to express my gratitude and following a brief period was able to move my feet. I returned home and spent the next few days recovering from what turned out to be a nasty tummy bug.

I never glimpsed that man’s face – merely his legs and the big metal toolbox he had with him – yet he rescued me, during a time when I was at my most vulnerable.

Often this world has a way of making you defensive, aggressive and competitive. What he did was the kind of action that melts away that hardening of the heart. He was proof that people’s natural inclination is to be kind, a trait I cherish about humanity.