In Such Poor Health Walking Was Impossible Until a Fellow Passenger Practically Supported Me to a Restroom.

During my my late teens, my daily commute meant taking an express bus. It was perpetually jammed and invariably became standing room only once I got on.

One particular morning, I started experiencing incredibly sick when the coach swayed around every turn. I continuously reassured myself to endure just a little longer until the bus arrived at my stop, at which point I could make a mad dash to the closest public toilet to be sick.

The bus was approaching the street towards the destination as it dawned on me I wasn’t going to last. Suddenly, it felt as if a fog descended upon me. My vision turned blank and silent; as if someone cut the sound. My mind raced, “I am about to pass out”.

Fortunately, I stood close to the driver of the bus, so I managed several steps forward and asked the driver to pull over, informing him I was going to vomit. The driver opened the doors and I weakly exited onto the sidewalk.

My intention was not to vomit in view of multiple lanes of cars, so I gathered myself and started trying to make my way toward the green space across the road, where I thought it would allow me to secretly conceal myself behind a bush to throw up. Yet I apparently lost consciousness. I sensed my physical self, yet I couldn’t walk and my vision was blurry, leading me to start dragging myself toward the park.

“Are you okay, dear?”

Right then, I got scooped up. I sensed an arm around my waist and a man’s voice asked, “Everything alright, love?” I explained to this mysterious stranger that I required to be sick. So he virtually supported my weight over to a nearby building and put me into the female bathroom. He wanted to know whether I required him to wait for me but I declined.

Not long after, I had recovered to the point of sitting on the toilet and from the other side of the stall I heard him ask, “Do you need anything, love? Do you need anything?” I was incapable to get up right away but I did succeed to express my gratitude and shortly thereafter regained the function of my limbs. I got myself home and spent the next few days getting over what was later diagnosed as a severe stomach virus.

I did not see the stranger’s face – just his lower half and the big container for tools he was carrying – yet he rescued me, during a time when I was at my most vulnerable.

Often this world can make you guarded, hostile, and combative. His act was the type of kindness that undoes that protective shell. He was proof that humanity’s innate tendency is to be kind, something I love in other people.