Feeling So Sick Walking Was Impossible As a Stranger Essentially Lifted Me to a Restroom.

Back when I was my late teens, my regular journey to work involved an crowded coach. The vehicle was always full and would always be standing room only by the time I got on.

During a certain commute, I started experiencing quite nauseous as the bus swayed around each corner. I kept telling myself to hold on another few kilometres so the bus could reached my destination, at which point I could make a mad dash for the nearest washroom to vomit.

As we neared the avenue close to my stop and I realised I would not be to last. Suddenly, it felt as if a curtain fell over me. My vision turned white and really quiet; similar to when one muted everything. My mind raced, “I am about to pass out”.

Thankfully, I was positioned close to the driver of the bus, allowing me to take a couple of steps toward the driver and requested that the driver to stop, explaining to him I was going to get ill. The driver opened the bus doors and I weakly exited out onto the street.

My intention was not to vomit in view of six lanes of traffic, so I forced myself up and started trying to make my way across to the park on the other side, where I thought I’d at least be able to secretly conceal myself among some shrubs to vomit. Yet I likely lost consciousness. I sensed my body but I was unable to walk or see properly, so I started dragging myself toward my intended destination.

“You right, love?”

Right then, I was lifted up. There was an arm around my waist and a man’s voice asked, “Everything alright, love?” I explained to this mysterious stranger that I required to get to a bathroom. Thus, he practically carried me into an adjacent building and guided me inside the women’s restroom. He asked me if I wanted him to stay with me but I refused.

Not long after, I had recovered enough to sit on the restroom floor when from beyond the stall I heard him ask, “Do you need anything, love? Can I get you something?” I wasn’t able to rise at that moment but I was able to say thank you and after a few more minutes recovered the use of my limbs. I made my way home passing the next few days healing from which was a nasty tummy bug.

I never saw that man’s face – just his lower half and a large steelwork tools container he held – but he helped me, at a moment I was completely helpless.

Often this world tends to make people guarded, hostile, and combative. What he did was the kind of action that reverses that hardening of the heart. He was proof that humanity’s innate tendency is towards kindness, something I love about humanity.