Feeling So Sick Walking Was Impossible As a Stranger Virtually Carried Me to the Toilets.

At the age of my late teens, my morning travel meant taking an express bus. It remained jammed and would always be without any seats when I stepped aboard.

On one specific day, I began feeling incredibly sick while the vehicle lurched around every turn. I kept telling myself to endure another few kilometres until the bus got to my destination, and then I could sprint quickly for the nearest public restroom to vomit.

As we neared the road leading to the destination as it dawned on me I was unable to last. In an instant, it seemed a fog descended upon me. Everything just went white and really quiet; like someone had muted everything. My mind raced, “I will lose consciousness”.

Thankfully, I was positioned near the front inside the vehicle, allowing me to take a couple of steps to ask the driver and told the operator to open the doors, telling him that I was about to get ill. He promptly opened the entrance and I hurriedly stepped onto the sidewalk.

I was determined to avoid being sick in view of a busy multi-lane road, so I gathered myself and started trying to walk toward the green space on the other side, where I thought I’d at least be able to discreetly hide near some foliage to vomit. But then I must have blacked out. I sensed my limbs, but I couldn’t walk and my vision was blurry, so I began inching my way to my intended destination.

“Everything alright, love?”

At that moment, someone picked me up. I sensed a strong arm supporting me and a man’s voice asked, “Are you okay, dear?” I explained to this kind passerby that I needed to get to a bathroom. So he virtually carried me into a close-by structure and put me in the ladies’ toilets. He asked me if I needed him to stay with me but I said no.

After a short while, I felt better to the point of sitting on the toilet and from the other side of the door came his voice asking, “Do you need anything, love? Can I get you something?” I could not to stand up right away but did manage to thank him and following a brief period was able to move my legs. I returned home and spent the following days getting over what turned out to be a severe stomach virus.

I never saw the stranger’s face – just his lower half and the big container for tools he held – but he saved me, when I was at my most vulnerable.

Many times, life tends to make people self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. His was the sort of gesture that reverses that hardening of the heart. He served as evidence that people’s natural inclination leans toward compassion, something I love in other people.